15^th August – Solemnity of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary into Heaven

General. As Mary was the Immaculate Mother of God her creator, she could certainly not have been left to taste the corruption of her body through death. She has, for that reason and according to Eastern tradition, passed over to the Lord during a sweet sleep which He gave her while assuming up her body and soul into heaven. This is an important lesson for us all, indeed: sin breeds bodily corruption, whereas holiness fosters wholesomeness. See Feastday Profile

Book of Revelations. The woman clothed with the sun is Mary who gave birth to Jesus, the Son of God. Yet Satan is ever on the prowl to see how he can create impediments to the spreading of God’s Word to the minds and hearts of humanity. As from very early times, the dragon has positioned itself beside the woman who is about to give birth to the Word, to snatch and swallow up the Son immediately he is born.

First Epistle to the Corinthians. Of all beings who fell into eternal sleep, it was Christ who first rose from among the dead. If death first came on earth through Adam, it was through Christ that the resurrection from the dead was realised for each and everyone of us. Yet we can only appraise the meaning of the resurrection if we believe in the Messiah who was born of the Virgin Mary.

St Luke. The Church is today giving us the Magnificat, Mary’s most lofty prayer to God in reply to the praise showered on her by Elizabeth, her kin. In this Gospel passage, Mary sees herself as the hand-maiden of the Lord God, her Saviour, the Most Mighty Who has wrought with her wonderful doings.

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