Dominican Vocations

	DOMINICAN VOCATIONS PROVINCE OF THE ASSUMPTION

Site map	Homily for the Assumption, Evening Prayer I (2005)	Br Vincent Magat, O.P.
Home News -------------------------- Welcome Benedict XVI Master -------------------------- History Introduction St Dominic's gift Australia --------------------------- Order Discernment Formation Dominican habit Novitiate Studentate --------------------------- Life Introduction Four pillars Apostolate --------------------------- People Dominican saints Our brethren --------------------------- Resources Lectio Divina Links Prayer Reading --------------------------- Site dedication	Assumption What often happens when we are in love is that we begin to see things about the Beloved, which others simply cannot see. It is not a matter of rosed glasses or an undue overflowing of sentimentality, but rather a result of contemplation, of beholding the Beloved and joining that person, that soul, to our own. Throughout the centuries of the Church, the Virgin Mary has not only been the Blessed Virgin, but above all, the Beloved Virgin. Men, both low and high, rich and poor alike, have found in their intense love for the Mother of God ever new ways of addressing her, of extolling her virtues and of making these public for other to see. One only need to open the Marian sacramentary to find masses written under the title of Temple of the Lord, Seat of Wisdom or Mediatrix of Grace. Every encyclical of the late Holy Father ended with a paragraph on Our Lady. Apparitions too have been multiplying, from the genuine to the downright ridiculous, such as Our Lady of the Broken Fence Post in Coogee Beach, Sydney. However there does come a point when compliments and expressions of love become so particular to a given relationship between two persons, as to be made almost meaningless to the rest of us. And thus while we could forever address the Blessed Virgin under new titles and in new guises these would with time move from the meaningless to the ridiculous. The Church presents to us today a feast that speaks not only about the Blessed Virgin but also about our own lives and our existence as the Church of God. As we know, most dogmas have been defined in response to a heresy. The Dogma of the Assumption too strikes at the heart of a rather popular heresy, one that has been with us since the time of Christ and still flourishes today, it’s most memorable summary coming from Martin Luther when he declared that man, and even a man redeemed, is nothing but a pile of dung covered with snow. For it is easy to think of Christ’s humanity as undefiled in virtue of the Hypostatic Union, but as for the rest of us, we seem forever lost in the mire of flesh and sin even to the point that Christ’s work of Redemption can only save despite our persisting nature, rather than through a redemption of that nature. In the Assumption however, we can recognize with certainty the glory of our present humanity. Without doubt it is a glory entirely dependent on the gracious acts of God, but nonetheless in the Assumption we can see that God does not need to do violence to our human nature in order for a human being to be acceptable to God. Luther must have thought that the change required to make a person fit for the kingdom of Heaven would be so drastic, that the personhood could not survive such a change. But, what our feasts brings to focus, is that this life already, as we live it, can be the beginning of our sharing in heaven, or conversely, in hell. Of course we cannot speak about the redemption of human flesh without speaking about the redemption of other fleshly realities, namely the ways in which human beings live together, and above all, worship together. The Blessed Virgin has long been regarded as an image or type of the Church and therefore the Assumption has to make some contribution in this regard too. Therefore the Church, like the Virgin, can be proclaimed immaculate from the beginning of her existence, and despite being afflicted with the the weakness of her members, she too shall remain pure to the end. Similarly, as the body of the Virgin was assumed into heaven, so too the Church’s hierarchy, far from being a necessary evil, shall persist into eternity, in virtue of the priesthood being forever. Finally, in the Assumption, there is also to be found a prophetic dimension. It is simple to see the parallels between the Blessed Virgin and the Church in the episodes of the Gospel, while the former by her “yes” to God has opened salvation for all peoples, the later is an effective sign of this salvation in the world; the former brought forth Christ from her womb, the Church brings forth the children of God through the sacrament of Baptism. The Virgin stood upon the mountain when Christ was crucified, and so too the Church finds the highpoint of her life in the celebration of the Eucharist. The assumption however shifts our focus to the end of the Virgin’s life and therefore also to the life of the Church at the end of times. And for as long as the debate on whether the Virgin died before she was assumed or not will continue, we can also debate whether the Church will be alive at the end of times. Certainly, the gates of hell shall never overcome her and the Assumption assures us that the purity of the faith will not be compromised. But many an apocalyptic novel surely finishes with the death of the last apostle, the last bishop or even the last priest and it is only then that the trumpet sounds. This trumpet however will not signal doom, but for the Church to awake and be assumed into her glory.