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Bible Study, Prayer, and Homily Resources
by Fr. Tommy Lane
We rejoice today in the Assumption of Our Lady body and soul into heaven. We rejoice because of this honor given her but also because she is our spiritual Mother. After the sin of Adam and Eve, we read in Genesis that God said to them, “you are dust and to dust you shall return” (Gen 3:19). Death and sickness are the result of that first sin (Rom 6:23). Our Lady was immaculately conceived and always sinless, so she would never return to dust. It would be a logical impossibility. If bodily corruption is the result of sin, then Our Lady who was sinless would not experience bodily corruption at the end of her life. Instead, she was assumed body and soul to heaven.
Not only had she the unique privilege and responsibility of being the mother of Jesus but she received a new responsibility as Jesus was dying on the cross. He gave her to us as our Mother as he spoke to her and John, “Woman, this is your son. This is your Mother.” (John 19:27) We see her in her role as spiritual Mother gathered with the apostles after Jesus’ ascension praying for the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Her role as spiritual Mother continued after her Assumption. From heaven, she intercedes for us and covers us with her motherly mantle of love. A little after our first reading today in the Book of Revelation, we read that the dragon, that is, Satan, went away to make war on the woman’s children who obey God’s commandments and witness Jesus (Rev 12:17). We are those spiritual children of Our Lady. We need Our Lady’s intercession and protection in heaven looking after us to protect us from the dragon trying to make war on us.
There is one very vivid
example of the protection of Our Lady in heaven interceding for us
and protecting us which is connected with the image of Our Lady in
our first reading today. In our first reading today, John describes
seeing a vision of Our Lady in heaven. He saw her as “a woman
clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head
a crown of twelve stars.” (Rev 12:1) This is the image of Our Lady
that is known, venerated, and loved in all of the Americas from the
south to the north as it is the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Our
Lady, in her coming in Mexico, certainly showed herself as our
protectress and intercessor as her coming there saved the lives of
countless thousands or, I would say, millions of people. Modern day
Mexico City was the center of the Aztecs and their pagan worship and
human sacrifice from the 1400s. They sacrificed at least 50,000
humans a year to their god on altars on top of pyramids and one in
five children is believed to have been offered in human sacrifice.
(See A Handbook on Guadalupe by Franciscan Friars of the
Immaculate p139.) When Our Lady appeared to St. Juan Diego in 1531
near modern day Mexico City, she said she is the mother of the True
God and that she is a mother full of mercy and love for all who love
her and trust her, to hear their complaints and comfort their
afflictions and sufferings. To show her love, she asked St. Juan
Diego to go to the bishop(-elect) to ask to have a church built
there dedicated to her. He went to the bishop who did not pay much
attention to him. That evening Our Lady appeared again and told Juan
Diego to go back to the bishop. He went back the following morning
and the bishop asked him for a sign to confirm. The next morning,
Juan Diego’s uncle was ill, and he had to take care of him and did
not go the usual place to meet Our Lady. Nevertheless, Our Lady
appeared to Juan Diego who was embarrassed and said to him, “Am I
not here, I who am your mother?” Our Lady said she would give the
sign and told him to gather flowers from the top of the hill. It was
the middle of winter and there should not have been roses in bloom,
but they were. Juan Diego put them in his tilma, the outer cloak
worn by Aztec men. When he met the bishop, he opened his cloak and
out fell the roses and on his cloak was the image of Our Lady in our
first reading today, clothed with the sun, and standing on the moon.
It had many Aztec symbols that really spoke to the Aztecs, and many
turned from their pagan religion to Christianity, got baptized and
abandoned human sacrifice. A decade after Our Lady appeared to St.
Juan Diego, ten million Aztecs had converted to Christianity. The
cloak/tilma was made from woven cactus fibers and should have lasted
only about 100 years but it is still in perfect condition. The
original miraculous image is in perfect condition. On the contrary,
interference by humans did not last—small artistic additions by
humans, faded. Our Lady asked that she be known as
Our Lady of
Guadalupe, as we say, but what sounds like Guadalupe to our ears is
really an Aztec word that means “the one who crushes the head of the
serpent.” (See A Handbook on Guadalupe by Franciscan Friars
of the Immaculate p139.) To use the language of our first reading
today, Our Lady showed herself as the one who crushes the dragon and
the pagan religion requiring thousands of human sacrifices every
year.
Our Lady was assumed body and soul into heaven because no sin had touched her. Death and sickness are the result of the sin of Adam and Eve. Our Lady was immaculately conceived and always sinless so at the end of her life she did not return to dust and was assumed body and soul to heaven. From heaven she continues to protect us as she did the Aztecs. As a mother loves all her children equally, in some wonderful way we can imagine that she loves us as much as she loves Jesus! So, any time we are in need, go to Mother! As she said to St. Juan Diego, “Am I not here, I who am your Mother?”
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2021
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for August 15: The Assumption of Our Lady into Heaven
Our Lady Ark of the New Covenant 2018
Mary the Ark of the Covenant Assumed into Heaven intercedes for us 2007
Assumption of Our Lady and the Rosary
Assumption of Our Lady and her house in Ephesus
Mary our Mother, her humility, and her Assumption into heaven
First Reading Revelation 12 and Our Lady of Guadalupe 2006
First Reading Jesus in Mary's womb in Guadalupe 2008
Related: Our Lady releasing souls from Purgatory 2008
Related: Four Marian Dogmas (end of pdf)