16th August 2026 –
The Gospel reading for this celebration is a reminder of that unique closeness between Mary and Jesus. She makes her way to her cousin Elizabeth; Mary is carrying within her the Saviour of the world; she is “blessed among all women” because she is “the Mother of the Lord”. However, there is more to it than that. Elizabeth goes on to proclaim that Mary is blessed because she believes. Mary’s closeness to Jesus stems not solely from her physical motherhood, that is from the fact that he is dependent upon her as is any unborn child upon its mother, but Mary’s closeness is also to do with her faith.
It is her faith that makes her the Lord’s first disciple; even though that faith was fiercely tested, even though it led her to accompany her Son to Calvary – to his painful death, she remained steadfast. As she was with him at the start of his earthly career so she was with him at the end.
Did not Jesus promise his followers: “Where I am, there also you will be.” His Ascension into heaven opened the way for her Assumption. Where Christ has gone before us, there Mary is now, sharing the Divine Life. Mary’s response to Elizabeth’s greeting, which we call the Magnificat, begins “‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,” is a thanksgiving for a share in the life of God. For the Assumption, the event we celebrate today, is not Mary’s personal achievement but a gift of God: “for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name..”
The Magnificat is also our song of thanksgiving. The Assumption is more than a piece of personal information about Mary: it is a startling affirmation about us all. Mary is the icon or image of the Church; she stands as a sign of God’s power to give life to those who believe through the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. Saint Paul speaks of Christian hope, that as Jesus in his humanity was raised to a new, glorious existence, so we who are members of his body, the Church, will share in a similar glory. The Assumption means that Mary already participates fully in that glory. And so in contemplating her we discover what God has in store for us all.
In Mary we see the meaning of salvation; God saves people, and people are more than physical bodies. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary asserts the triumphant value of the human person and indeed of the human body over the evils inflicted on it. The human body is so often and so grossly degraded: by its abuse through the drug culture, by the exploitation and degradation of human sexuality, and by the pleasure seeking culture in which we live, in which the body is made to dominate the spirit, but also by the mass murder and mutilation of men, women and children by crazed and evil individuals, groups and societies. The teaching of the Church concerning the Assumption of Mary presents a very different and optimistic vision of humanity. Every human person is loved by God and is destined to share fully in the victory of the Risen Christ. Through the power of grace every one of us can become what Christ is through his divine nature.
