Assumption 2022
At the end of the Hail Mary, we ask Mary to “pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death”. Mary’s presence at our side, her spiritual motherhood are always of foremost importance, but most especially at two moments: now – this very moment, the only one which is given us to turn to God and do good – and the hour of our death – when we shall not be able to do good any more, but we hope to turn to God’s mercy with humble trust.
The Hail Mary speaks of the “hour” of our death. It is the way Jesus spoke of his own death. At Cana, He declared to His mother that His “hour had not yet come” (Jn 2:4). But later, praying to His Father on the eve of His crucifixion, He solemnly declared: “Father, the hour has come” (Jn 17:1). At the foot the Cross, at this very hour, Mary, His mother was present. Jesus’ last decision was to entrust all His disciples, whom John, the Beloved Disciple, represented, to her maternal care. Just as Mary belonged to the ‘hour’ of Jesus as His mother, she belongs to our ‘hour’ as our mother.
An hour is awaiting each of us and, at this hour, we hope to be able to put our soul into the hands of our Father, while we ask for Mary’s presence at our side. It will be a time of birth – a new birth to a new life. Already, through Baptism, we have been made participants in Jesus’ death in the hope of partaking of His resurrection too. Mary, the Mother of Life, will be with us, not only as a consoling presence, but as an active helper. She will “pray for us” and her intercession will help us to pass from this life to the life of God. She will lead us through death into the world of the resurrection.
Mary is not afraid of death and she has never been. From the start, she has always fully been on the side of life and incorruptibility. She belonged to the Resurrection from the moment of her conception. Jesus declares that the “ruler of this world […] has no power over” Him (Jn 14:30). Similarly, he has never had any power over Mary. By her Immaculate Conception, she was freed of any complicity with sin and death. As we heard in the first reading from the Apocalypse, she can be recognised in the woman who is attacked by the dragon, but always escapes together with her son. We, too, are children of this woman. We share in her faith. We acknowledge her as our mother. She leads us into life. We escape the Evil one by clinging to her. When her Child is “caught up to God and to His throne”, in His Ascension, and when she goes to the “place prepared by God” for her, in her Assumption, we follow them in hope. When our hour comes, we trust that she will help us to “depart from this world to the Father” (Jn 13:1) with confidence and love.
Today, now, in this very moment, we learn, with Jesus and Mary, how to live in faith and how to die in hope. We marvel at the great sign of Mary’s Assumption and we give thanks for it. In Mary, divine life is victorious over death. Her body partakes of Christ’s resurrection. She is given the “victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”, her Son and her God. This is nothing other than the victory of divine love. Mary knew and believed “the love God has for us” (1 Jn 4:16). This is the sign she gives us now: Love alone is victorious. Love alone can save us and the world. Let us too believe, hope and love, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.