By Rev. Francis A. Baker
The Feast of the Assumption
“Mary has chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her” Luke 10:42
I
A
Today is the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Today she entered into the enjoyment of heaven. The trials and troubles of life are over. The time of banishment is ended. She closes her eyes on this world, and opens them to the vision of God. She is exalted today above the choirs of angels to the heavenly kingdom, and takes her seat at the right hand of her Son.
B
I do not mean to attempt any description of her glory in heaven. I am sure whatever I could say would fall far short, not only of the reality, but of your own glowing thoughts about her. Who is there that needs to be told that the Blessed Virgin is splendid in sanctity, dazzling beauty, and exalted in power? But, my brethren, it is possible to contemplate the Blessed Virgin in such a way as to put her at too great a distance from us.
C
It is possible to conceive of her glory in heaven as flowing entirely from her dignity as Mother of God, and therefore to suppose it altogether unattainable by us; and, as a consequence of this, to regard her with feelings full of admiration indeed, but almost as deficient in sympathy as if she were of another nature from us. Now, this is to rob ourselves of so ennobling and encouraging a part of our privilege as Christians, and at the same time to take away from our devotion to the Blessed Virgin an element so useful and important, that I have determined, on this her glorious Feast, to remind you that our destiny and the destiny of Mary are substantially the same.
II
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And the first proof I offer of this is, that the glory of the Blessed Virgin in heaven is not owning to her character as Mother of God, but to her correspondence to grace – to her good works – to her love of God – in a word, to her fidelity as a Christian. This is certain, for it is the Catholic doctrine that the Blessed Virgin, like every other saint, gained heaven only as the reward of merit. Now, she could not merit it by becoming the Mother of God. Her being the Mother of God is indeed a most august dignity, but there is no merit in it.
B
It is a dignity conferred on her by the absolute decree of God, just as He resolved to confer angelic nature on angels, or human nature on men. It is no doubt a great happiness and glory for us to be men, and not brutes, but there is no merit in it; so there is honor but no merit in the Blessed Virgin’s being the Mother of God. Now, if she did not merit heaven by becoming the Mother of God, how did she merit it? For it is of faith that heaven is the reward of merit.
C
I answer, by her life on earth. It was not as the Mother of God that she won heaven, but as Mary, the daughter of Joachim, the wife of Joseph, the mother of Jesus. It is impossible to read the Gospels without seeing how careful our Lord was to make us understand this. He seems to have been afraid, all along, that the splendor of that character of Mother of God would eclipse the woman and the saint.
D
Thus, once when He was preaching, a woman in the crowd, hearing his words of wisdom, and, perhaps, piercing the veil of his humanity, and thinking what a blessed thing it must to be the mother of such a son, exclaimed “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts that nursed you,” (Luke 11:27) but He answered immediately: “Yes rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.”
E
No one doubts that the Blessed Virgin did hear the Word of God, and keep it. So our Lord’s words are as much as to say: “You praise my mother for being my mother; what I praise her for is her sanctity.” In the same way, when they came to Him on another occasion, when there was a great throng about Him and said, “Behold, your mother and your brothers stand without, seeking you,” He answered, “Who is my mother? And who are my brothers? And stretching forth his hand towards his disciples, he said: Behold my mother and my brothers. For whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.” (Matthew 12:48)
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External advantages, however great, even to be related to the Son of God, are as nothing in his sight, compared to that in which all may have a part – obedience to his Father’s will.
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Perhaps, also, this is the explanation of his language at the marriage of Cana in Galilee. When the wine failed, and his mother came to Him and asked Him to exert his Divine power to supply the want, He said: “Woman, how does your concern affect me? My time is not yet come.” (John 2:4) He does not allow her request on the score of her maternal authority, but what He refuses on this ground He grants to her virtue and holiness, for He immediately proceeds to perform the miracle she asked for, though, as He said, his time was not yet come.
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So, too, on the cross He commands the Blessed Virgin to St. John’s care, not under the high title of Mother, but the lowly one of woman. “Woman, behold your Son.” (John 19:26) Now, why was this? Did not your Lord love his Mother? Was He not disposed to be obedient to her as his mother? Certainly; but it was for our sakes He spoke thus.
I
In private, at Nazareth, we are told, he was “subject to her,” but on these great public occasions, when crowds were gathered around Him to hear Him preach, when He hung on the Cross, and a world was looking on, He put out of view her maternal grandeur, in compassion to us, lest there should be too great a distance between her and us, and we should lose the force of her example. He wished us to understand that Mary, high as she was, was a woman, and in the same order of grace and providence with us.
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We might have said: “Oh, the Blessed Virgin obtains what she asks for on easy terms. She has but to ask and it is done. She enters heaven as the son of a nobleman comes into her father’s estate, by the mere title of blood and lineage.” But no: our Savior says: “To sit on my right hand is not mine to give you, but to them for whom it is prepared by my Father.” (Matthew 20:23)
K
It is not a matter of favor and arbitrary appointment; not even my Mother gains her glory in that way. She must comply with the terms on which my Father promises heaven to men, and therefore the Church applies to his words spoken of another Mary: “Mary has chosen the better part; therefore it shall not be taken away from her.” Oh, blessed truth! Mary is one of us.
L
Her destiny, high as it is, is a human destiny. And she reached it in a human fashion. She built that splendid throne of hers in heaven with care and labor while she was on the earth. She laid the foundation of it in her childhood, when her feet trod the Temple aisles. She reared its pillars when with faith, purity, and obedience unequalled, she received the message of the archangel. And her daily life at Bethlehem, Egypt, and Nazareth, her holy, loving ways with Joseph and with Jesus, her perfect fulfillment of God’s law, her interior fervent acts of prayer, covered it with gold and ivory.
III
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Then, when the blind world was going on its way of folly; while one King Herod was deluging villages in blood, and another steeping his soul in the guilt of incest, and of the blood of the Son of God; while the multitude were doubting, and Scribes and Pharisees disputing about Christ, the lowly Jewish maiden, with no other secret but love and prayer, was preparing for herself that bright mansion in Heaven wherein she now dwells, rejoicing eternally with her Son.
B
Oh, happy news! One, at least, of our race has perfectly fulfilled her destiny. Here we can gain some idea of what God created us for. Here is the destiny that awaits man when original sin does not mar it; when co-operation with grace and unswerving perseverance secure it. The Jews were proud of Judith. They said: “You are the glory of Jerusalem: you are the joy of Israel; you are the honor of our people.”
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So we may say of Mary: “O Mary, you are the pride of our race. In you the design of God in our creation has been perfectly attained. In thee the redemption of Christ has had its perfect fruit. Mankind conceives new hopes from your success.” Christ, indeed, has entered into glory; but Christ was God. Mary is purely human, and Mary has succeeded.
D
Why tarry we here in the bondage of Egypt? Mary has crossed the Red Sea, and has taken a timbrel in her hand and sings her thanksgiving unto God. True it is that she is fleet of foot, and we are all halt and weak; but even she needed the grace of God, and the same grace is offered to us, that we may run and not faint.
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Listen to her song of triumph. She does not set herself above us, but claims kindred with us, and bids us hope for the same grace which she has received. “My soul magnifies the Lord, for he has exalted the humble, and has filled the hungry with good things. And his mercy is from generation to generation to them that fear him.”
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Another proof that the destiny of the Blessed Virgin is substantially the same with ours, is the fact that the same expressions are used to describe her glory and ours. Sometimes those who are not Catholics, when they hear what high words we use of the Blessed Virgin are scandalized; but we use almost no words of the Blessed Virgin that may not, in their measure, be applied to other saints.
B
It is true that the Blessed Virgin has some gifts and graces in which she stands alone – as her character of Mother of God, and her Immaculate Conception – but, as I said before, these are dignities and ornaments conferred on her, and are not the source of her essential happiness in heaven.
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In other respects, her glory is shared by all the saints. Thus, Mary is called “Queen of Heaven;” but are not all the blessed called in Holy Scripture, “kings and priests unto God?” (Revelation 1:6) Is she said to sit at the “King’s right hand?” and are not we too promised a place at his right hand, and to “sit on thrones?” (Revelation 3:21) Is she called the “Morning Star?” and does not St. Paul, speaking of all the saints, say, “star differs from star in glory?” (1 Corinthians 15:41) Is she called a “Mediatrix of Prayer?” and is it not said of every just man, that his “continual prayer avails much?” (James 5:16) Is she called the “Spouse of God!” and does not the Almighty, addressing every faithful soul, say, “My love, my dove, my undefiled?” (Canticle 5:21) Is she called the “Daughter of the Most High?” and are not we too called the “Sons of God?” (1 John 3:2)
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The glory of the Blessed Virgin, then, differs from that of the other saints in degree, but not in kind. She is not separated from them, but is one of them. She goes before them. She is the most perfect of them. But she is one of them. And for this reason, the glory of the Blessed Virgin gives us the best conception of the magnificence of our destiny. When a botanist wishes to describe a flower, he selects the most perfect specimen.
E
When an anatomist draws a model of the human frame, he makes it faultless. So we, to gain the truest idea of our destiny, must lift up our eyes to the Blessed Virgin on her heavenly throne, and say: “Oh! my soul, see for what you are created.” Think of this, my brethren, as often as you kneel before her image, or meditate on her greatness.
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You cannot be what she is, but you can be like her. She is a creature like you. She is a human being like you. She is a Christian like you. And her joy, her beauty, her glory, her wealth, her knowledge, her power – nay, even the mighty efficacy of her intercession – are only what, in their measure, God offers to you. “Glory, honor, and peace to every one that works good; for there is no respect of persons with God.” (Romans 2:10)
V
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If these
things be so, what greatness it gives to human life. Perhaps, if you had lived
in the times of the Blessed Virgin Mary, you would never have noticed her; or if
you had known her by sight, what would she have seemed to you but a good little
Jewish girl, lowly and retiring in her manners and appearance? Or, later in
life, a poor young woman thrust away, with her husband, from a crowded inn, or
fleeing by night with an infant child?
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Or, still later, the mother of a condemned malefactor, watching his sufferings in the crowd. Herod did not know her, and the nobles of Jerusalem were ignorant of her. She was not one of the friends of the queen’s dancing daughters. Even the rustics of the village of Bethlehem looked down on her.
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She carried no servants about with her, and had no palace to live in. But Faith tells us of angel visits, of union with God, of heavenly goodness, and an immortal crown. So, in like manner, how our life becomes grand and dignified when it is lighted up by faith! You know there are porcelain pictures, which in the hand are rough and unmeaning, but held up to the light reveal the most beautiful scenes and figures; so our common, ordinary life, rough and unmeaning as it often seems, when enlightened by faith becomes all divine.
D
There is a little girl who learns her lessons and obeys her parents, and tells the truth, and shuns everything that is wicked; why, as that little girl kneels down to pray, I see a bright angel drawing near to her, and he smiles on her and says: “Hail! Blessed art thou: the Lord is with thee.”
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That young man who, by a sincere conversion, has thrown off the slavery of sin, and regained once more the grace of God – what is his heart but another cave of Bethlehem, in which Christ is born, and around which angels sing: “Glory to God in the highest; on earth, peace to men of good will.”
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That Christian family, where daily prayers are offered, and instruction and good example are given, and mutual fidelity is observed between the members – what is it but the Holy House of Nazareth? – Home of Jesus?
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Yes, good Christian, do not be cast down because you are poor, or because you suffer, or because your opportunities of doing good are limited; live the life of a Christian, you are living Mary’s life on earth. We have not, indeed, Mary’s perfect sinlessness, but we have the graces of baptism, by which we may vanquish sin.
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We have not, as she had, the visible presence of our Lord, but we have Him invisibly in our hearts, and sacramentally in the Holy Communion. We are not “full of grace,” as she was, but we have grace without limit promised to us in answer to prayer. Let us assert the privileges of our birth-right.
I
We belong to the new creation. Angels claim kindred with us. God is our Father. Heaven is our home. We are the children of the saints – yes, of her who is the greatest of the saints. Let us follow her footsteps, that one day we may come to our Assumption, the glory of which surpassed even the power of St. John to utter. “Dearly beloved, we are now the sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He is.” (1 John 3:2)
VI
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Everything depends on our co-operating with grace. How did the Blessed Virgin arrive at such glory? By corresponding to every grace. See her at her Annunciation. The angel comes and tells her of the grace God has prepared for her. If she had not believed, if she had not assented, what would have come of it? Why, she would have lost for all eternity the glory attached to that grace. But she did not refuse. She was ready for the grace when it was offered. She said: “Fiat,” “Be it done to me according to thy word.” Oh, how much hung on that Fiat! An eternal glory in heaven.
B
So it is with us. There are moments in our lives big with the issues of our future. God’s purposes concerning the soul have a certain order. He gives one grace; if we correspond to that He gives another; if we do not correspond, we lose those that depended on it; sometimes, even, we lose our salvation altogether. This is the key of your destiny – fidelity to grace.
C
You have an inspiration from God: He speaks to your soul Oh, listen to Him, and obey Him! To one He says: “Abandon, O sinner, your evil life, and turn to Me with all your heart.” “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation!” To another, who is already in His grace, He sends inspirations to a more perfect life, a life of higher prayer and more uninterrupted recollection. Another, by the sweet attractions of His grace, He draws away from home and kindred to serve His as a Sister of Charity by the bed of suffering; or as a nun, to live with Him in stillness and contemplation; or as a priest, to win souls for heaven.
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Oh, speak the word that Mary spoke: “Be it done to me according to thy word.” Are you in sin? Convert without delay. Are you leading a tepid, imperfect life? Gird your loins to watchfulness and prayer. Do you feel in yourselves a vocation to a religious or sacerdotal life? Rise up and obey without delay. Tomorrow may be too late. The grace may be forfeited forever. Why stand we all the day idle? Heaven is filling up. Each generation sends a new company to the heavenly host. Time is going. The great business of life remains unaccomplished.
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By our baptism we have been made children of God and heirs of heaven. Labor we, therefore, to enter into that rest. Mary, dear Mother, lift up your voice for us in heaven, that we, following your footsteps, may one day share your glory, and with you praise forever God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.