Days of obligation for solemnities like Ascension, All Saints, Christmas and the Assumption of Mary have a teaching about an important aspect of our faith.
To begin with, the Assumption of Mary into heaven was proclaimed as a dogma of faith in 1950.
A dogma is defined as a divinely revealed truth, proclaimed as such by the infallible teaching authority of the Church, and hence binding now and forever on all the faithful.
It means to say that though the Scriptures do not explicitly say that Mary was assumed into heaven body and soul, the Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit defined the truth of this age-old belief.
It is through the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus, Mary entered heaven, body and soul.
So where Mary had gone, there too is our destiny
That is what we are celebrating and thanking God for.
That our bodies, like Mary’s, are the temples of the Holy Spirit,
And though our bodies may be apparently destroyed by death but yet we are destined to rise again.
That brings us to reflect on the dignity of the human body.
In today’s world, the human body has lost much of its dignity through sexual exploitation, genocide, starvation and terrorist attacks on the innocent.
Faced with so much distress and despair, we are called to face this injustice to humanity with the faith of Mary.
Mary’s hymn of the Magnificat proclaims that God will come to the help of His people.
That God will even do great things for us and through us.
This Mass is not about a commemoration of a proclamation of a dogma.
Rather it is a celebration of faith, faith in our eternal destiny.
We celebrate our faith in the promises that God made to Mary and to us.
And blessed too are we who believe that these promises will be fulfilled.