The Assumption of the Virgin

The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Revelation 11:19, 12:1-6, 10; Psalm 45; 1 Corinthians 15:20-26; Luke 1:39-56

“At exactly fifteen minutes past eight in the morning, on August 6, 1945, Japanese time, at the moment when the atomic bomb flashed above Hiroshima, Miss Toshiko Sasaki, a clerk in the personnel department of the East Asia Tin Works, had just sat down at her place in the plant office and was turning her head to speak to the girl at the next desk.”

This is the first sentence to John Hersey’s report that appeared in The New Yorker magazine issued 31 August 1946. Our government initially tried to downplay and cover up the horrifying effects of the atomic bomb on humans and how radiation continued to kill in gruesome ways. Yet because of John Hersey we know what the aftermath of a nuclear blast looks like because he showed us. People could relate to Hersey’s firsthand account of six people who lived through the bombing of Hiroshima.

An event that was incomprehensible in its horror and callousness was brought home through personal stories.

Equivalent is the summation of the Vietnam War through the Pulitzer Prize winning photograph by Nick Ut taken on 8 June 1972 showing a nine year old girl running naked on a road after being severely burned by a napalm attack. Informally referred to as the Napalm girl, today we know her as Phan Thi Kim Phuc, a South Vietnamese-born Canadian woman.

The faceless, impersonal aspects of war given a name and persona.

And so in our own day. An agonizing 8 minutes and 15 seconds of video. We all watched a man killed before our eyes with no one doing anything about it but to make a video of the agony.  Centuries of history, slavery, bigotry and racism that still exist among us was distilled to one person. His name is George Floyd.

There are events, ideas and beliefs so great and incomprehensible in their horror or wonder that they remain out of our reach until made human and personal. This is true of our belief about Mary of Nazareth.  We believe that the Virgin Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven, the Assumption.

What are we to make of this doubly wondrous yet horrifying image of a woman enveloped by an expanding universe of constellations, planets and stars painfully giving birth and a devouring multi-headed red dragon? It reminds me of photos from the Hubble Space Telescope of two galaxies colliding.

Like Hersey’s report, Nick Ut’s photo or an anonymously taken video, this cosmic image is brought within our grasp by a story of an encounter of two pregnant women, Mary and Elizabeth. A homey image of cousins from different generations meeting to share and celebrate the new life within each one of them.

How does this encounter reveal to us the meaning and significance of our belief in the Assumption of the Virgin Mary?

Consider. Is there anything more earthy, bodily, fleshly, and physical than a pregnant woman? In other words, is there any experience more human than a woman about to give birth and bring for new life?

The Assumption of the Virgin Mary is about God birthing us into new life not beyond our bodies but through and in our bodies. That birthing took place through the painful and tortuous physical death of his Son Jesus on the cross in blood and water. Jesus as a mother birthing us into eternity.

The death and resurrection of Jesus is what Paul speaks about when he writes that Christ is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. It is therefore most auspicious that we gather in a cemetery for Eucharist. We are surrounded by our fellow parishioners who are asleep here awaiting for what we believe Mary of Nazareth already experiences. The Resurrection of Christ, the Assumption of the Virgin, these tombs awaiting to be open in the fullness of God’s Reign is our hope and a sign of our future.

The Assumption therefore is a clear denunciation of how we have and continue to treat each other through the continued use of war as a means to settling our differences, the selling and buying of human beings, the inability, or it is the unwillingness, to address people suffering from mental illness and those caught in the cycles of poverty, the manner in which we treat women, people of darker skin colours and sexual orientations, the use of pornography, sexual, emotional and physical violence toward each other, bullying, elder abuse, or worse, through neglect believing these people are someone else’s problem.

The Assumption challenges us to change our attitudes and lives so as to pattern them according to Jesus Christ. Red, multi-headed devouring dragons are real and are destroying people’s lives in their present humanity and personal situations. It is their brokenness and pain that was taken up on the cross and will be taken up and glorified in heaven. But that can never be an excuse for our non-response because…

because they have names: Miss Toshiko Sasaki, Dr. Masakazu Fujii, Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura, Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge, Dr. Terfumi Sasaki, The Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto, Phan Thi Kim Phuc, George Floyd…the incomprehensible sins of humanity made tangible and understandable.

Mary of Nazareth, Elizabeth of Judah and their unborn sons… the incomprehensible wonder of God made tangible and within reach.

Hiroshima by John Hersey, Vintage; Reprint edition (March 4, 1989)

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PLEASE NOTE: Homilies presented here are also being videotaped and put up on the Saint Mary, Oneonta website: http://www.SMCCOneonta.org.