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The Feast of the Assumption of Mary - August 15

 

Growing up with a dad that served in a wide range of organisations from school and parish councils, to sports club committees and community service clubs, I heard him many, many, many times quote Oscar Wilde’s famous saying about what happens when you assume anything.

So, assumptions aren’t good, right? Assumptions should be questioned?

So why, growing up in a practicing Catholic family, was Mary’s Assumption something we celebrated?

I can’t ever remember a time when I didn’t own a set of rosary beads (or a number of them, in drawers, in bags and in the glovebox of my car). Or when I didn’t turn to Mary whilst waiting and hoping for something important to happen. From a job interview, or waiting to hear that my mum had come out of surgery, to holding my breath as Mick Cronin lined up a kick at goal at the SCG.*  But without faith in the doctrine that Mary had made her way to heaven before us, and without believing that her prayers help to amplify ours, there’d be no point.

When I was immersed in the Marist charism as a young teacher one of the brothers with whom I spent a fair bit of time spoke about Mary’s assumption in terms of the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles. This Feast (or week of feasting) recalls and celebrates God’s deliverance of the Hebrews out of slavery. Our celebration of Mary’s assumption, he reasoned, similarly honoured Mary’s role in our salvation. She was the living tabernacle that held the incarnate presence of God.

But so are you, he said. Whenever you receive the Eucharist, you are as much a tabernacle of the Lord as that in which the blessed sacrament is reposed. And you should afford yourself the same dignity in the choices that you make.

Given her status as the bearer of Christ, Mary was afforded the privilege of being assumed body and soul into heaven – spared the corruption of the grave. May this solemn feast serve as an ongoing inspiration for us to spare ourselves as much as possible from the corruption of this world for the good of what comes next.


* For those who are too young to remember, in 1986 Parramatta played in a try-less grand final against Canterbury in which Mick Cronin’s two penalty goals, (and possibly a cheeky Hail Mary from a 14 year old kid) got them the win 4-2.


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