The Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary

August 15, 2020

Luke 1:39-45

Often, we, Catholics, are accused of overemphasizing Mary in our faith, liturgy, and even our daily lives. The usual objections are: “Why do we should see Mary if we can go directly to Jesus? Why should there be Mary between you and Jesus?”

These kinds of objections follow from the underlying presupposition that salvation is only about Jesus and me. We just need Jesus, and the rest are obstacles to Jesus. We do not need the Church, the saints, and especially Mary. These are excess baggage that has to be removed so that we can fly quickly to God. While we might be saved with this faith, but this is a narrow, individualistic, and even pompous view of faith, and more fundamentally, it is not kind of faith that God of the Bible teaches us.

In the Bible, God lays down the foundation for our salvation which is through His family. The primary keyword is covenant [or even translated as testament]. It is a solemn agreement to unite two parties into a family. God invited Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David and their families to be part of God’s family and salvation may be available for these people. And in the fullness of time, Jesus, the Son of God, forged a new and eternal covenant with God on behalf of humanity and entire cosmos. We are saved through the family of Jesus, the kingdom of God.

If we call God as our Father, then we are brothers and sisters in the family of God. If we are brothers and sisters, we have responsibility for one another’s salvation. The saints ceaselessly love and pray for us because they are our holy brethren in heaven, and want us to join them. Their presence does not in any way hinder our gaze on Jesus because precisely the more we see them, the more we see God’s perfection. If we can appreciate the mountains or oceans as work of God’s power and beauty, the more we shall appreciate the saints as supernatural masterpieces of God.

Chief among the saints is Mother Mary. She is the type-A of a human perfected by God’s grace. The more we see Mary, who she is and what she has become, the more we come closer to God in awe and adoration. If God can do great things to Mary, He will do the same to us. If God can redeem Mary perfectly, He will redeem us as well. If God can bring Mary to heaven, He will bring us also to heaven. And as the great sister in faith, she has even the utmost responsibility to bring us closer to God. She prays for us the hard; even she prays harder for those people who hate her.

St. Luke masterfully narrates how Mary, as the new ark of the covenant, brings Jesus in her womb to Elisabeth and John the Baptist. We also notice Elizabeth does not separate the two. When she sees Mary, she recognizes the Lord, and when she is aware of God’s presence, she acknowledges the sacred bearer, Mary. Through Jesus who is in Mary, Elizabeth and John are able to discover their authentic joy.

Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP