{"id":796,"date":"2012-08-15T17:54:39","date_gmt":"2012-08-15T21:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=796"},"modified":"2012-08-15T17:54:39","modified_gmt":"2012-08-15T21:54:39","slug":"the-assumption-of-mary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/the-assumption-of-mary\/","title":{"rendered":"The Assumption of Mary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary.\u00a0 It is a Holy Day of Obligation (Click here to see the readings<\/a>).\u00a0 Here are some of the thoughts I shared in my homily.<\/p>\n

The fact that today is a holy day of obligation (there are just six in the United States) should tell us how important the Church sees this dogma.\u00a0 Even more so the Assumption of Mary was declared an infallible dogma of the Church by Pope Pius XII in 1950 in his Apostolic Constitution, Munificentissimus Deus<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/em>This places it at the highest level of church teaching.<\/p>\n

Even though the Assumption was not declared an infallible dogma until 1950, it is not a new teaching of the Church.\u00a0 It has been part of the Tradition of the Church since the early centuries of the church.\u00a0 The Assumption is not found in Scripture, in part because it would have happened sometime after most (if not all) of the events described in the Bible.<\/p>\n

However, the Bible does tell us a lot of key items with Mary.\u00a0 Like the story of the Annunciation found in Luke 1:26-38<\/a>.\u00a0 The angel Gabriel appears to Mary and tells her she will be the mother of Jesus.\u00a0 She does not understand how this can be.\u00a0 Gabriel assures her it is by the Holy Spirit and the power of the Most High.\u00a0 She believes and says yes to God, “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord, may it be done to me according to your word.”<\/p>\n

Then today’s gospel (Luke 1:39-56<\/a>) immediately follows the story of the Annunciation.\u00a0 Mary could have claimed special status but she did not.\u00a0 Instead she goes to visit Elizabeth who the angel Gabriel tells her is also pregnant.\u00a0 When Mary arrives, Elizabeth (and John the Baptist in her woman) immediately recognize the divine presence in Mary and praise her.\u00a0 Mary receives the praise but replies with the Magnificat where she says “my soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord” but that it is so because of the great things God has done for her.<\/p>\n

Then it is Mary who nurses Jesus and raises Jesus.\u00a0 Even when Jesus becomes an adult and then begins his public ministry Mary is there at the Wedding Feast of Cana (John 2:1-12<\/a>).\u00a0 When they run out of wine, Mary knows Jesus can help.\u00a0 With total trust in Jesus, she tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”\u00a0 Mary is even present at the foot of the Cross (John 19:25-28<\/a>) along with the beloved disciple.\u00a0 Jesus says to the beloved disciple and to us, “Behold your mother”.<\/p>\n

Mary is the Mother of Church because of these words of Jesus but also as the one who gave birth to Jesus and who is the perfect disciple always saying yes to God.<\/p>\n

Because God knew Mary would say yes, she was conceived without sin – this is the Immaculate Conception.\u00a0 Because of this, Mary’s yes, and Jesus’ love for her as his mother, he did not want her body to lie in death.\u00a0 So, when it was time for her to pass from this world, she was assumed Body and Soul into Heaven.\u00a0 This is what we call the Assumption of Mary.<\/p>\n

This is\u00a0the Assumption\u00a0we celebrate today.\u00a0 Mary is our mother and the example of the perfect disciple.\u00a0 With the help of her intercession may we always say yes to Jesus.<\/p>\n

Peace,<\/p>\n

Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary.\u00a0 It is a Holy Day of Obligation (Click here to see the readings).\u00a0 Here are some of the thoughts I shared in my homily. The fact that today is a holy day of obligation (there are just six in the United States) should tell us …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘The Assumption of Mary’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82,94],"tags":[105,130],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-cQ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":799,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796\/revisions\/799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}