"AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER"

ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

Rev. 11:19a; 12:1–6a, 10ab; Ps.45, 1 Cor. 15:20–27; Luke 1:39–56

“And they lived happily ever after.” These words are the classical ending that we usually hear to end the fairy tales told by our parents or teachers when we were young. However, these words also express our human desire to be victorious in the end; to be able to finish life’s journey not only with flying colors but with inner joy and self-fulfillment. And our readings today invite us to look at victory from another point of view.

In our first reading, John presented us with the image of a woman clothed with the sun, wailing aloud in pain since she was about to give birth, and the dragon standing before the woman waiting to devour her child. Yet the story ended victorious, for after giving birth “the child was caught up to God and his throne. And the woman went to the place prepared for her.”

In our second reading, Paul tells the Corinthians that Christ has been raised from the dead. They must not fear, for Christ will destroy every enemy even death. Thus, every one of us in the end will experience the victory of the Resurrection.

In our Gospel today, Mary sings her Magnificat to the Father. Her poetic outburst echoes the language of victory that she has experienced in her life. “He lifts up the lowly. He fills the hungry with good things. He has remembered his promise of mercy.”

Lumen Gentium, in the chapter on Our Lady, quotes Pope Pius XII’s Apostolic Constitution, Munificentissimus Deus, that proclaimed the Dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, “that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heaven.” Lumen Gentium continues by again quoting  Pope Pius XII that gives us the reason for Mary’s Assumption: “that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.” She who was “full of grace” from the first moment of her conception, through whom “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,” who “stood at the foot of the Cross,” now shares in the glory of the Resurrection.

Looking at the three readings and our Solemnity today, we realize that true victory comes when we share in the passion, death, and Resurrection of Jesus. Only when we recognize the presence of Christ Crucified and Risen in our lives can we experience the victorious words of Elizabeth to Mary, “Blessed are you among all the other creatures for the Lord is with you!”

Today, it’s no fairy tale to see pictures of headless bodies scattered around the streets of Iraq or to hear the news about the literal “exodus” of Christians walking in the heat of the desert just to seek a safer refuge. From the eyes of the world, it’s never a happy ending. What we can see is pure defeat! However, from the eyes of faith, the suffering of our brothers and sisters in the Middle East right now reminds us that as long as we share in the Passion of Christ and hold on to the victory of His Resurrection “neither persecution, nor death, nor suffering, nor the worries of the present” can prevent us from “fighting a good fight; from finishing the race; from keeping the faith.” After all, real victory happens when at the end of our lives the Lord, the just judge, will award to us the crown of righteousness.

May our seminary formation, our daily “yes” to God and “no” to sin, our day to day living together as a community of joyful stewards of the Gospel—may all these things teach us to live in constant communion with Christ Crucified and Risen and bring us to a victorious end, a victory not borne out of pride and arrogance but out of our humble recognition that God has always been with us in our journey so that we will all live happily ever after. Amen!