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August 14, 2022Monday, on August 15, the Church celebrates the mystery of the Assumption of Mary. While the Assumption itself is not contained directly in Sacred Scripture, it remains an important mystery for us through the tradition of the Early Fathers of the Church. St. John of Damascus, a Syrian Father of the Church, known as the Doctor of the Assumption of Mary, speaks on the nature and the importance of the Assumption of the Mother of God.
In his homilies, St. John of Damascus clearly marks out the links between who Mary is as creature, but one filled with Grace, which is the very life of God, who is God himself. In the Assumption, the Church proclaims a mystery that the one who shares in the life of God does not die, but is renewed to be a new creation. It shows that as once the heavenly Word descended to become flesh, so the flesh is raised to heavenly heights in the Holy Spirit.
How wondrous for us is the mystery and nature of the Incarnation, through which what is earthly is made heavenly. Our Blessed Mother becomes the prime exemplar. At the moment of her conception stands the former nature of the daughter of Eve, the Mother of the Old Nature, and Grace. Just as the Mother of all the Living was formed out of Adam, so the Mother of the New Living is formed from the Grace of Christ. Thus, from the moment of her conception, it is thus fitting to call her “full of Grace,” for what was later conceived in flesh was truly present in her being in the beginning, thus making of her a true temple of the Holy Spirit and worthy Ark through which the divine Word takes to itself our own nature. Truly she is a deified creature made new through the indwelling of Grace, pure, spotless, and resplendent reflecting the Light of he who made her.
What does this Truth mean for the nature and mystery of the Assumption of the Most Holy Mother of God? If she, who is creature and from the earth, and who at the moment of her conception was made heavenly, not by nature but by grace, then it is altogether worthy to exclaim that even her body was taken into heaven. She foreshadows the reality of the whole Church, that all who live in the grace of Jesus Christ shall be called a New Creation, truly exalted and resplendent with the divine radiance of Christ in his fullness.
Should we not expect this result for ourselves? If we, who are baptized in Jesus Christ, are called temples of his Glory, new creations sharing in the divine life, is it not appropriate to profess that we too shall share in that same fullness that the Most Holy Mother of God shared preeminently and perfectly? Indeed it is most appropriate and even more so to exclaim her exultation through the work of Grace, since, as St. John of Damascus notes that there is none in creation nor will there ever be one like the Mother of God. She is thus the model and exemplar of the Church, the Temple of God. Therefore, we celebrate what she most excellently received that we, too, may have a share in that life that so permeated hers.
