Mary: A Sign of Our Resurrection
Homily for the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary
Is there life after death? Surely this is one of the most profound questions that we human beings ask. Very often this question is asked in connection with some kind of discussion on the existence of God. For instance, if we say that God exists then we might naturally move to the statement that there is life after death. That might be overly simplistic, but the alternative deduction is absolutely true, that there can be no life after death if God does not exist.
Related to this question, we might ask what this life after death might look like and what do we have to do to experience this life after death. For many people these days, those who would consider themselves to be religious and those who do not practice religion, there is just the presumption of some kind of spiritual existence after death.
Whether a person doubts the existence of God or not, or if a person is somehow living life on their own terms without the practice of faith, nothing challenges us more than having to confront the issue of death and what happens after death, when facing the passing of our loved ones. At these times we are forced to consider what has happened to them and in a profound sense, we are reminded of our own mortality.
Truly, all human beings, including all of us, have a one hundred per cent mortality rate. As the quote goes, “Death is a certainty, an inevitable realization, the only thing that we know will befall us. There are no exceptions, no surprises: all paths lead to it. Everything we do is a preparation for it.
The Catholic spiritual tradition teaches us the merit of pondering the inevitability of our own deaths. This is meant to give us perspective and remind us that this life is a crucial preparation for the life to come. None of us knows when our time will come, but our daily recognition of our mortality is meant to connect us to the seriousness and importance of this life.
This does not mean a macabre or morbid or depressed frame of mind. Rather, life is beautiful and glorious and a tremendous gift which is not to be taken for granted. We are created for life, yes, but life is so much more than this temporal life of seventy years or eighty for those who are strong, as the verse in the Psalms says. In fact, the Catholic spiritual tradition teaches us to enjoy the good things of this life, but at the same time to keep things in the perspective of eternity.
One of the profound ways in which we are reminded of this is in the Hail Mary prayer which we pray so often. The last line goes, “Pray for us sinners now, and the hour of our death.” Every time we pray this prayer we are reminding ourselves of our mortality and that this life is a preparation for the life to come. We are asking Mary’s help to be prepared for death.
This focus on death and the afterlife might seem a strange topic for a homily on this joyful Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven, but actually, the truth of this teaching about Mary speaks directly into our having the face the reality of death, of how we can be prepared for death, and of what follows death. The Assumption of Mary is rooted in our fundamental belief that we are saved from eternal death by the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus. The Gospel of joy is that God so loved us that he sent his only Son, so that all who believe in him might not die but may have eternal life.
Mind you, believing in Jesus so that we may have eternal life is so much more than just a passive insurance policy that we keep under our pillows for when needed, and which makes no demands on us. Rather, believing is an active, ongoing process of growing in faith and love of God. As St Paul says to remind us of the deadly sin of presumption: “We need to continue to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.”
The Assumption of Mary teaches us about the reality of life after death and what that life will look like. The Assumption of Mary is that at the end of her life, she was taken up into Heaven, body and soul, to be the first of all Christians to experience the resurrection of the dead, which is made possible because of the Resurrection of Jesus.
The human person is a unity of body and soul. We believe in the resurrection of the body; indeed we profess this belief every time we say the Creed. Mary is the one follower of Jesus to share in his resurrection before the second coming. So, today’s feast is also a celebration of our own destiny as human beings. Mary assumed into Heaven is a sign of our hope to be raised from the dead. Mary has gone before us; where she has gone we hope to follow.
The resurrection from the dead means that we will be more than just souls floating around in heaven. Our bodies will be raised and reunited with our souls. We cannot begin to imagine what our resurrected bodies will look like, but we have some hints in the risen Jesus when he appeared to his disciples after his Resurrection and before his Ascension. Remember the tomb of Jesus was empty on the first Easter Sunday. Remember that Mary was assumed body and soul into Heaven.
In the second reading from the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians, we see the clear conviction of the early Church that Jesus was raised from the dead, and that through his victory over death, we will share in his bodily resurrection when he comes again. In the end, death will be destroyed by Christ. The reading says that Christ was the first to rise from the dead, and after him, will come those who belong to him. Is it not right that after Jesus, the first should be his mother, who participated so closely in his work of saving us, and who consecrated herself so perfectly to God?
Hope is so important to who we are as human beings. It is a driving force within each of us; it keeps us going and looking forward. Our hope speaks of our ultimate purpose and destiny. Our hope sums up who we are and who we will be. Now, the hope that we cling to as Christians is summed up in the Resurrection of Jesus and the promise of our own resurrection. The recurring chorus of hope within us is that death is not our destiny. We are invited to participate in the resurrection of Jesus for eternal life.
This Christian hope is beautifully summarised by one of the preface prayers we use at Requiem Masses which says that “those saddened by the certainty of dying ... [are] consoled by the promise of immortality to come. Indeed for your faithful, Lord, life is changed not ended, and, when this earthly dwelling turns to dust, an eternal dwelling is made ready for them in heaven.”
Today’s celebration of the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary speaks to that promise of immortality that we hope for. Our final Christian hope is the resurrection and glorification of our bodies for eternal life. Mary, the new ark of the covenant, the heavenly woman, is given to us as a sign and hope of resurrection. Mary is the woman of faith, the one who hears the Word of God and puts it into practice. She is the one whom Elizabeth prophetically proclaimed to be blessed because she believed what God had promised her. She shows us the active life of faith that we need to live as disciples of Jesus, in order to enter into this eternal life.
Mary has already participated in the resurrection of Jesus. This is also our final destiny. Mary is a sign of our hope to be raised from the dead. Let us imitate Mary as our model of Christian discipleship, on our journey to this hope, and ask her, as our mother, for her intercession now and at the hour of our death.