Totus Tuus - Totus 2us

The Church believes in Mary’s Assumption

_{1. Following the Bull Munificentissimus Deus of my venerable Predecessor Pius XII, the Second Vatican Council affirms that the Immaculate Virgin "was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, when her earthly life was over" (Lumen gentium, n 59).}

_{The Council Fathers wished to stress that Mary, unlike Christians who die in God’s grace, was taken up into the glory of heaven with her body. This age-old old belief is expressed in a long iconographical tradition which shows Mary "entering" heaven with her body.}

_{The dogma of the Assumption affirms that Mary's body was glorified after her death. In fact, while for other human beings the resurrection of the body will take place at the end of the world, for Mary the glorification of her body was anticipated by a special privilege.}

_{2. On 1 November 1950, in defining the dogma of the Assumption, Pius XII avoided using the term "resurrection" and did not take a position on the question of the Blessed Virgin’s death as a truth of faith. The Bull Munificentissimus Deus limits itself to affirming the elevation of Mary’s body to heavenly glory, declaring this truth a "divinely revealed dogma".}

_{How can we not see that the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin has always been part of the faith of the Christian people who, by affirming Mary’s entrance into heavenly glory, have meant to proclaim the glorification of her body?}

_{The first trace of belief in the Virgin's Assumption can be found in the apocryphal accounts entitled Transitus Mariae, whose origin dates to the 2nd and 3rd centuries. These are popular and sometimes romanticized depictions, which in this case, however, pick up an intuition of faith on the part of God's People.}

_{Later, there was a long period of growing reflection on Mary’s destiny in the next world. This gradually led the faithful to believe in the glorious raising of the Mother of Jesus, in body and soul, and to the institution in the East of the liturgical feasts of the Dormition and Assumption of Mary.}

_{Belief in the glorious destiny of the body and soul of the Lord's Mother after her death spread very rapidly from East to West, and has been widespread since the 14th century. In our century, on the eve of the definition of the dogma it was a truth almost universally accepted and professed by the Christian community in every corner of the world.}

_{3. Therefore in May 1946, with the Encyclical Deiparae Virginis Mariae, Pius XII called for a broad consultation, inquiring among the Bishops and, through them, among the clergy and the People of God as to the possibility and opportuneness of defining the bodily assumption of Mary as a dogma of faith. The result was extremely positive: only 6 answers out of 1,181 showed any reservations about the revealed character of this truth.}

_{Citing this fact, the Bull Munificentissimus Deus states: "From the universal agreement of the Church's ordinary Magisterium we have a certain and firm proof demonstrating that the Blessed Virgin Mary's bodily Assumption into heaven ... is a truth revealed by God and therefore should be firmly and faithfully believed by all the children of the Church."}

_{The definition of the dogma, in conformity with the universal faith of the People of God, definitively excludes every doubt and calls for the express assent of all Christians.}

_{After stressing the Church’s actual belief in the Assumption, the Bull recalls the scriptural basis for this truth.}

_{Although the New Testament does not explictly affirm Mary’s Assumption, it offers a basis for it because it strongly emphasized the Blessed Virgin's perfect union with Jesus’ destiny. This union, which is manifested, from the time of the Saviour's miraculous conception, in the Mother’s participation in her Son’s mission and especially in her association with his redemptive sacrifice, cannot fail to require a continuation after death. Perfectly united with the life and saving work of Jesus, Mary shares his heavenly destiny in body and soul.}

_{4. The Bull Munificentissimus Deus cited above refers to the participation of the woman of the Proto-gospel in the struggle against the serpent, recognizing Mary as the New Eve, and presents the Assumption as a consequence of Mary’s union with Christ’s saving work. In this regard it says: "Consequently, just as the glorious Resurrection of Christ was an essential part and the final sign of this victory, so that struggle which was common to the Blessed Virgin and her divine Son should be brought to a close by the glorification of her virginal body."} 

_{The Assumption is therefore the culmination of the struggle which involved Mary’s generous love in the redemption of humanity and is the fruit of her unique sharing in the victory of the Cross.}

Mary is first creature to enjoy eternal life

_{1. The Church’s constant and unanimous Tradition shows how Mary’s Assumption is part of the divine plan and is rooted in her unique sharing in the mission of her Son. In the 1st millennium sacred authors had already spoken in this way.}

_{Testimonies, not yet fully developed, can be found in St Ambrose, St Epiphanius and Timothy of Jerusalem. St Germanus I of Constantinople puts these words on Jesus’ lips as he prepares to take his Mother to heaven: “You must be where I am, Mother inseparable from your Son.”}

_{In addition, the same ecclesial Tradition sees the fundamental reason for the Assumption in the divine motherhood.}

_{We find an interesting trace of this conviction in a 5th-century apocryphal account attributed to Pseudo-Melito. The author imagines Christ questioning Peter and the Apostles on the destiny Mary deserved, and this is the reply he received: “Lord, you chose this handmaid of yours to become an immaculate dwelling place for you.... Thus it seemed right to us, your servants, that just as you reign in glory after conquering death, so you should raise your Mother’s body and take her rejoicing with you to heaven.” It can therefore be said that the divine motherhood, which made Mary’s body the immaculate dwelling place of the Lord, was the basis of her glorious destiny.}

_{2. St Germanus maintains in a richly poetic text that it is Jesus’ affection for his Mother which requires Mary to be united with her divine Son in heaven: “Just as a child seeks and desires its mother’s presence and a mother delights in her child’s company, it was fitting that you, whose motherly love for your Son and God leaves no room for doubt, should return to him. And was it not right, in any case, that this God who had a truly filial love for you, should take you into his company?” In another text, the venerable author combines the private aspect of the relationship between Christ and Mary with the saving dimension of her motherhood, maintaining that “the mother of Life should share the dwelling place of Life.”}

_{3. According to some of the Church Fathers, another argument for the privilege of the Assumption is taken from Mary’s sharing in the work of Redemption. St John Damascene underscores the relationship between her participation in the Passion and her glorious destiny: “It was right that she who had seen her Son on the Cross and received the sword of sorrow in the depths of her heart ... should behold this Son seated at the right hand of the Father.” In the light of the paschal mystery, it appears particularly clear that the Mother should also be glorified with her Son after death.}

_{The Second Vatican Council, recalling the mystery of the Assumption in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, draws attention to the privilege of the Immaculate Conception: precisely because she was “preserved free from all stain of original sin” (Lumen gentium, n 59), Mary could not remain like other human beings in the state of death until the end of the world. The absence of original sin and her perfect holiness from the very first moment of her existence required the full glorification of the body and soul of the Mother of God.}

_{4. Looking at the mystery of the Blessed Virgin’s Assumption, we can understand the plan of divine Providence plan for humanity: after Christ, the Incarnate Word, Mary is the first human being to achieve the eschatological ideal, anticipating the fullness of happiness promised to the elect through the resurrection of the body.}

_{In the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin we can also see the divine will to advance woman.}

_{In a way analogous to what happened at the beginning of the human race and of salvation history, in God’s plan the eschatological ideal was not to be revealed in an individual, but in a couple. Thus in heavenly glory, beside the risen Christ there is a woman who has been raised up, Mary: the new Adam and the new Eve, the first-fruits of the general resurrection of the bodies of all humanity.}

_{The eschatological conditions of Christ and Mary should not, of course, be put on the same level. Mary, the new Eve, received from Christ, the new Adam, the fullness of grace and heavenly glory, having been raised through the Holy Spirit by the sovereign power of the Son.}

_{5. Despite their brevity, these notes enable us to show clearly that Mary’s Assumption reveals the nobility and dignity of the human body.}

_{In the face of the profanation and debasement to which modern society frequently subjects the female body, the mystery of the Assumption proclaims the supernatural destiny and dignity of every human body, called by the Lord to become an instrument of holiness and to share in his glory.}

_{Mary entered into glory because she welcomed the Son of God in her virginal womb and in her heart. By looking at her, the Christian learns to discover the value of his own body and to guard it as a temple of God, in expectation of the resurrection.}

_{The Assumption, a privilege granted to the Mother of God, thus has immense value for the life and destiny of humanity.}

Homily by Benedict XVI

_{2005 - in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese & Spanish}

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Feast of the Assumption is a day of joy. God has won. Love has won. It has won life. Love has shown that it is stronger than death, that God possesses the true strength and that his strength is goodness and love.

Mary was taken up body and soul into Heaven: there is even room in God for the body. Heaven is no longer a very remote sphere unknown to us. We have a mother in Heaven. And the Mother of God, the Mother of the Son of God, is our Mother. He himself has said so. He made her our Mother when he said to the disciple and to all of us: "Behold, your Mother!". We have a Mother in Heaven. Heaven is open, Heaven has a heart.

In the Gospel we heard the Magnificat, that great poem inspired by the Holy Spirit that came from Mary's lips, indeed, from Mary's heart. This marvellous canticle mirrors the entire soul, the entire personality of Mary. We can say that this hymn of hers is a portrait of Mary, a true icon in which we can see her exactly as she is. I would like to highlight only two points in this great canticle. It begins with the word "Magnificat": my soul "magnifies" the Lord, that is, "proclaims the greatness" of the Lord. Mary wanted God to be great in the world, great in her life and present among us all. She was not afraid that God might be a "rival" in our life, that with his greatness he might encroach on our freedom, our vital space. She knew that if God is great, we too are great. Our life is not oppressed but raised and expanded: it is precisely then that it becomes great in the splendour of God.

The fact that our first parents thought the contrary was the core of original sin. They feared that if God were too great, he would take something away from their life. They thought that they could set God aside to make room for themselves. This was also the great temptation of the modern age, of the past three or four centuries. More and more people have thought and said: "But this God does not give us our freedom; with all his commandments, he restricts the space in our lives. So God has to disappear; we want to be autonomous and independent. Without this God we ourselves would be gods and do as we pleased." This was also the view of the Prodigal Son, who did not realize that he was "free" precisely because he was in his father's house. He left for distant lands and squandered his estate. In the end, he realized that precisely because he had gone so far away from his father, instead of being free he had become a slave; he understood that only by returning home to his father's house would he be truly free, in the full beauty of life. This is how it is in our modern epoch. Previously, it was thought and believed that by setting God aside and being autonomous, following only our own ideas and inclinations, we would truly be free to do whatever we liked without anyone being able to give us orders. But when God disappears, men and women do not become greater; indeed, they lose the divine dignity, their faces lose God's splendour. In the end, they turn out to be merely products of a blind evolution and, as such, can be used and abused. This is precisely what the experience of our epoch has confirmed for us.

Only if God is great is humankind also great. With Mary, we must begin to understand that this is so. We must not drift away from God but make God present; we must ensure that he is great in our lives. Thus, we too will become divine; all the splendour of the divine dignity will then be ours. Let us apply this to our own lives. It is important that God be great among us, in public and in private life. In public life, it is important that God be present, for example, through the cross on public buildings, and that he be present in our community life, for only if God is present do we have an orientation, a common direction; otherwise, disputes become impossible to settle, for our common dignity is no longer recognized. Let us make God great in public and in private life. This means making room for God in our lives every day, starting in the morning with prayers, and then dedicating time to God, giving Sundays to God. We do not waste our free time if we offer it to God. If God enters into our time, all time becomes greater, roomier, richer.

A second observation: Mary's poem - the Magnificat - is quite original; yet at the same time, it is a "fabric" woven throughout of "threads" from the Old Testament, of words of God. Thus, we see that Mary was, so to speak, "at home" with God's word, she lived on God's word, she was penetrated by God's word. To the extent that she spoke with God's words, she thought with God's words, her thoughts were God's thoughts, her words, God's words. She was penetrated by divine light and this is why she was so resplendent, so good, so radiant with love and goodness. Mary lived on the Word of God, she was imbued with the Word of God. And the fact that she was immersed in the Word of God and was totally familiar with the Word also endowed her later with the inner enlightenment of wisdom. Whoever thinks with God thinks well, and whoever speaks to God speaks well. They have valid criteria to judge all the things of the world. They become prudent, wise, and at the same time good; they also become strong and courageous with the strength of God, who resists evil and fosters good in the world.

Thus, Mary speaks with us, speaks to us, invites us to know the Word of God, to love the Word of God, to live with the Word of God, to think with the Word of God. And we can do so in many different ways: by reading Sacred Scripture, by participating especially in the Liturgy, in which Holy Church throughout the year opens the entire book of Sacred Scripture to us. She opens it to our lives and makes it present in our lives. But I am also thinking of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church that we recently published, in which the Word of God is applied to our lives and the reality of our lives interpreted; it helps us enter into the great "temple" of God's Word, to learn to love it and, like Mary, to be penetrated by this Word. Thus, life becomes luminous and we have the basic criterion with which to judge; at the same time, we receive goodness and strength.

Mary is assumed body and soul into the glory of Heaven, and with God and in God she is Queen of Heaven and earth. And is she really so remote from us? The contrary is true. Precisely because she is with God and in God, she is very close to each one of us. While she lived on this earth she could only be close to a few people. Being in God, who is close to us, actually, "within" all of us, Mary shares in this closeness of God. Being in God and with God, she is close to each one of us, knows our hearts, can hear our prayers, can help us with her motherly kindness and has been given to us, as the Lord said, precisely as a "mother" to whom we can turn at every moment. She always listens to us, she is always close to us, and being Mother of the Son, participates in the power of the Son and in his goodness. We can always entrust the whole of our lives to this Mother, who is not far from any one of us.

On this feast day, let us thank the Lord for the gift of the Mother, and let us pray to Mary to help us find the right path every day. Amen.

Catechesis by Benedict XVI

_{General Audience, 16 August 2006 - in Croatian, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese & Spanish}

Since the 1st centuries of Christianity, the Christian people has always found this feast deeply stirring; as is well known, it celebrates the glorification, also in body, of that creature whom God chose as Mother and whom Jesus on the Cross gave as Mother to the whole of humanity. The Assumption evokes a mystery that concerns each one of us because, as the Second Vatican Council affirms, Mary "shines forth on earth... a sign of certain hope and comfort to the pilgrim People of God" (Lumen Gentium, n 68). However, taken up by the events of each day, one can sometimes forget this comforting spiritual reality that constitutes an important truth of faith.

So how can it be ensured that this luminous sign of hope is ever more clearly perceived by all of us and by contemporary society? Some people today live as if they never had to die or as if, with death, everything were over; others, who hold that man is the one and only author of his own destiny, behave as though God did not exist, and at times they even reach the point of denying that there is room for him in our world. Yet, the great breakthroughs of technology and science that have considerably improved humanity's condition leave unresolved the deepest searchings of the human soul. Only openness to the mystery of God, who is Love, can quench the thirst for truth and happiness in our hearts; only the prospect of eternity can give authentic value to historical events and especially to the mystery of human frailty, suffering and death.

In contemplating Mary in heavenly glory, we understand that the earth is not the definitive homeland for us either, and that if we live with our gaze fixed on eternal goods we will one day share in this same glory and the earth will become more beautiful. Consequently, we must not lose our serenity and peace even amid the thousands of daily difficulties. The luminous sign of Our Lady taken up into Heaven shines out even more brightly when sad shadows of suffering and violence seem to loom on the horizon. We may be sure of it: from on high, Mary follows our footsteps with gentle concern, dispels the gloom in moments of darkness and distress, reassures us with her motherly hand. Supported by awareness of this, let us continue confidently on our path of Christian commitment wherever Providence may lead us.

Let us forge ahead in our lives under Mary's guidance.

Homily by Benedict XVI

_{15 August 2010 - in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese & Spanish + video}

Today the Church is celebrating one of the most important feasts of the Liturgical Year dedicated to Mary Most Holy: the Assumption. At the end of her earthly life Mary was taken up, body and soul, into Heaven, that is, into the glory of eternal life, into full and perfect communion with God.

It is 60 years since Venerable Pope Pius XII, on 1 November 1950, solemnly defined this dogma and although it is somewhat complicated I would like to read the formula of dogmatization. The Pope says: "Hence the revered Mother of God, from all eternity joined in a hidden way with Jesus Christ in one and the same decree of predestination, immaculate in her conception, a most perfect virgin in her divine motherhood, the noble associate of the divine Redeemer who has won a complete triumph over sin and its consequences, finally obtained, as the supreme culmination of her privileges, that she should be preserved free from the corruption of the tomb and that, like her own Son, having overcome death, she might be taken up body and soul to the glory of Heaven where, as Queen, she sits in splendour at the right hand of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages."

This then is the nucleus of our faith in the Assumption: we believe that Mary, like Christ her Son, overcame death and is already triumphant in heavenly glory, in the totality of her being, "in body and soul".

In today's 2nd Reading St Paul helps us to shed a little more light on this mystery starting from the central event of human history and of our faith: that is, the event of Christ's Resurrection which is "the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep". Immersed in his Paschal Mystery, we are enabled to share in his victory over sin and death. Here lies the startling secret and key reality of the whole human saga. St Paul tells us that we are "incorporated" Adam, the first man and the old man, that we all possess the same human heritage to which belong suffering, death and sin. But every day adds something new to this reality that we can all see and live: not only are we part of this heritage of the one human being that began with Adam but we are also "incorporated" in the new man, in the Risen Christ, and thus the life of the Resurrection is already present in us. Therefore this first biological "incorporation" is incorporation into death, it is an incorporation that generates death. The second, new "incorporation", that is given to us in Baptism is an "incorporation" that gives life. Again, I cite today's 2nd Reading: St Paul says: "For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ, the first fruits, then at his coming, those who belong to Christ" (1 Cor 15: 21-24).

Now, what St Paul says of all human beings the Church in her infallible Magisterium says of Mary in a precise and clear manner: the Mother of God is so deeply integrated into Christ's Mystery that at the end of her earthly life she already participates with her whole self in her Son's Resurrection. She lives what we await at the end of time when the "last enemy" death will have been destroyed; she already lives what we proclaim in the Creed: "We look for the Resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come."

We can then ask ourselves: what are the roots of this victory over death wonderfully anticipated in Mary? Its roots are in the faith of the Virgin of Nazareth, as the Gospel passage we have heard testifies (Lk 1: 39-56): a faith that is obedience to the word of God and total abandonment to the divine action and initiative, in accordance with what the Archangel announced to her. Faith, therefore, is Mary's greatness, as Elizabeth joyfully proclaims: Mary is "blessed among women" and "blessed is the fruit of [her] womb", for she is Mother of the Lord" because she believed and lived uniquely the "first" of the Beatitudes, the Beatitude of faith. Elizabeth confesses it in her joy and in that of her child who leaps in her womb: "And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord." Dear friends, let us not limit ourselves to admiring Mary in her destiny of glory, as a person very remote from us. No! We are called to look at all that the Lord, in his love, wanted to do for us too, for our final destiny: to live through faith in a perfect communion of love with him and hence to live truly.

In this regard I would like to reflect on an aspect of the affirmation of the dogma where assumption into heavenly glory is mentioned. All of us today are well aware that by the term "Heaven" we are not referring to somewhere in the universe, to a star or such like; no. We mean something far greater and far more difficult to define with our limited human conceptions. With this term "Heaven" we wish to say that God, the God who made himself close to us, does not abandon us in or after death but keeps a place for us and gives us eternity. We mean that in God there is room for us. To understand this reality a little better let us look at our own lives. We all experience that when people die they continue to exist, in a certain way, in the memory and heart of those who knew and loved them. We might say that a part of the person lives on in them but it resembles a "shadow" because this survival in the heart of their loved ones is destined to end. God, on the contrary, never passes away and we all exist by virtue of his love. We exist because he loves us, because he conceived of us and called us to life. We exist in God's thoughts and in God's love. We exist in the whole of our reality, not only in our "shadow". Our serenity, our hope and our peace are based precisely on this: in God, in his thoughts and in his love, it is not merely a "shadow" of ourselves that survives but rather we are preserved and ushered into eternity with the whole of our being in him, in his creator love. It is his Love that triumphs over death and gives us eternity and it is this love that we call "Heaven": God is so great that he also makes room for us. And Jesus the man, who at the same time is God, is the guarantee for us that the being-man and the being-God can exist and live, the one within the other, for eternity.

This means that not only a part of each one of us will continue to exist, as it were pulled to safety, while other parts fall into ruin; on the contrary it means that God knows and loves the whole of the human being, what we are. And God welcomes into his eternity what is developing and becoming now, in our life made up of suffering and love, of hope, joy and sorrow. The whole of man, the whole of his life, is taken by God and, purified in him, receives eternity. Dear Friends! I think this is a truth that should fill us with deep joy. Christianity does not proclaim merely some salvation of the soul in a vague afterlife in which all that is precious and dear to us in this world would be eliminated, but promises eternal life, "the life of the world to come". Nothing that is precious and dear to us will fall into ruin; rather, it will find fullness in God. Every hair of our head is counted, Jesus said one day. The definitive world will also be the fulfilment of this earth, as St Paul says: "Creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Rom 8: 21). Then we understand that Christianity imparts a strong hope in a bright future and paves the way to the realization of this future. We are called, precisely as Christians, to build this new world, to work so that, one day, it may become the "world of God", a world that will surpass all that we ourselves have been able to build. In Mary taken up into Heaven, who fully shares in the Resurrection of the Son, we contemplate the fulfilment of the human creature in accordance with "God's world".

Let us pray the Lord that he will enable us to understand how precious in his eyes is the whole of our life; may he strengthen our faith in eternal life; make us people of hope who work to build a world open to God, people full of joy who can glimpse the beauty of the future world amidst the worries of daily life and in this certainty live, believe and hope. Amen!

Homily by Blessed John Paul II

_{15 August 2001 - in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese & Spanish}

1. "The last enemy to be destroyed is death" (I Cor 15,26).

Paul's words that we have just heard in the Second Reading help us to understand the significance of the solemnity we are celebrating today. Christ's definitive victory over death, which came into the world because of Adam's sin, shines out in Mary, assumed into Heaven at the end of her earthly life. It was Christ, the "new" Adam, who conquered death, offering himself as a sacrifice on Calvary in loving obedience to the Father. In this way he redeemed us from the slavery of sin and evil. In the Virgin's triumph, the Church contemplates her whom the Father chose as the true Mother of his Only-begotten Son, closely associating her with the salvific plan of the Redemption.

This is why Mary, as the liturgy points out, is a consoling sign of our hope. In looking to her, carried up amid the rejoicing of the angelic hosts, the whole of human life, marked by lights and shadows, is opened to the perspective of eternal happiness. If our experience of daily life allows us to feel tangibly that our earthly pilgrimage is under the sign of uncertainty and strife, the Virgin assumed into heavenly glory assures us that we will never lack divine help.

2. "A great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun" (Apoc 12,1). Let us look at Mary, dear brothers and sisters who are gathered here on a day so dear to the devotion of the Christian people. I greet you with deep affection...

Today a great sign appears for us in heaven: the Virgin Mother! The sacred author of the Book of the Apocalypse speaks of her to us in the First Reading. What an extraordinary miracle meets our astonished eyes! Used to looking at earthly realities, we are invited to lift our gaze: to heaven, which is our definitive homeland, where the Blessed Virgin awaits us.

Perhaps, more than in the past, modern man is consumed by material interests and concerns. He seeks security and often feels lonely and anxious. Then what can be said of the enigma of death? Mary's Assumption is an event that concerns us precisely because every human being is destined to die. But death is not the last word. Death - the mystery of the Virgin's Assumption assures us - is the passage to life, the encounter with Love. It is the passage to the eternal happiness in store for those who toil for truth and justice and do their utmost to follow Christ.

3. "Henceforth all generations will call me blessed " (Lk 1,48). This is what the Mother of Christ exclaimed when she met Elizabeth, her elderly kinswoman. Once again the Gospel has just presented the Magnificat to us. It is Our Lady's response to St Elizabeth's prophetic words: "Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord" (Lk 1,45).

In Mary the promise is fulfilled: the Mother is blessed and we her children will be blessed if, like her, we listen to and put into practice the Lord's words.

May today's solemnity open our hearts to this superior view of life. May the Virgin, whom today we contemplate in splendour at her Son's right hand, help contemporary man to live believing "in the fulfilment of the Lord's words".

4. "Today the children of the Church on earth are joyfully celebrating the Virgin's passing to the celestial city, the heavenly Jerusalem" (Laudes et hymni, VI). This is what the Armenian liturgy sings today. I make these words my own, thinking of my apostolic pilgrimage to Kazakhstan and Armenia on which, please God, I shall be setting out in just over a month. To you, Mary, I entrust the success of this new stage in my service to the Church and to the world. I ask you to help believers to be watchmen of the hope that does not disappoint and never to stop proclaiming that Christ is victorious over evil and death. Faithful Woman, enlighten the humanity of our time so that it may understand that every human life is not extinguished in a handful of dust, but is called to a destiny of eternal happiness. Mary, "who are the joy of heaven and of earth", may you watch over and pray for us and for the whole world, now and for ever. Amen!

Homily by Blessed John Paul II

_{1999 - in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese & Spanish}

1. “Magnificat anima mea Dominum”!

Today the pilgrim Church in history joins in the Blessed Virgin Mary’s canticle of exultation; the Church expresses her joy and praises God because the Mother of the Lord enters triumphantly into heavenly glory. The definitive fulfilment of the meaning of the words that Mary spoke in response to Elizabeth’s greeting at Ain-Karin: “He who is mighty has done great things for me” (Lk 1:49), appears in the mystery of her Assumption.

Through the paschal victory that followed Christ’s death, deeply united with the mystery of the Son of God, the Virgin of Nazareth uniquely shared in its saving effects. With her “yes” she fully cooperated with the divine will; she intimately shared in Christ’s mission and was the first to enter into glory after him, in body and soul, in the integrity of her humanity.

Mary’s “yes” becomes joy to all who were in darkness and the shadow of death. Indeed, through her the Lord of life came into the world. Believers rejoice and venerate her as Mother of the children redeemed by Christ. They contemplate her today, in particular, as a “sign of hope and comfort” (Preface) for every person and for every people on the way to the eternal homeland.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us turn our eyes to the Virgin whom the liturgy invites us to invoke as she who breaks the chains of the oppressed, brings light to the blind, drives away every evil and implores every good for us.

2. “Magnificat anima mea Dominum”!

At today’s solemnity the ecclesial community renews Mary’s song of thanksgiving: it does so as the People of God and asks every believer to join in the chorus of praise to the Lord. St Ambrose already urged this in the early centuries: “In each one may the soul of Mary praise the Lord and the spirit of Mary exult in God.” The words of the Magnificat are as it were the spiritual testament of the Virgin Mother. Therefore they quite rightly constitute the heritage of all who, recognizing themselves as her children, decide to welcome her into their homes as did the Apostle John who, at the foot of the Cross, directly received her as Mother from Jesus.

3. “Signum magnum paruit in caelo” (Rv 12:1).

In presenting the “great sign” of the “woman clothed with the sun”, the passage from the Book of Revelation, which has just been proclaimed, says that she “was with child and ... cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery” (Rv 12:2). Mary, when she goes to help her cousin Elizabeth, as we heard in the Gospel, carries in her womb the Saviour, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Both representations of Mary, the historical one described in the Gospel, and the one mentioned in the Book of Revelation symbolize the Church. The fact that the condition of pregnancy, like the impending birth, the perils of the dragon and the abduction of the newborn child “caught up to God and to his throne” (Rv 12:4-5) also belong to the “heavenly” Church contemplated in the Apostle John’s vision, is very eloquent, and in today’s solemnity becomes a reason for deep reflection.

Just as the risen Christ who has ascended into heaven forever bears the wounds of his redemptive death within his glorious body and his merciful heart, so his Mother brings to eternity “the pangs” and “anguish for delivery” (Rv 12:2). And as the Son, through his death, never stops redeeming all who have been begotten by God as his adopted children, thus the new Eve continues from generation to generation to give birth to the new man, “created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph 4:24). This is the Church’s eschatological image, which is present and active in the Virgin.

4. At this moment in history, at the end of a millennium and on the threshold of a new and epochal horizon, this dimension of Mary’s mystery is more significant than ever. Our Lady, taken up into the glory of God among the saints is a sure sign of hope for the Church and for all humanity.

The glory of the Mother is a cause of immense joy to all her children, a joy that knows the far-reaching resonance of the sentiment that is typical of popular piety, even though it cannot be reduced to it. It is, so to speak, a theological joy, firmly rooted in the paschal mystery. In this sense, the Virgin is “causa nostrae laetitiae — the cause of our joy”.

Taken up into heaven, Mary shows us the way to God, the way to heaven, the way to life. She shows it to her children baptized in Christ and to all people of good will. She opens this way especially to the little ones and to the poor, those who are dear to divine mercy. The Queen of the world reveals to individuals and to nations the power of the love of God whose plan upsets that of the proud, pulls down the mighty from their thrones and exalts the humble, fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich empty away.

5. “Magnificat anima mea Dominum”! In this perspective, the Virgin of the Magnificat helps us to understand better the value and meaning of the Great Jubilee now at our door, a favourable time when the universal Church will join in her canticle to praise the wonder of the Incarnation. The spirit of the Magnificat is the spirit of the Jubilee: indeed, in her prophetic canticle, Mary gives voice to the jubilation which fills her heart, because God, her Saviour, has looked upon his humble handmaid.

May this be the spirit of the Church and of every Christian. Let us pray that the Great Jubilee will be in every sense a Magnificat that unites heaven and earth in a canticle of praise and thanksgiving. Amen!

_{© Copyright - Libreria Editrice Vaticana}

Homélie du Bénie Jean Paul II

_{Solennité de l'Assomption de la Bienheureuse Vierge Marie
Lourdes, 15 août 1983 - en français & italien}

1. “Un signe grandiose apparut dans le ciel: une Femme, ayant le soleil pour manteau” (Apoc. 12, 1).

Nous sommes venus aujourd’hui en pèlerinage vers ce Signe. C’est la solennité de l’Assomption au ciel: voici que le Signe atteint sa plénitude. Une femme a pour manteau le soleil de l’inscrutable Divinité. Le soleil de l’impénétrable Trinité. “Pleine de grâce”: elle est pleine du Père et du Fils et de l’Esprit Saint lorsqu’ils se donnent à elle comme un seul Dieu, le Dieu de la création et de la révélation, le Dieu de l’Alliance et de la Rédemption, le Dieu du commencement et de la fin. L’alfa et l’oméga. Le Dieu-Vérité. Le Dieu-Amour. Le Dieu-Grâce. Le Dieu-Sainteté.

Une femme ayant le soleil pour manteau.

Nous faisons aujourd’hui le pèlerinage à ce Signe. C’est le Signe de l’Assomption au ciel, qui s’accomplit au-dessus de la terre et en même temps s’élève à partir de la terre. De cette terre dans laquelle s’est greffé le mystère de l’Immaculée Conception. Aujourd’hui se rencontrent ces deux mystères: l’Assomption au ciel et l’Immaculée Conception. Aujourd’hui se révèle leur complémentarité.

Aujourd’hui, pour la fête de l’Assomption au ciel, nous venons en pèlerinage à Lourdes, où Marie dit à Bernadette: “Je suis l’Immaculée Conception” (Que soy era Immaculada Councepciou).

2. Nous sommes venus ici en raison du Jubilé extraordinaire marquant l’Année de la Rédemption. Nous voulons vivre ce Jubilé près de Marie.

Lourdes est le lieu adapté pour un tel voisinage.

Ici, autrefois, “ la Belle Dame ” parlait avec une simple jeune fille de Lourdes, Bernadette Soubirous, elle récitait avec elle le chapelet, elle la chargeait de certains messages. En venant en pèlerinage à Lourdes, nous voulons entrer de nouveau dans le cadre de cette extraordinaire proximité qui, ici, n’a jamais cessé mais s’est au contraire consolidée.

Cette proximité de Marie constitue comme l’âme de ce sanctuaire.

Nous venons en pèlerinage à Lourdes pour être près de Marie.

Nous venons en pèlerinage à Lourdes pour nous rapprocher du mystère de la Rédemption (Luc. 1, 42-45).

Nul plus que Marie n’est immergé au sein du mystère de la Rédemption. Et nul plus qu’elle ne peut rapprocher de nous ce mystère. Elle se trouve au cœur même du mystère. Nous désirons qu’en l’année du Jubilé extraordinaire batte plus fort en nous le cœur même du mystère de la Rédemption.

C’est pour cela que nous venons ici.

Nous nous trouvons à Lourdes en la solennité de l’Assomption de Marie au ciel, quand l’Eglise proclame la gloire de sa naissance définitive au ciel. Nous voulons - surtout par la liturgie - participer à cette gloire.

Et nous voulons en même temps - par la gloire de sa naissance au ciel - vénérer le moment bienheureux... de sa naissance sur terre. L’Année de la Rédemption 1983 tourne nos pensées et nos cœurs vers ce moment bienheureux.

3. Mais avant tout: la naissance au ciel, l’Assomption au ciel. On peut dire que la liturgie nous montre l’Assomption de Marie au ciel sous trois aspects. Le premier aspect, c’est, dans la maison de Zacharie, la Visitation.

Elisabeth dit: “Tu es bénie entre toutes les femmes, et le fruit de tes entrailles est béni... Heureuse celle qui a cru à l’accomplissement des paroles... du Seigneur.”

Marie a cru aux paroles qui lui étaient dites de la part du Seigneur, et Marie a accueilli le Verbe qui a pris chair en elle et qui est le fruit de ses entrailles.

La Rédemption du monde a été fondée sur la foi de Marie, elle a été liée à son “Fiat” au moment de l’Annonciation. Mais elle a commencé à se réaliser par le fait que “le Verbe s’est fait chair, et il a habité parmi nous” (Jn. 1, 14).

Lors de la Visitation, Marie, au seuil de la maison hospitalière de Zacharie et d’Elisabeth, prononce une phrase qui concernait le début du mystère de la Rédemption. Elle dit: “Le Puissant fit pour moi des merveilles: saint est son nom!” (Luc. 1, 49).

Cette phrase, prise du contexte de la Visitation, s’insère, à travers la liturgie d’aujourd’hui, dans le contexte de l’Assomption. Tout le Magnificat prononcé lors de la Visitation devient, dans la liturgie d’aujourd’hui, l’hymne de l’Assomption de Marie au ciel.

La Vierge de Nazareth a prononcé ces mots alors que, par son œuvre, le Fils de Dieu devait naître sur terre. Avec quelle force ne devrait-elle pas les prononcer à nouveau alors que, par l’œuvre de son Fils, elle-même va naître au ciel!

4. La liturgie de cette fête solennelle nous révèle le deuxième aspect de l’Assomption par les paroles de saint Paul dans sa lettre aux Corinthiens.

L’Assomption de la Mère du Christ au ciel fait partie de la victoire sur la mort, de cette victoire dont le commencement se trouve dans la résurrection du Christ: “Le Christ est ressuscité d’entre les morts, pour être parmi les morts le premier ressuscité” (1Cor. 15, 20).

La mort est l’héritage de l’homme après le péché originel: “Tous meurent en Adam” (1Cor. 15, 22).

La Rédemption accomplie par le Christ a fait dépasser cet héritage: “Tous revivront dans le Christ, mais chacun à son rang: en tête, le Christ, comme prémices, ensuite ceux qui seront au Christ...” (ibid 15, 22-23).

Et qui, plus que sa Mère, appartient au Christ? Qui, plus qu’elle, a été racheté par lui? Qui a coopéré à sa Rédemption de plus près qu’elle ne l’a fait elle-même par son “ Fiat ” à l’Annonciation, et par son “ Fiat ” au pied de la Croix?

Ainsi donc, c’est au cœur même de la Rédemption accomplie par la Croix sur le Calvaire, c’est dans la puissance même de la Rédemption révélée dans la Résurrection, que trouve sa source la victoire sur la mort qu’expérimente la Mère du Rédempteur, c’est-à-dire son Assomption au ciel.

Tel est le deuxième aspect de l’Assomption que nous révèle la liturgie d’aujourd’hui.

5. Le troisième aspect est exprimé par les paroles du psaume responsorial; et c’est le langage poétique de ce psaume qui l’exprime: la fille du roi, vêtue d’étoffes précieuses, entre pour occuper sa place à côté du trône du roi:

“Pour toujours ton trône, ô Dieu, et à jamais!
Sceptre de droiture, le sceptre de ton règne!” (Ps. 44(45), 7).

Dans la Rédemption se renouvelle le Règne de Dieu, commencé par la création même, puis atteint dans le cœur de l’homme par le péché.

Marie, Mère du Rédempteur, est la première à participer à ce règne de gloire et d’union à Dieu dans l’éternité.

Sa naissance au ciel est le commencement définitif de la gloire que les fils et les filles de cette terre doivent atteindre en Dieu même en vertu de la Rédemption du Christ.

En effet, la Rédemption est le fondement de la transformation de l’histoire du cosmos dans le Règne de Dieu.

Marie est la première des rachetés. En elle aussi, a déjà commencé la transformation de l’histoire du cosmos en Règne de Dieu.

C’est cela qu’exprime le mystère de son Assomption au ciel: la naissance au ciel, avec son âme et son corps.

6. Par l’Assomption de la Mère de Dieu au ciel - sa naissance au ciel -, nous désirons honorer le moment bienheureux de sa naissance sur terre.

Beaucoup se posent la question: quand est-elle née? Quand est-elle venue au monde? Cette question, beaucoup se la posent tout spécialement maintenant, alors que s’approche le deuxième millénaire de la naissance du Christ. La naissance de la Mère devait évidemment précéder dans le temps la naissance de son Fils. Ne serait-il donc pas opportun de célébrer d’abord le deuxième millénaire de la naissance de Marie?

L’Eglise se réfère à l’histoire et aux dates historiques lorsqu’elle célèbre les anniversaires et les jubilés (en respectant les précisions que la science lui apporte). Toutefois, le juste rythme des anniversaires et des jubilés est déterminé par l’histoire du salut. Nous tenons avant tout à nous référer dans le temps aux événements qui ont apporté le salut, et non pas seulement à observer, avec une précision historique, le moment de ces événements.

En ce sens, nous acceptons que le jubilé de la Rédemption de cette année se réfère - après 1950 ans - à l’événements du Calvaire, c’est-à-dire à la mort et à la résurrection du Christ. Mais toute l’attention de l’Eglise est concentrée avant tout sur l’événement salvifique (en plus de la considération de la date), et non sur la seule date historique.

En même temps, nous soulignons constamment que le jubilé extraordinaire de cette année prépare l’Eglise au grand jubilé du second millénaire (l’an 2000). Sous cet aspect, notre Année de la Rédemption revêt également le caractère d’un Avent: elle nous introduit dans l’attente du jubilé de la venue du Seigneur.

Mais l’Avent est tout particulièrement le temps de Marie. C’est en elle seule que l’attente du genre humain tout entier, en ce qui concerne la venue du Christ, atteint son point culminant. Elle porte cette attente à sa plénitude: la plénitude de l’Avent.

Par le jubilé de la Rédemption de cette année, nous désirons entrer dans cet Avent. Nous désirons participer à l’attente de Marie, Vierge de Nazareth. Nous désirons que, dans le jubilé de cet événement salvifique, qui a un caractère d’Avent, soit présente aussi sa propre venue, sa propre naissance sur terre.

Oui, la venue de Marie dans le monde est le commencement de l’Avent salvifique.

Et c’est pourquoi nous faisons le pèlerinage de Lourdes: non seulement pour honorer, par la solennité de l’Assomption, la naissance de Marie au ciel, mais aussi pour honorer le moment bienheureux de sa naissance sur terre (Apoc. 12, 4).

Nous venons en pèlerinage à Lourdes, où Marie (“la belle Dame”) a dit à Bernadette: “Je suis l’Immaculée Conception” (Que soy era Immaculada Councepciou).

Par ces mots, elle a exprimé le mystère de sa naissance sur terre comme un événement salvifique très étroitement lié à la Rédemption, et lié à l’Avent.

7. Belle Dame!
O Femme qui as le soleil pour manteau!
Reçois notre pèlerinage en cette année d’Avent du jubilé de la Rédemption.

Aide-nous, par la lumière de ce jubilé, à pénétrer ton mystère:
- le mystère de la Vierge Mère,
- le mystère de la Reine Servante,
- le mystère de la Toute puissance qui se fait suppliante.

Aide-nous à découvrir toujours plus pleinement, en ce mystère, le Christ,
Rédempteur du monde, Rédempteur de l’homme.

Tu as le soleil pour manteau, le soleil de l’inscrutable Divinité, le soleil de l’impénétrable Trinité. “Pleine de grâce” jusqu’aux limites de l’Assomption au ciel!

Et en même temps...
pour nous qui vivons sur cette terre, pour nous, pauvres fils d’Eve en exil, tu as pour manteau le soleil du Christ depuis Bethléem et Nazareth, depuis Jérusalem et le Calvaire. Tu es revêtue du soleil de la Rédemption de l’homme et du monde par la croix et la Résurrection de ton Fils.

Fais que ce soleil resplendisse sans cesse pour nous sur cette terre!
Fais qu’il ne s’obscurcisse pas dans l’âme des hommes!
Fais qu’il éclaire les chemins terrestres de l’Eglise dont tu es la première figure!
Et que l’Eglise, en fixant le regard sur toi, Mère du Rédempteur, apprenne sans cesse elle-même à être mère!

Regarde! Voici ce que dit le livre de l’Apocalypse: “ Le Dragon se tenait devant la femme qui allait enfanter, afin de dévorer l’enfant dès sa naissance.”

O Mère qui, dans ton Assomption au ciel, as expérimenté la plénitude de la victoire sur la mort de l’âme et du corps, défends les fils et les filles de cette terre contre la mort de l’âme! O Mère de l’Eglise!

Devant l’humanité qui semble toujours fascinée par ce qui est temporel - et alors que la “domination sur le monde” cache la perspective du destin éternel de l’homme en Dieu -, sois toi-même un témoin de Dieu!

Toi, sa Mère.
Qui peut résister au témoignage d’une mère?
Toi qui es née pour les fatigues de cette terre: conçue de façon immaculée!
Toi qui es née pour la gloire du ciel! Montée au ciel!
Toi qui es revêtue du soleil de l’insondable Divinité, du soleil de l’impénétrable Trinité,
remplie du Père, du Fils et de l’Esprit Saint!

Toi à qui la Trinité se donne comme un seul Dieu, le Dieu de la création et de la Révélation! Le Dieu de l’Alliance et de la Rédemption. Le Dieu du commencement et de la fin. L’alfa et l’oméga. Le Dieu-Vérité. Le Dieu-Amour. Le Dieu-Grâce. Le Dieu-Sainteté. Le Dieu qui surpasse tout et qui embrasse tout. Le Dieu qui est “tout en tous”.

Toi qui as pour manteau le soleil! Notre Mère! Sois le témoin de Dieu!...
- devant le monde du millénaire qui se termine.
- devant nous, fils d’Eve en exil,
sois le témoin de Dieu! Amen.

Saint Aelred of Rielvaux's 2nd sermon for the Assumption

"From now on will all ages call me blessed"

_{If Saint Mary Magdalene – who had been a sinner and from whom the Lord had cast out 7 demons – merited to be glorified by him to the extent that her praise abides for ever among the assembly of the saints, who can measure the extent to which "the upright rejoice and dance for joy in the presence of the Lord" with regard to holy Mary, who knew not man? ... If the apostle Peter – who was not only unable to watch for one hour with Christ but who even went so far as to deny him – afterwards won such favour that the keys of the Kingdom of heaven were entrusted to him, of what praises is holy Mary not worthy, who bore the king of angels himself in her womb, he whom the heavens cannot contain? If Saul, who "breathed murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord"... was the object of such mercy... that he was "caught up to the third heaven, whether in the body or out of the body", it is not surprising that the holy Mother of God – who stayed beside her son through all the trials he endured from his cradle onwards – should have been lifted up to heaven, even in her body, and exalted high above the choirs of angels.}

_{If there is "joy in heaven before the angels over one sinner who repents", who can tell what joyful and lovely praises rise up before God concerning holy Mary who never sinned?... Indeed, if those who "once were darkness" and have now become "light in the Lord" "will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father", who is able to tell "the eternal weight of glory" of holy Mary, who came into the world "like dawn arising, beautiful as the moon, resplendent as the sun" and of whom was born "the true light which enlightens everyone coming into the world"? Moreover, since our Lord said: "Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am there will my servant also be", where do we think his mother must be who served him with such eagerness and fidelity? If she followed him and obeyed him even to death, no one can wonder that now, more than anyone else, she "follows the Lamb wherever he goes".}