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  HE Gospel for this feast is taken from St. Luke x. 38-42: At that time " Jesus entered into a certain town: and a certain woman named Martha received Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who, sitting also at the Lord's feet, heard His word. But Martha was busy about much serving: who stood and said: Lord, hast Thou no care that my sister hath left me alone to serve ? speak to her, therefore, that she help me. And the Lord answering said to her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and art troubled about many things. But one thing is necessary; Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her."
When about to expire on the cross, our Divine Lord looked down on Mary, His Mother, who stood by, and, pointing to St. John the Evangelist, said to her, "Woman, behold thy Son! then He said to St. John, " Behold thy mother!" It is a common belief that He appeared to His Mother, after His resurrection, before appearing to any one else, and the Franciscan Fathers of Jerusalem possess a chapel named the Chapel of the Apparition, connected with their own residence and the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, where this apparition is said to have occurred. It is probable that the Blessed Virgin lived on Mount Sion with St. John, in the house of Joseph of Arimathea, wherein the Holy Eucharist was instituted, until the Day of Pentecost. She was certainly in that building from the day of her Son's ascension till Pentecost for the Gospel mentions the fact. Later on she lived in a building adjacent to the Cenaculum with St. John. It was very near the place of the institution of the Holy Eucharist that she every day heard Mass celebrated by the beloved disciple, and received Holy Communion at his hands. In our own day, they point out, on Mount Sion, near the American Cemetery, a stone marked with a cross, laid in a low wall, which stone, according to the legend, formed a part of the dwelling of John and the Blessed Virgin. We may easily represent to ourselves how lively was her faith in the Real Presence! how ardent the fervor with which she received Holy Communion!
But why was her exile prolonged ? She so ardently desired to be dissolved and to be with her Son in His glory! Our Lord would have her remain on earth after His ascension, in order that her presence might be a comfort and help to the Church; that she should instruct the apostles and evangelists regarding many circumstances of the life of her Son with which she alone on earth was acquainted. May we not rightly conjecture that many virgins placed themselves under her special guidance, and that her house on Mount Sion was, as it were, the origin and model of so many communities of virgins who devote themselves to watch day and night around the altar of the Son of Mary Immaculate? "After her shall virgins be brought to the King; her neighbors shall be brought to Thee."
Mary remained on earth twenty-three years and a few months after the descent of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles; that is to say, to the seventy-second year of her age, and the fifty-seventh from the birth of her Son. Painful as was this long separation from her dear Jesus, it did not fail to prove useful to her; for during those twenty-three years she went on, day after day, practising acts of virtue the most exalted, and acquiring merits for heaven. ; By this delay, also, her triumph on the day of her assumption was made more glorious, for she was accompanied into the heavenly kingdom by a multitude of martyrs, virgins, and other saints whose souls came down from heaven to be apart of her glorious escort.
Mary died, rose from the grave, and then was taken up into heaven. Why did she die ? why would not Our Lord take her up living into His heavenly kingdom ? It is evident that death had no claim on Mary, for she had not inherited the sin of Adam, neither had she committed any sin by her own will; and we know that death is the punishment of sin: but she died in order to be conformable to her Son, Who died and rose again from the dead. She had herself desired to suffer death; and because of this her voluntary death she deserved to be the protectress and comfort of the dying: whence we request, with the Church: Pray for us now and at the hour of our death!
A short time before the day of her death, Mary was favored with the visit of an archangel This is thought to have been Gabriel, the same who had announced to her the news of the Incarnation of the Son of God in her womb. According to some early writers, this glorious spirit held a palm in his hand in token of the triumph she was about to obtain; and his apparition to the Virgin occurred on the Mountain of Olives. Great was the joy of the blessed Mother when she heard the message. Undoubtedly she again intoned the Magnificat, " My soul doth magnify the Lord," and added, " Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it done unto me according to thy word." Mary having now informed St. John of her approaching demise, he communicated the news to the Christians of Jerusalem, in order to prepare them for the event, and enable them to profit for their souls of the short time she was to remain amongst them.
Jesus Christ, in order to give His blessed Mother another comfort on this earth, willed that all the apostles who were scattered in distant parts of the earth, where they preached the Gospel, should all have assembled in Jerusalem, with the more celebrated of the disciples. St. Denis, the Areopagite, wrote that they assembled thither " to venerate this blessed body, which had given birth to Life, and had received God in its bosom." And amongst those who were there he mentions St. James, the cousin of the Lord; St. Peter, the sovereign chief of the preachers of God's word; with the other princes of the ecclesiastical Hierarchy, and, moreover, St Jerothex, St. Timothy, and many of their holy brethren, and himself being one of the witnesses." Many early writers and Fathers relate that the apostles were carried thither in a cloud.
We may better imagine than describe what were the divers feelings which those devout Christians experienced when they found that they had met together to witness the demise of their glorious Mother. Mary received them with joy and thanked God for being granted the privilege of seeing them who were the instruments of His power and mercy amongst men. It is said that she obliged them to bless her, and also blessed and encouraged them herself. As to the faithful of Jerusalem, they met in haste to witness the sight, carrying lighted lamps and sweet perfumes.
Mary, who was soon to be established queen of heaven and earth, was destitute of earthly possessions. She had neither silver nor gold to bequeath to any one, and her will or testament simply consisted in requesting St. John to bequeath to two girls who had assisted her, what there would be found of her clothing, viz., two tunics.
The moment of her demise having finally come, Jesus Christ, her beloved Son, came down on earth, with all the heavenly court, to receive the blessed deposit of her holy spirit. (So say St. John Damascene, Metaphrastes, and Nicephorus, who had learned it from the ancient traditions.) The Blessed Virgin rendered Him the most perfect adoration which He had ever received, or would in the future receive, on earth, and humbly kissed His feet. Our Lord told her that He had come for her in order to give her a participation of His glory in heaven. "Thy will be done," Mary answered. "This long time, O my Son, my God, do I sigh after Thee! Nothing to me can be more delightful than to follow Thee, and to be where Thou art forever and ever."
The angels, in the mean time, struck up a hymn, of which the heavenly melody was heard by all present, although all of them saw not Our Lord. This is the more credible, says Sophronius, in his sermon on the Assumption, that favors of the like kind are related in the lives of other saints. During the singing of the canticle, the Blessed Mary, leaning modestly on her couch, and placing herself in the posture in which she desired to be buried, repeated the words, " Be it done unto me according to Thy word," adding those of her dying Son on the cross, " Into Thy hands, Lord, I commend my spirit" In this wise, her hands being joined together, her eyes gazing upon her well-beloved Son, and her heart being inflamed with His love, she gave up her soul to Him, that. He might carry it in His bosom to the place of eternal bliss.
"This death," says St. John Damascene, "was free from all pain, as had been the manner in which she had given birth to her Son. The death of Mary had no other cause save the vehemence of her love of God, of which nature could no longer sustain the violent efforts. The power of God had hitherto sustained her alive in the midst of this fire; but this almighty support having now been withdrawn, she at once ceased to live, and her soul left the body just as the flame detaches itself from its matter in order to fly up to its sphere."
The angels continued to sing hymns in her honor, and the whole house was filled with delightful perfume. The soul of Mary was immediately taken up into heaven, in order there to enjoy the immense beatitude which was due it. The angels experienced wonderful joy in seeing themselves possessors of a treasure which they had for a long time envied the earth. But what shall we say of the reward which the adorable Trinity granted the soul of Mary ? This reward was in keeping with the dignity of her who was the Mother of the Word Incarnate, the most holy temple of the Holy Ghost, and, as it were, the spouse of the Father, she having brought forth in time Him Whom He had begotten in eternity. Mary's soul had also been the most humble, the most afflicted, the most loving of all souls, if we except that of her Son: hence it was exalted above all other heavenly spirits; hence it received the greatest possible participation in the delights of heaven, in the knowledge and justice of the adorable Trinity. God had, on the day of her death, done great things indeed unto the soul of Mary. And we interpret the voice of the Church when we say that, as the virtues and merits of our heavenly Mother far surpass the merits of all the saints and angels of God taken together, so her glory in heaven is far greater than the glory of all the saints and angels taken together.
But we must now return to the sacred body of the Virgin, which we left, surrounded by the apostles and the disciples of Jerusalem, in the modest dwelling on Mount Sion. These, after the demise of the Virgin, remained some time silent, and, as it were, overcome by the excess of their grief; but they soon joined their voices to those of the angels who had remained near the body, offering prayer and thanksgiving to God. How delightful must have been the melody of these singers of heaven! Many tears fell from the eyes of those who were present, but they were chiefly tears of joy and of gratitude. The features of Mary were so beautiful in death! and they had such an experience of the power of their mother, for the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the lame, all the sick who touched the sacred relic, were healed on the spot.
The time had now come to carry these sacred remains to the grave. The family sepulchre of the Blessed Virgin, like that of Joseph of Arimathea on Calvary, like that of Lazarus at Bethany, was situated near the house wherein she had been born. It was situated in the borough of Gethsemani, almost contiguous to the spot where, during Our Lord's agony," His sweat became as drops of blood trickling down upon the ground " (St. Luke xxii. 44). Opposite this spot, on Mount Moria, stood the house of St. Anne.
The whole city had to be traversed by the funeral cortege ere they reached the sepulchre. For the greater part of the time, the procession resembled more a triumphal march than the carrying of a corpse to its resting-place; for there were a multitude of the faithful bearing torches; there were many sick persons miraculously cured, and the angelical melodies continued to be heard, although the heavenly spirits themselves could not be seen. At a certain point, however, they found collected together a multitude of infuriated Jews, who strove to insult and throw down the bier containing the sacred relic. One of them, who was a priest, rushed towards it and stretched out his hand to throw it down; but his arm became suddenly paralyzed, and, God touching his heart, he believed, and with him many others, who asked to be baptized. When the procession had reached the sepulchre, they laid into it with great respect the body which had been the living temple of the Son of God; and about this place the melody of the hymns of the angels continued to be heard for three days.
The grave into which the body of the Virgin was deposited is, like that of Our Saviour on Calvary, hewn out of a rock.§ This sepulchre has been for 1800 years the object of the veneration of the whole of Christendom. It is a very holy shrine, sanctified by the contact of the most sacred body of our Mother and Queen.
Let us return heartfelt thanks to God for the glorious death of Mary and the triumphal reception of her soul into heaven by the saints, the angels, and the three adorable persons of the Holy Trinity. We should return thanks, not for Mary alone, but for ourselves also; for in her death and triumph she is for us a subject of joy and encouragement.
We also shall have to leave this world very soon. Very soon our soul shall have to separate from our body, and to receive a reward or punishment according to what it shall have sown on earth. The Church acknowledges Mary as the protectress of the dying: " Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death ;" " Receive us at the hour of death" "After this our exile, show unto us the fruit of thy womb, Jesus,"
Shall we receive at the dread hour of death the visit of Our Saviour, as Mary did? In reward of her devotion to the Holy Eucharist a blessed young virgin named St. Juliana received the Holy Eucharist in a miraculous manner at the moment of death ; and on the recurrence of her feast the Church addresses to God the following prayer: "O God Who, when blessed Juliana, Thy virgin, was in the agonies of death, didst vouchsafe miraculously to refresh her with the precious Body of Thy Son, grant, we beseech Thee, that through her merits interceding for us we also in our mortal agony may be strengthened and refreshed by the same, and to pass in safety to our heavenly country."'
The above is a prayer which it were useful for us often to repeat. Christ Himself shall carry in His bosom to heaven the souls of those who shall have been sanctified by the reception of His sacred body, and those souls shall be welcomed by Almighty God and all the heavenly court in the house of eternal glory and felicity.
Part II. Resurrection, Assumption, and Coronation op the Blessed Virgin.
Providence willed that the holy Virgin should have resembled her Divine Son in her death, burial, resurrection, and triumph. He had died in agony so great as to make Him exclaim, "My God, My God. why hast Thou forsaken Me?' Mary died through the violence of divine love. Jesus died on Calvary; Mary on Mount Sion, a very short distance from the place of the crucifixion, Jesus' body was deposited in a grave dug out of the rock, and so was the body of His Mother. Jesus rose on the third day; so did His glorious Mother. He came out of the grave before the rising of the sun, unknown to His disciples; so did Mary arise, full of life, unperceived by any of the Christians. Our Lord ascended into heaven from the highest point of the Mount of Olives; Mary was taken up into heaven from her sepulchre at the foot of the same mountain. St. Thomas was absent when Jesus Christ appeared to the other disciples, but was afterwards the occasion of rendering the resurrection of Christ more evident; he was absent when the holy Virgin was buried, but he was also the means used by Providence to convince the apostles of the resurrection of Mary.
The voices of the angels who had accompanied the sacred body of Mary with their melodies from Mt. Sion to Gethsemani continued to be heard during three days about her grave. St. Thomas was absent at the time of her death, and arrived only after three days, when the sound of the heavenly music had ceased to be heard. As he desired to venerate the body of the Mother of his Lord and God, the apostles deferred to his wish. The stone which covered the grave was removed, but the body of Mary was not there; it had risen. This is the relation of St. John Damascene, and the Church has sung ever since, "Mary has been taken up into heaven: the angels rejoice."
We hardly need inquire the reason why God did not permit His holy one to see corruption. Was not the body of Mary a most holy object ? This body was, in a measure, the body of Jesus Christ Himself. With her blood, and with her blood only, had His sacred body been formed. Did He not owe it to Himself to raise her to life? Jesus and Mary are the new Adam and the new Eve; and as the first man and the first woman received a sentence of death, so Jesus Christ and Mary were destined to overcome death. If Mary had not been raised from the dead we might have been induced to doubt of our own resurrection; for they who had been raised to life by Our Lord died again, and He Who had entered heaven is not a common mortal - He is God. But Mary was one like unto ourselves, and if our Mother is living, we must hope to be raised from the dead and to live.
We may well imagine that the Redeemer, accompanied with His glorious court, took the soul of His Mother from heaven and re-united it to her body. The beauty of Eve, the first woman, was admirable, for she was the queen of earth, the flesh and bones of him who was the master and king, representing on earth the Lord of the Universe. But if the creation of Mary, destined to be the mother of the incarnate Word, was a work more important and admirable than the creation of the universe, what must have been the exterior beauty bestowed upon her when about to ascend next to the throne of Him Who sitteth at the right hand of God, and to be installed queen of angels and men, queen of the whole world? Under the impression of this sentiment,inspired by the thought of her beauty, the Church on this day raises her contemplation from earth to the heavens above, and to the very dwelling of God. Mary, in her language, is not merely the flower of
the fields the cedar of Lebanon, the cypress of Mount Sion, the palm of Cades, the rose plant of Jericho: she is fair as the moon, chosen as the sun, leaning upon Him—upon her beloved Son—Whose beauty the moon and the sun admire. The saints, speaking on the assumption of Mary, mention each of the nine choirs of angels as rejoicing, and praising her who comes up from the desert to become their queen and the advocate of sinners. When many of the heavenly spirits, deceived and headed by Lucifer, had revolted against their Creator and had been hurled down into hell, man was created in order to take the places of those doomed angels. But to those who had remained true, it had not been given to understand what was to be the beauty of the sons of Adam when admitted into heaven in their glorified bodies.
On this day they see Mary adorned with a beauty so admirable that methinks I hear them unite their voices with that of the Church, and exclaim: "It is truly meet and just, right and salutary, that we should praise, bless, and proclaim Thee on the assumption of the Blessed Mary, ever Virgin." How gladly they accept her as their queen, who is so beautiful, and who has already enriched heaven with the presence of so many souls! As to the saints, now that they behold God, and that they see all light in His light, they understand clearly the extent of Mary's goodness, power, and beauty. Hear with what devotion they address the Son and the Mother: Blessed is the womb that bore Thee, and the paps that gave Thee suck;" "Blessed art thou amongst women: blessed is the fruit of thy womb."
Shall we speak of the welcome that she received from the Holy Trinity ? of the high throne, of the rich crown prepared for her by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost? Shall we speak of the light imparted to her mind, of the delights poured down in her Immaculate Heart, of her over-abundant participation of the Divinity?
The attempt on our part would be too rash. Let us rather say, in love and gratitude, " Come, let us adore the King of kings, Whose Mother on this day was taken up to the highest heaven."
Mary was taken up into heaven in soul and body, not merely that she might be fitly rewarded, and become the queen and delight of the
heavenly court. She went up into heaven to be the queen of the world — the queen and mother of men. We remember the mountain near Jericho, whence the father of lies, tempting the Saviour, showed to Him the kingdoms of earth and falsely promised Him that he would give them all to Him, if falling down He would adore him. But Jesus Christ has done more. To the once poor, humble dweller of Nazareth He has given to be the queen of the world. We think that if all the creatures of God, both animate and inanimate, were endowed with sentiments and a voice, they would all unite in blessing their queen and saying to her: "Rule over us, thou and thy Son" (Judges viii. 22). But as to the Christians, the disciples of Jesus Christ, they have never ceased for eighteen hundred years to invoke her on their knees, to call upon her from their exile, saying, " Hail holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope!" If the body of the Mother of God had returned into the dust of the grave, if Mary had not been taken up into heaven in body as well as in soul, we should not have the eyes of a merciful Mother to look down from heaven upon us, and to whom would the exile in this vale of tears offer his sighs and supplications ? But now the Church teaches that our Mother is a queen glorious and merciful, ever ready to intercede for and to help us, and as she acknowledges her dignity by the erection of countless monuments and the institution of many festivals, so she acknowledges her power and mercy by unceasing invocations. She is the queen of all; she is the helper of all.
Let us here recall to mind a word which is dear to us. " He has regarded the humility of His handmaid: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call her blessed. Because He that is mighty hath done great things to Mary; and holy is His name " (Luke i. 48, 49).
Let us constantly strive to become more fervent in our worship of the Blessed Sacrament, and thus entitle ourselves to participate, after death, in the triumph of our glorious Mother.
See the humble coffin which contains the remains of a devout Catholic who a few hours before had received viaticum, exposed in the church, surrounded by his relatives and friends. Lights are burning around this coffin, incense is burnt; songs of sorrow and of hope are heard; Mass, the Holy Mass, is offered for this soul. One would say that Christ on the altar has come to meet it as He had come to take His Mother's soul to heaven. We next hear utterances truly strange and incomprehensible, if they were not the voice of the Church of God. " Let the angels conduct thee into paradise; at thy entrance let the martyrs receive thee, and conduct thee into the holy city of Jerusalem. Let the choir of angels receive thee, and mayst thou enjoy eternal rest with Lazarus the poor beggar." As to the bodies of the elect, they shall rise glorious, like unto the body of their queen, at the last day, by the power of Him Who resides in the Eucharist. And then, when the days of exile shall be over, they shall hear the blessed words, " Come, ye blessed of My Father: possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." |
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