The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Introduction: The Feast of the Assumption celebrates Mary’s journey to Heaven – body and soul. It includes two very important aspects of this event: Mary’s dormition (or her “sleep”, rather than death) and her coronation as Queen of Heaven.
So let’s quickly review the Church’s teaching is this regard –
-A long and ancient tradition tells us that Mary did not die – as we normally do – but ended her earthly life when she “fell asleep” and was “assumed” into Heaven. This tradition is very early, by the fifth century AD. Why did it develop? The Church reasoned, and Revelation confirmed, that Mary was conceived without original sin. Since death and corruption were the result of sin’s effects, Mary must have been assumed into Heaven. Pope Pius XII affirmed that this is the belief of the Church.
I. What does Mary’s Assumption teach, or show us?
I think it brilliantly affirms the dignity, even the glory of womanhood, and in particular, the vocation of woman:
1. Mary was/is a daughter (we know her parents, Joachim and Anna).
2. Mary was/is a cousin (in ancient times cousins were as close as sisters) And we know her cousin, Elizabeth.
3. Mary was/is a wife (we know her husband, Joseph).
4. Mary was/is a mother (we know her Son).
5. Mary was/is free, she said “Yes” of her own accord, constrained by no one).
6. Mary was/is a Virgin (The Church tells us she made a perpetual vow of virginity)
So, do you see in these all the aspects of womanhood? How Mary so wondrously reflects all the dimensions of woman’s vocation? The joys and sorrows – the fulfillments and disappointments associated with the vast variety of responsibilities and realities of woman’s life.
John Paul II wrote “Mary, the woman of the Bible, is the most complete expression of this dignity and vocation.” (JP II, Mulieris Dignitatem).
II. The Assumption demonstrates the enduring nature of woman’s relationships: Pope Benedict recently wrote –
As a spiritual being, the human creature is defined through interpersonal relations. The more authentically he or she lives these relations, the more his or her own personal identity matures.
-The encounter with Elizabeth shows the joys of being a woman, a sister, a friend (a girl-¬friend), a wife and a mother (in this case, mother-to-be).
There is a distinct dynamic when women get together with one another. Men, you know what I’m talking about! In fact, so dynamic that when the women get together the men tend to flee the scene (we find Nascar racing and Professional Wrestling less intimidating than a baby shower!).
**Back when we were expecting our twins, we were confronted by demonstrators who opposed our pro-life efforts – and they were chanting, “We’re feminist, we’re fierce and we’re in your face!” – To which my wife and her girlfriend responded, “We’re pregnant, we’re hungry, get out of our way!” – Now that’s scary!
Mary’s and Elizabeth’s role as wife and mother was not a disease or a disability. It was intrinsic and indispensable to the Gospel and is still today essential to the administration of the saving mission of the Church.
Conclusion:
Mary’s Assumption shows us that there is no contradiction or deficiency in the variety of woman’s roles, but that each contributes to her essential value and dignity. In fact, the woman’s personality and roles uniquely reflect the personality and roles of God. Whose is the first face the child beholds and embrace the child enjoys? Mother, nurse, provider.
Is this perhaps why the Psalmist wrote –
He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High
shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
The Almighty is one of the most sacred names of God in the OT, from the Hebrew word Sha’ad, meaning “breasts”.
In The Dignity of Woman, John Paul II wrote –
The Bible convinces us of the fact that one can have no adequate interpretation of man, or of what is “human”, without appropriate reference to what is “feminine”. There is an analogy in the Gospel: if we wish to understand it fully in relation to the whole of human history, we cannot omit, in the perspective of our faith, the mystery of “woman”: virgin-mother-spouse.

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of St Teresa Benedicta a Cruce, Edith Stein – Carmelite Nun,  Holocaust martyr, original philosopher and quintessential twentieth century woman.
When I was confirmed, I took part of her religious name, Benedicta as my name. That’s the “B” in Paul CB Schenck. I asked for her intercessions when I sought a way into the Catholic Church and I took her as my patroness. There was much that I could identify with in her life as a Jew, who had become a Christian after periods of atheism and philosophical speculation.
I had been an atheist at the same age as Edith had been. I had sought out philosophy before being baptized a Christian. Members of my extended family had perished in the Nazi extermination camps in Minsk.
In Canonizing her a saint, Pope John Paul II recognized in Edith the heroic virtues and exemplary piety that marks a true Saint. Most importantly, he proclaimed her a martyr, though she wasn’t killed for being a Christian as much as being a Jew, a Jewish Christian. This was unique in modern Church history, but not in early Church history, after all, St Stephen, the first martyr, was a Jewish Christian.
Edith’s life is a powerful sign of contradiction: in an time of ferocious prejudice and hatred, she was a humble, empathetic person. In a time of male domination in the professions, she was one of the first women to earn a doctoral degree and teach philosophy in a University. And when in a time of feminist assertion, she became a cloistered nun.
When Hitler invaded Holland, the Bishops opposed his persecution of the Jews, and for that, St Edith, her sister Rosa and over a thousand other Jewish born Catholics were arrested, deported and murdered in the Nazi death camps. Her last recorded words before deportation were “Come Rosa, we go for our people.”
A profound thinker, prolific author, and professor, she summarized her philosophic insight with the phrase, “Love will be our eternal life”
Edith Stein, St Teresa Bendicta, is a sterling example of Faith in the face of secular opposition, scientific skepticism, religious indifference and ferocious persecution.
In an era in which all these are playing out in slow motion across the world, we must turn to her anew and ask Edith Stein, “St. Teresa Benedicta, pray for us!”