Reflection on the Assumption of Mary - 15 August 2021

        I love that we are celebrating the Assumption of Mary at our Masses this weekend, honoring her on a special way in this joyful liturgical celebration.  We honor Mary in many different ways in our Catholic faith.  Author Marina Warner talks about a special devotion to Mary in honor of her Assumption as early as the 10th century, when herbs such as periwinkle, verbena, and thyme were brought to the Church and laid at the altar, where they were incensed and blessed, symbolizing Mary’s victory over death.  These blessed herbs were gathered in a sheaf which the faithful brought back to their homes and were used to ward off illness, disaster and weather.  This tradition still exists in northern Italy.

          Reflecting upon the solemnity of Mary’s assumption that is always celebrated in the middle of August, I thought of other celebrations of Mary we have close to this date.  In the beginning of August, we celebrated the feast of the dedication of the basilica of St Mary Major, a major place of worship dedicated to Mary in the city of Rome.  Then, a month from today, we will honor Mary as the Sorrowful Mother, as the Mother of Jesus who kept vigil with her son as he carried his cross, who never left her son's side and who maintained her faith and confidence in him and his mission, pondering all those sorrows and sufferings in her heart. Last month on July 16, we celebrated Our Lady of Mount Carmel with our Carmelite nuns here in Jackson. I also thought about a conversation I had with one of the passengers on my flight back from California when I was back there for a mission appeal a few weeks ago.  He was very excited to tell me about his two pilgrimages to Medjugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he stayed in the home of one of the visionaries of the Marian apparition there.  He even gave me as a gift a rosary that had been present during one of the apparitions. He told me about a book he read on Our Lady of Kibeho, an apparition of Mary from Rwanda in Africa, urging me to read that book.  Meeting him on the plane was certainly a gift from the Holy Spirit and a gift from our Blessed Mother.  

      The Catholic faithful have a loving devotion to Mary, honoring her not only Jesus’ mother, but the mother of our Church and the mother of our Lord.  Mary, the young woman who sang a song of hope and joy in the Magnificat in response to the gracious greeting that she received from her cousin Elizabeth, is our mother who listens to our prayers, who unites our prayers to hers, who presents those prayers to her son with a mother’s love and compassion. 

          The real meaning of Mary’s Assumption up to the heavens is not just found in what literally occurred in that event, but also in the divine mystery that the Assumption of Mary represents in our faith.   At the heart of our celebration today is the love and honor we bestow upon our Blessed Mother for the way she accompanies us with so much love and tenderness on our journey of faith.