Mary: Our Hope and Our Comfort

For today the Virgin Mother of God was assumed into heaven as the beginning and image of your Church’s coming to perfection and a sign of sure hope and comfort to your pilgrim people. (Preface for the Assumption, Roman Missal, Third Edition)

Mary is our hope and our comfort!  As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Catholics take comfort in the sign and symbol Mary is for each and every disciple.  In the celebration of Mary’s being assumed body and soul into heaven, we see the perfection—the completion—of both the Church and humanity.  God created humanity to be in union with Him and the Church is humanity’s way to find such a union.

Mary, in her being assumed, reveals the depth of God’s love for her and for us all.  Mary’s assumption is the fulfillment of God’s invitation through the Archangel Gabriel to not be afraid and to trust in the Lord.  Throughout her life, Our Lady responded to God’s invitation to cooperate in His Divine Will with a resounding “yes.”  Her total submission opened her to receive the immeasurable gift from God of being assumed into the new and eternal Jerusalem.

On this great solemnity celebrating Our Lady’s assumption, let each of us renew our “yes” to God’s will.  Like Mary, let us strive to give ourselves fully to God.  Let the “yes” of each day prepare us for the great day when the Lord shall come again and gather unto Himself.

Fr. Brendan Moss, OSB is the President-Rector of Conception Seminary College. A monk of St. Meinrad Archabbey, Fr. Brendan is entering his second year of leadership at CSC.