Feast of the Assumption
August 2008
Today is the feast of the Assumption of Mary, the mother of Jesus of Nazareth.
To understand these doctrines better it is good to take the Immaculate Conception of Mary and the Assumption of Mary, together, as parts of the one process.
The Immaculate Conception means that from the first moment of her conception in her mother’s womb Mary was free from Original Sin - that is the inclination towards and the facility for wrongdoing which is part of every human being.
The Assumption means that when the course of her earthly life was finished, Mary was taken up body and soul into Eternal Life.
This is not to say that Mary has been given what we will not get.
Mary is the first fruit of the salvific life, death and resurrection of Her Son, Jesus Christ.
She was the first disciple, the first Apostle. The Mother of the Saviour and the Mother of his Church.
She was the first to share in the freedom from sin won for us by Jesus Christ.
She too was the first to share in the great promise of Resurrection and Eternal Life.
What she was the first to receive we too will receive at the proper time.
In Mary we now see and contemplate what we as individuals, and what we as the Church, will be in Eternal Life.
In Mary we see and understand that what we see in Jesus of Nazareth, who was God made Man, we also see in a purely human being who was his first disciple and his mother.
What was given to Mary will also be given to us.