The Feast of the Assumption

The Feast of the Assumption (which we will celebrate Thursday, August 15th) is the Patronal Feast of our Parish. What do we mean by “Patronal Feast”? You may well ask!
   A Patron Saint is a saint chosen to be the special intercessor in Heaven of a particular place or organization, such as a parish church or cathedral, a hospital, university, or guild. A Patronal Feast is the occasion on which a parish annually honors the saint who was chosen as the Patron Saint of the parish. Thursday our parish will celebrate a special feast to honor Saint Mary the Virgin.
   Why was this particular date chosen for the celebration of our Patronal Feast? Some churches, likewise dedicated to “Saint Mary the Virgin”, chose to observe the Patronal on the Feast of the Annunciation (“The Angel of the Lord announced unto Mary”) However, the Annunciation always seems to fall within the season of Lent, (and occasionally it even falls on Good Friday!) It would be inappropriate, therefore, to celebrate such a joyous festival within a solemn season of penitence and fasting.
   There are other feast days of Our Lady which could be suited for the purpose: the Visitation, the Purification, the Nativity - but there is a difference between this day, the Assumption, and the others, however. We remember the saints primarily because of what they did - the dedication, the devotion, the heroism of their lives. We remember Mary, however, because of who she was and who she is - Mother of Jesus, the one through whom salvation entered the world. In the providence of God, Mary was chosen. Mary was elected to be the bearer of God’s Son. His Very Self. It was, and is, God’s will that she be Assumed into Heaven, as defined infallibly by Pope Pius XII in 1950, when he wrote in his Apostolic Constitution, Munificentissimus Deus: “We pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”
   It was Mary who was chosen by God - a specific, unique, individual person - chosen to bear the Savior. And it was Mary - the specific, unique, individual person - who accepted by “fiat” God’s choice. She responded to God’s call. “Be it unto me according to thy work. In other words she said “Let it be.” She has been called the first Christian, because she was indeed the first actively to cooperate in God’s plan to redeem the world. “Let it be.” And she may be called the first among Christians, for her place is unique,. Her response, her acceptance, her cooperation made salvation possible.
   Each of us must cooperate with God, each of us must accept God’s grace in Jesus Christ. 
   But with Mary it was more. Her acceptance, her cooperation not only saved her own soul, but made your and my salvation possible as well.
   And for that reason she has been called the co-redemptrix of the world. This title points surprisingly to the existential and even evangelical dimension of human salvation. It points to the fact that it was Mary’s unique and individual “Let it be” which brought salvation into the world, just as it is your and my unique and individual “Let it be” which brings salvation into each of our lives.
   No one can say “Let it be” for anyone else, except Mary, who said it for the whole human race.
                                  “Hail Mary, Full of Grace: The Lord is with Thee”
 
Faithfully, Your Friend and Pastor,
Fr. Christopher C. Stainbrook, KHS