On this cool, cloudy day approximately 3,000 Catholics gathered to celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma. Approximately 30 priests and deacons concelebrated. These large liturgical gatherings are a powerful testimony of Fatih. I am extremely grateful to those who coordinated this beautiful Mass and especially to those who spent this Saturday morning in prayer with us! Below you can find the homily.
Thanks to Stephen Brashear, Kate DeWeese and Selena Abounader for the photos!
Today we celebrate the Assumption of our Blessed Mother body and soul into heaven. Recalling this blessed event we are strengthened in our hope for what God intends for every human life: not erasure, not isolation, not domination, not disposal, but communion, dignity and glory in Christ. On this Solemnity we know that every human person’s true destiny is in God.
Mary is not simply taken away from the world. She is taken fully into the promise of Christ’s Resurrection. Mary’s Assumption teaches us that human dignity has a face, a body, a name, a history and a destiny.
The Book of Revelation gives us an image of a woman in travail, a mother standing amid conflict, a sign of life threatened by forces of destruction. Does this not describe the situation of far too many people in our world today? And yet, this is why Mary remains close to us. She stands with every mother fleeing war, every family without a home, every person whose life is treated as a problem rather than a gift.
The dragon in the Book of Revelation gives language for the forces that devour life and human dignity. War always begins by making some lives seem expendable. The Assumption tells us that the human body is not made for destruction, but for resurrection. Pope Leo XIV in his latest encyclical challenges all of us to actively engage in re-building our society as a city where God dwells with humanity.
Mary’s Assumption is the fruit of Christ’s Resurrection which St. Paul speaks of in the Letter to the Corinthians. Mary’s Assumption is not her own personal triumph but rather a great sign of what happens when a life is wholly open to grace. In Mary we see what Christ’s Resurrection is already doing in humanity. The human person, created by God and redeemed by Christ is destined not for abandonment but for communion with God for all eternity.
Luke’s Gospel which we just proclaimed reveals that Mary’s Assumption begins with the Visitation. Mary, filled with grace, goes in haste to visit Elizabeth, another person in need. This is the shape of our Christian dignity. Our knowledge of God’s love for us leads us to recognize the suffering of others and to act. This is how God lifts up the lowly, fills the hungry, remembers his mercy. We are the ones God intends to use in addressing homelessness, war, violence, polarization, isolation and the mental stress so prevalent in the world today. Mary’s hymn of praise is the hope of a woman who knows that God’s mercy enters history and overturns every system that denigrates human dignity, especially that of the poor.
Mary is not the exception that makes her distant from us but rather she is the fulfillment that reveals what God intends for us!
In closing, I offer an image. Our new statue of the Blessed Mother which was recently placed in the chapel of our retreat center depicts Mary holding the child Jesus. Tenderness is the word that comes to mind. The child reaches toward Mary’s face. This is not merely a beautiful image. It is a proclamation of the Gospel. God has entered our humanity, taken a human body, a face, human tenderness, vulnerability, and Mary teaches us how to receive him.
So, let us go to Mary. Allow her to teach us how to receive Christ. How to hold Christ, how to listen to Christ so we may better recognize him in every person.
Today in the Assumption, we celebrate that this same body of Mary, the body that carried Christ, the arms that held him, the heart that pondered his word, the feet that went in haste to visit Elizabeth, the eyes that watched him suffer, is now taken into heavenly glory.
My dear friends, the human body is not for destruction. Human dignity is not for denigration. If we learn from Mary how to receive Christ in his humanity, then we must also learn how to reverence the humanity of every person.
Mary is fully human because she is open to God. She gives herself completely to God in love. This is the demonstration of what it means to be profoundly human.
Let us ask the Blessed Mother to bring us to Christ that we may reach the fullness of our own humanity; individually as we grow in holiness, but most especially as a human family as we seek to build the city of God here on earth.
Mary, Queen of Peace,
Pray for us!
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