The Assumption: Honoring a Queen
By Caitlin Bootsma
Consultant to the VIRTUS® Programs
In Italy, there is an actual term for a vacation that is centered around the Feast of the Assumption. Ferragosto is a
national holiday that takes place on August 15. Italians often take weeks of time off work around this date, sometimes even the entire month of August. Besides giving Italians an opportunity to escape work and the hot weather, the Feast of Assumption recalls how a mere mortal like us is now living, body and soul, as the Queen of Heaven.
The Assumption of Mary certainly deserves this exulted date in the liturgical calendar. After all, she is the only human (besides Jesus Christ, of course) who has not only her soul, but also her body, in Heaven.
It is not only the children in your life, but also adults, who may wonder why we affirm that Mary is an exception to the general rule that men and women will be separated at death from their bodies.
In 1950, when he defined the dogma of the Assumption, Blessed Pope Pius XII explained that the reason for the Assumption is very closely linked to the Immaculate Conception. When most of us die, our body remains on earth and goes through a normal process of decay. This decay is a result of the original sin of Adam and Eve. We are restored to grace and welcomed to heaven through our baptisms, the other sacraments, lives of virtue and, ultimately, the death and Resurrection of Christ. However, we are taught that full victory over death will not be achieved until the end of time. At the end of the world, we believe, we will be reunited with our bodies as a sign of the everlasting triumph of Christ over sin and death.
Mary is the exception precisely because, through her Immaculate Conception, she was born without any stain of sin. She is called the New Eve because she did not suffer the effects of Original Sin. Therefore, when she died, her body was not subject to decay. Just as we meditate in the fourth and fifth Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary, Tradition holds that God the Father assumed Mary, body and soul, into Heaven. There, he crowned her as Queen of Heaven and Earth.
The Assumption holds two important lessons for us and for those to whom we teach and minister. The first, of course, is that Mary is our Queen. We look to her for help and guidance precisely because she chose to follow the Lord every moment of her life. She is where we wish to be—united forever with the Lord in Heaven. It is for this reason that the Catechism says that "she is our Mother in the order of grace" (Catechism, 966). In the words of the Salve Regina, we can pray for her help:
Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee to we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn, then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.
Leader: Pray for us, O holy Mother of God.
Response: That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.
The Salve Regina names Mary as "our hope," which signals the second important lesson of the Assumption. Mary's Assumption is a reminder that the Lord desires that each one of us spend Eternal Life with Him. Only Mary was immaculately conceived, but each of us is being called into an eternal relationship with Christ.
As we consider the miraculous story and images of Mary being taken up into Heaven, we should recall our own mortality. When we die, will we be ready to join Jesus, Mary and the saints in the Heaven? August 15 is an opportunity to remember, once again, that we only have one earthly life to live. If we desire Heaven, and rely on the Lord, He will give us the graces we need to live with Him forever.
Mary, Queen of Heaven and Earth, pray for us!
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