Cardinal celebrates the Assumption in Brazil
Homily of
Cardinal Justin Rigali
Closing Mass 66th Serra International Convention
Aguas de Lindoia, Brazil
Transferred Solemnity
of the Assumption
August 16, 2008
Dear Friends in our Lord Jesus Christ,
In the Church we give and receive, we assist and we are assisted, we help and we are helped. And we share. Because all of us who are not Brazilians find ourselves here tonight in the Diocese of Amparo we share the Brazilian celebration of the Assumption, transferred to the Sunday and its Vigil.
If we were home, we would have celebrated the feast already on the 15th of August. And today we would be celebrating the Vigil of the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time. But in the universal Church we know what it is to share and not only do things the way we are used to.
And what a joy it is to celebrate the feast of the Assumption of our Blessed Mother with our fellow Serrans and the Church in Brazil.
Let us reflect on both the meaning of this feast in itself and for us.
First of all we must know that we are celebrating a dogma of the Church—a mystery of our faith that the Church tells us is divinely revealed in Scripture or Tradition.
There are many different mysteries in our faith—but there are not many that have been solemnly defined as dogmas of the Church.
The Assumption, dear friends, is one of these defined doctrines. This means that it is very important for our Christian lives.
In the history of the Church there have been two reasons why a truth of our faith may actually be solemnly defined.
1) To reaffirm its value in the face of strong denial or opposition.
2) To proclaim a truth that is particularly relevant for a given time in history.
In 1950 Pope Pius XII defined the dogma of the Assumption. Why?
Because it was denied particularly at that time? No.
Rather because of its special relevance.
Let us go back to 1950. It was just a few years after the Second World War. Terrible atrocities had taken place. The concentration camps of Buchenwald and Auschwitz had consummated nationalism and cremated liberty. Millions of human beings had suffered atrocities in their flesh—including millions of our Jewish brothers and sisters.
At this moment the Church wanted to give her response: to show what God thinks about the value of human flesh that had been desecrated.
And so the Church decided that her constant teaching about Mary’s Assumption into heaven should be solemnly proclaimed and defined in order to uplift and encourage the People of God.
Pope Pius XII, after wide consultation, made a solemn definition proclaiming that the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the end of her earthly life was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.
This was the Church’s answer to the anguish of the times. What does God think about the dignity of the human body? In Mary, God gives His answer.
Mary was the Mother of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. She bore the Savior of the world. By a special privilege of God Mary’s body was destined to avoid the corruption of the grave. The body that bore the Son of God was given the great privilege of being assumed immediately into heaven. Jesus, the Son of Mary, after His Resurrection, had ascended into heaven by His own power. Mary, His Mother, was taken up by the power of God to be with Jesus, her Son, forever in His glory.
Saint Paul today tells us that Christ was raised from the dead to be the first fruits of resurrection and life. Christ was first. Mary was second. The rest of us are destined for eternal life—body and soul, together in heaven for all eternity. We must wait for the reuniting of our body and soul. Although the soul will never die. We must pass through the grave, but the body will truly rise and be glorified for all eternity.
Mary’s body did not have to wait. Ours do. But because our bodies have been associated through Baptism with Christ’s glorified body, there is no doubt that God considers our bodies important. In the Creed we say: “We believe in the holy Catholic Church, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen.”
This expresses the mystery of the holiness of the flesh—human flesh, the human body—a masterpiece of God’s creation.
Mary’s body like our own was the creative work of God, but she was further privileged to bear and nurse God’s eternal Son.
Yes, the Church responds to the terrible violation of the flesh, by recalling her consistent teaching from the beginning: Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven.
In His Resurrection and Ascension Christ was the first fruit of those who fell asleep in death. Mary came second. We come next: each in his or her own order. All of us will be alive in soul and body.
But meanwhile, Christ’s Mother, God’s Mother, our Mother is the great example for all of us of the victory and the holiness of the flesh—all human flesh!
Whatever violates the dignity of the body goes contrary to God’s plan, which today is so beautifully exemplified in the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, body and soul, into heavenly glory.
In 1950 the Church, by solemn definition, drew forth from her treasure of God’s truth guarded in the divine revelation of Scripture and Tradition the consoling and exhilarating, hope‑bearing and life‑giving teaching of Mary assumed into heaven.
Let us remember: Jesus, first; Mary, second; all of us in due order.
How wonderful what God has done to spell out over and over again the beauty, the dignity, the sanctity of all human flesh!
And the privilege given to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, brings to us, the brothers and sisters of Jesus, new hope and deep joy on this feast of her Assumption into heaven.
Blessed be God!
Blessed be Jesus Christ true God and true Man!
Blessed be the name of Mary!
Blessed be her glorious Assumption!
Amen.