Homily for Assumption 2009

No other saint captures the Catholic imagination like Mary. She is woman, and mother. She is a sexual being at whose breasts Jesus sucked. As a mother she is so accessible. As accessible as our own mothers. She is a powerful prayer partner in time of need. The feast today, however, does not celebrate that so much as Mary as the image of what the Church is to become and the pattern of our own hoped for victory over death.

The book of the Apocalypse from which we read at the Mass of the day talks of a conflict between a pregnant woman and a dragon. The woman symbolises the people of God bringing forth the Messiah; the dragon is the ancient snake of Genesis. By the birth of the child in the passage St John does not mean the nativity of Jesus. Rather he means the cross. It was by dying that Jesus was snatched from the evil intention of the dragon and was exalted to God's right hand. In so doing he gave eternal life to the people. Mary is the personification of God's people in Catholic tradition. God's people are destined to share in Jesus' victory. Mary's who gave birth to Jesus, is assumed, body and soul to heaven, gathered up with her Son. If Jesus is the first fruits of the resurrection as Paul says, Mary is the second fruits.

With hindsight we could say that the beatitude shouted out to Jesus by the woman in the crowd in the Gospel of the Vigil is a very Catholic response: "Happy the womb that bore you and the breasts you sucked" (Luke 11:27-28). That praise and confidence in Mary's love for her Son under pins all our prayer for her intercession. But our prayers like hers depend on our hearing the word of God and keeping it as Mary did.

Fr Graham