Today is a celebration of the victory of Jesus’ Cross over
the powers of sin and death. It is the day when our Blessed Mother enjoys the
fruits of that victory by being brought body and soul into heaven.
Of course, many of our good brothers and sisters at other
denominations may ask us why we spend a day celebrating Mary. (You’ve probably
heard things like that: “why go to Mary when you can go straight to God?” and
so on). Let’s answer this today because, admittedly, at certain local rock-band
churches, things like today aren’t celebrated—and we need to know why it’s
important that we do.
The answer will come in two parts: one subtle, one
scriptural….
I love my mom. Mom has always been my biggest support,
the one who knew my vocation before I did, the one who always tells me to “be
safe”… But mom is starting to near retirement age. She is getting… older. And with getting older may come
the usual health problems. And (I don’t like to think of this but) there will
come a day when God calls her from this life.
If it were up to me, I would have mom pass from this life
to the next without having to go through any illnesses. Illnesses and death
were not part of God’s original plan anyway. Death was the result of sin. If I
could have mom go straight to heaven without having to taste death and all that
comes before it, I would. And I wish that because I love my mom. Of course, I
am not God.
But Jesus is. And He loves His mother. He’s the only one
who got to choose His mother. And because death was never part of His plan,
Jesus brings Mary to heaven without illness or death. Any son who loves mom
wants the very best for mom. Jesus wants the very best for His mom—and He is able
to give that to her. Not only because He is God, but also because this is the
very effect of His victory on the Cross! He mounts the Cross precisely to claim
victory over death. It makes sense then, that He would share the celebration of
that victory with His mom. Because He loves her.
That’s the subtle part. You see, people often say “Why go
to Mary when you can go straight to God?” The reason is that we learn a lot
about Jesus precisely by admitting His love for His mother. He loves His mother. This is important
because it orients Jesus in a family—He is not foreign to family. He is not an
alien to the experience of being a mother’s child.
Indeed, if you want to get the real dirt on me, you can
go to my mom. She knows me very well. So too with Mary: is there anyone else on
the face of the earth who had a deeper personal relationship with Jesus Christ
than Mary—the one who literally carried Him in her womb, who fed Him with her
flesh and blood, who felt him kick in the night and coo in her arms? Mothers
know something about their children. So it goes with Mary.
The subtlety here is love.
Now we turn to scripture. Some say this isn’t scriptural.
Au contraire!
We see in the book of Revelation a vision of the Ark of
the Covenant and, in front of it stands The Woman and her child. (That’s Mary
and Jesus). The question is: what’s this Ark of the Covenant?
The Ark of the Covenant was the sacred vessel that held
the two tables of the Commandments, the Rod of Aaron, and the Manna from the
desert—all of which were pre-figurements of the presence of God. This Ark was
considered holy and only ordained priests could touch it (see 1 Chronicles). It
was powerful and whenever Israel carried it in battle, they were victorious.
Eventually, when the Temple was built, it was placed in the holiest place: The
Holy of Holies.
But this was just a shadow, a foretaste of things to
come. The Ark and what it contained was not God—just an image of His presence.
Eventually, this Ark disappears. And nobody knows where
it went. Indiana Jones was looking for it. But nobody knows. Where did it go?
We see it in the Book of Revelation today and, in front
of it, Mary. What does this mean? It means that Mary is the New Ark of the New
Covenant. Whereas the Old Ark contained the objects of the Old and the
foretaste of things to come, the image; the New Ark (that is, Mary) now
contains the actual presence. She literally carried God, Jesus Christ, in her
womb.
So, if the Old Ark was considered so holy and so powerful
while only carrying the image of God, how much more so must the New Ark, Mary,
be considered holy and powerful!
Scripture.
But, lest we forget how sin entered into the world: it
was through Adam and Eve. Paul, in his First Letter to the Corinthians
(15:20ff) writes how God in His perfection unties the sin of Adam by the
victory of a New Adam, that is, Jesus. But God is perfect in His redeeming
plan: so, whereas a man and a woman brought sin into the world, a man and a
woman will bring redemption. So, not only must there be a New Adam, there must
also be a New Eve. That’s Mary. She’s the woman in Revelation, she is the woman
spoken about in Genesis 3:15 where she will crush the head of the serpent—the dragon
we see in Revelation. This is why many statues of Mary have her crushing the
serpent’s head with her foot. “He subjected everything under his feet.” There
is no competition here: Mary and Jesus go together—and all the more so than did
Adam and Eve.
This is why, in Scripture, it says that Mary’s “soul
magnifies the Lord.” If we see Mary, we see God’s plan of love.
In Scripture, it continues, saying “From this day, all
generations will call me [that is, Mary] blessed.” That word, “Blessed” means
to be holy. It is the same word used in Matthew 5 to describe those in heaven.
Ok. That’s a lot. But this is very important. Mary is
important because she helps us to see the heart of Jesus who loves His mother.
And not only that, it helps us to see how the victory of His Cross really does
conquer death in the here and now.
A woman cries out to Jesus: “Blessed is the womb that
bore you…” To which Jesus replies, “Blessed are those who hear the word of God
and observe it.” What is Jesus saying there? He is saying, “Yes, Mary is
blessed—all generations will call her so—and so too are you. That is, you too
will be blessed, you too will enjoy the victory of the Cross and the joys of
heaven—if only you would receive the Word of God and observe it.”
Which is precisely what Mary did. She received the Word
of God—the Word which is Jesus Christ—the Word which became flesh and dwelt
among us, beginning in Mary’s womb. She received the Word and observed Him, all
that He commanded—just as Mary had told us to do when, in Scripture she says, “Do
everything He tells you.”
Yes, Mary is in heaven. She is in heaven because her son,
Our Lord Jesus Christ, proved victorious over death by the Cross. She is in
heaven because He loved her.
We celebrate that. And it gives us hope and a reminder—a
reminder that is subtle and easily overlooked in the middle of August: that we
were not made for death, but for heaven—if only we follow Him.
That’s why this random Tuesday is a Holy Day of
Obligation. There will come a random day in our future—we know not when—when our
Lord will call us from this earth. May today’s celebration give us hope and
remind us and prepare us for that moment—that we may be ready, that we may
enjoy the victory, that we may be with our Mother in heaven. “Pray for us
sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”
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