SPEAKER_00: Have you ever noticed that the church celebrates very few feast days as solemnities?
SPEAKER_00: There's Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, and today the assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that should immediately make us ask a question, why such a big deal?
SPEAKER_00: Many Christians object to this feast because they say, well, the Bible never says Mary was assumed into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: They're right.
SPEAKER_00: There's not one verse that says Mary was assumed into heaven.
SPEAKER_00: But there is also no verse that lists all 27 books of the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: There's no verse that uses the word Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: Yet those are truths revealed by God and recognized by the church through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Catholics don't read the Bible as an isolated verse.
SPEAKER_00: We read Scripture as one great story where the Old Testament prepares us for the new, and the new fulfills the old.
SPEAKER_00: And nowhere is that more beautiful than in today's feast.
SPEAKER_00: To understand the assumption, we have to begin with the Ark of the Covenant.
SPEAKER_00: For the people of Israel, the Ark was the holiest object on earth.
SPEAKER_00: It contained three things the stone tablets of the law, the manna from heaven, and Aaron's priestly staff, each pointed towards Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the living word of God.
SPEAKER_00: He is the true bread from heaven, he is the eternal high priest.
SPEAKER_00: Now, ask yourself a simple question.
SPEAKER_00: If the ark that carried the symbols of God's presence was made of the purest materials and treated with such reverence, what about the woman who carried God Himself?
SPEAKER_00: Mary is the new ark of the covenant.
SPEAKER_00: She carried not symbols of God's presence, but she carried the very presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the angel greets her not by her name but by her title, full of grace.
SPEAKER_00: God was preparing a dwelling worthy for his son.
SPEAKER_00: But now comes the part that many Catholics have never noticed.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of chapter 11 of the book of Revelation, Saint John says something extraordinary.
SPEAKER_00: The temple of God in heaven was opened and the ark of his covenant was seen.
SPEAKER_00: If you've never read the next verse, you naturally expect John to be to begin to describe the ark.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of what does he do?
SPEAKER_00: He immediately says, and a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and her head a crown of twelve stars.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, the chapter divisions were added more than a thousand years after Revelation was written.
SPEAKER_00: John never changes the subject.
SPEAKER_00: He sees the ark.
SPEAKER_00: Then he describes the woman.
SPEAKER_00: The early Christians understood exactly what he was saying.
SPEAKER_00: The Ark is no longer a golden box.
SPEAKER_00: The Ark is a person.
SPEAKER_00: The woman is Mary, already sharing in the glory of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: But here's what I think is the most beautiful part of today's solemnity.
SPEAKER_00: The assumption is not primarily about Mary.
SPEAKER_00: It's about you.
SPEAKER_00: Mary is the first fully redeemed human person after Christ.
SPEAKER_00: She is what the church is destined to become.
SPEAKER_00: She's the first completed masterpiece of redemption.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes people speak as though Christianity is only about saving souls.
SPEAKER_00: That is not the Christian faith.
SPEAKER_00: God created us with a body and soul.
SPEAKER_00: Christ redeemed both body and soul.
SPEAKER_00: One day he will glorify both body and soul.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we treat the body with reverence.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we bury our dead with dignity.
SPEAKER_00: That's why every act of respect for human life matters.
SPEAKER_00: Because our bodies are not disposable.
SPEAKER_00: They are destined for glory.
SPEAKER_00: The assumption is God's declaration that the final word over the human body is not disease, it's not aging, it's not death and destruction, it is the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Mary already stands where we hope to stand.
SPEAKER_00: She's not simply someone we admire, she is someone who shows us our future.
SPEAKER_00: Every time you feel discouraged by the passing of time, every time illness reminds you of your weakness, every time you stand before the grave of someone you love, remember today's feast day.
SPEAKER_00: The tomb is not our final destination.
SPEAKER_00: Heaven is.
SPEAKER_00: Mary has already arrived where Christ desires to lead every single one of us.
SPEAKER_00: The assumption is not simply a privilege given to the mother of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's a promise to all of us.
SPEAKER_00: A promise that what God has begun in Christ, what he has accomplished perfectly in his mother Mary, he desires one day to accomplish in every faithful disciple.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why today's not only Mary's feast day, it's our feast day as well.
SPEAKER_00: Because where the mother has gone, the children are called to follow.
SPEAKER_00: Mary, Mother of God, pray for us.