Mary's Right Relationship

Vigil: 1 Chr 15:3-4, 15-16; 16:1-2 · 1 Cor 15:54b-57 · Lk 11:27-28

Day: Rev 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab · 1 Cor 15:20-27 · Lk 1:39-56

One of the most common challenges to the faith of Catholics comes from fundamentalist Christians: ''Where can I find that in the Bible?''

What others do not understand--or simply reject--is that Catholicism believes that Divine Revelation comes to us from two sources: Scripture AND Tradition. What is difficult to help people understand, even Catholics, is that the two are separate BUT so intimately related that they cannot be separated.

Catholics believe that Divine Revelation came to an end with the death of the last Apostle. Jesus taught the Apostles many things and, therefore, what they came to believe and teach is part of God's revelation to us through Christ. While we have precious little in writing of what they taught, Scripture does capture the kernel, the kerygma, of their teaching. But while little remains in writing from the Apostles, what we do have is the faith of those whom they taught, and much of that Faith is recorded for us. The core of this Faith is recorded for us in the Scriptures.

Will the Assumption of Mary be found in the Scriptures? No. Will the Assumption of Mary be found in the faith of the early Christians? Yes. It is their faith that is our own. This is Tradition, the living faith of what has been passed on to us by believers. This Tradition stands because it has stood the test of time, and more importantly, it has stood the test of the Holy Spirit. If not true, through the power of the Holy Spirit, our belief would have faded into history.

We must put on our hats of logic to approach this feast. The followers of Jesus and those to whom they first spread the Good News believed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. In their midst was Mary, His mother.

The Scriptures, the recorded faith of the first generations of Christians, speak of Mary who was humble, a mother who saw herself as living a life in service to God and, most especially, a life in service to her Son. The Scriptures tell us that those who knew Mary and knew those who knew Mary, believed she enjoyed a very special relationship with God. Something of her pain and hardship is recorded for us, but it is presented in a spirit of joy for it is written through the eyes of faith in the Resurrection.

It was easy, then, for those Christians to use Mary as more than just a spiritual heroine. They used her as a model for Christian life, and consequently, a model for teaching the faith. The Resurrection promised us that death is not the end, that death has no more sting, that death is far more than corruption. For such great sacrifice and devotion to the will of God, those Christians, those who knew her and came soon after her, knew that corruption would not touch her. In her and through her they came to witness and understand the promise of Jesus that we will share in a resurrection like His own. The Assumption was not just a gift for Mary, it was and is a gift for all of us.

The Church continues to place Mary in the same role in which she placed herself, as a handmaid in service to the Faith. The Church uses Mary to teach us about her Son and about our Faith. The Assumption is about the consequences of faith in the Resurrection.

The Assumption tells us much more. It teach us too that our relationships matter. In the Magnificat we find what relationship Mary valued most: her relationship with God. When Mary went to Elizabeth, Joseph was still alive. Nowhere is it implied that Mary did not love Joseph. She HAD to love him for believing her story that she had had no relations with another man, that this pregnancy was of God's doing. She HAD to love him for accepting and choosing to accept the life that she carried as his own. However, God came first.

Elizabeth's relationship with Mary affected her. Her reaction is explained to us by the joy of her own baby.

Jesus teaches us about the power of right relationships in the Gospel from the Vigil. Followers began to honor Mary early: ''Blessed is the womb that carried you!'' Jesus redirects this honor: ''Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.'' In this statement Jesus described His mother. Her greatness comes from her acceptance of the word of God.

Our relationships define us. The life of Mary is a story of right relationships. The Assumption is the promise of what a right relationship with God offers us. From the beginning this has not been in doubt. TP