Homily for the Solemnity of The Assumption

Today we celebrate Our Lady, being taken up into heaven, body and soul.

Where she has gone, we hope one day to follow. It’s a good reminder that if we

want to live well on this earth, we also need to have our gaze fixed on heaven.

“And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman, clothed with the sun, with the

moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” That quote,

from the Book of Revelation in the first reading, not only reminds us of Our

Lady assumed into heaven, but also of another reality: the red dragon, symbol

of evil, and in particular, the evil one. One of the reasons Our Lady was taken

up to heaven, body and soul, is because of her sinlessness. In the second

reading it said: “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made

alive”. We all live with the consequences of the first sin of the first human

beings, something called Original Sin. It means that every human being from

conception onwards, lacks the grace of God, lacks appropriate self-control, and

has disordered desires, whether that means laziness, being quick to anger, an

excessive desire for material things, and so on. Sometimes, our passions are

not in themselves wrong, but the lack of control and direction for them is a

problem. Take the example of anger. Anger is an appropriate response at

injustice. There are times when it would be wrong not to be angered by an

injustice. But when that anger gets disordered, instead of focusing on the

problem, the target of the anger becomes the perpetrator him or herself. That is

when anger becomes sinful. It needs reigning in, being appropriately

controlled and directed. There was a lady in court a few years ago who shouted

words along the lines of: I can’t control my anger! Don’t ask me to control my

anger! Anything but that! We all suffer and struggle with disordered desire,

even after baptism, even after receiving Holy Communion. Life is an ongoing

struggle.

We turn to Our Lady, assumed into heaven. She was conceived without

Original Sin, so, just like Our Lord, she didn’t suffer from those disordered

desires that we have. Rather than having to be redeemed by Christ after having

committed sin, she was redeemed by Him preventatively, so to speak.

Prevention is better than cure. God, acting outside of space and time, was able

to apply the power of Christ’s Death and Resurrection to Our Lady, stopping

her from inheriting Original Sin. And that is why sometimes Our Lord and Our

Lady are referred to as the Second Adam and the Second Eve. After the mess-

up that happened at the dawn of human history, humanity was given a second

chance. This time, rather than a fallen angel tempting a woman to disobey

God, this time an archangel encouraged a different woman to obey God, and

the result was the virginal conception of Our Lord. The first Eve brought

damnation into the world, whilst the second Eve brought salvation into the

world.

But we still have a choice. Do we choose to follow the lies and the deceit, or

do we opt for the way of goodness and truth? Do we walk the broad way to

perdition, or the straight and narrow road that leads to life? Christ didn’t

promise it would be easy. And it wasn’t easy for Our Lady either. We might

have thought it would have been. If you are conceived without Original Sin,

and through God’s grace resist sin and choose the will of God, then surely that

should mean happiness in this life as well as in the next? Well, on one level,

yes. But it’s a bit like driving. You might be the best driver in the world, but

travelling the opposite direction is the worst driver in the world, who is also

drunk. We can’t totally isolate ourselves from others’ negative actions, just the

same as they can’t from ours either. Our Lady saw, to her joy, great numbers

following her Son, but she also saw rejection, especially among the religious

authorities, the ones you would have thought would have been the first to

follow Him. They didn’t all reject Him – think of Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a

ruler of the Jews, who came to visit Him in John chapter 3, or Joseph of

Arimathea, “a member of the Council”, who had not consented to the

condemnation of Christ (Luke 23:50), who asked for His body and placed it in

his own tomb. But think of the suffering Our Lady endured, seeing her Son

rejected by His own, and then later on condemned and crucified. It was all part

of God’s plan, but it wasn’t an easy plan to follow.

Today, we look to heaven. We rejoice in the assumption of Our Lady, and from

heaven, seeing our struggles and difficulties, she prays for us still.

Curious about exploring things further?  If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk