The Assumption of Our Lady: A Call to Eternal Life
Summary of Headings
- Our Lady's Unique Grace
- The Distraction of Worldly Comforts
- Choosing Eternal Life Over Earthly Pleasures
- The Example of Judith and Our Lady
- Living for God Alone
Our Lady's Unique Grace
We get to celebrate one of the truly great feasts in the liturgical year. It's very beautiful for any number of reasons. It's also a very important feast for ourselves personally. First and foremost because we get to see how Our Lady was distinguished, set aside from everybody else in a very particular way. Very few other people in history, actually no other person in history, has been taken by Our Lord and body and soul brought to the Church. There are stories that St. Joseph did. There are stories of course about Elias and Enoch. They were not taken to heaven. They were taken somewhere else.
St. Joseph, it's a pious tradition but it is not a doctrine of the Church. It is important that we understand that Our Lady has this very singular grace, this very particular grace because she is who she is. She is the Mother of God. St. Alphonsus in the Glories of Mary talks a lot about this feast day and mentions how it came about because she was a mother of God. She came out because her desire to be with God could not keep her on this world any longer. Well, that can get into tricky waters of her being the one to cause the assumption into heaven and not God himself.
What actually ended up happening was her job here on earth was done and so her desire could no longer be refused. Of course, for Our Lady, more than for anyone else in history, the only desire that she had was to be with her Son, was to be united to our Lord Jesus Christ. That was the desire, the passion that consumed her very being. That is all she ever wanted was to be with God. This is the thing that we must consider ourselves. We are supposed to have that same singular driven, driving ideal behind our entire lives. Everything we do must be because we want to be united to God.
Everything that we possess must be because we desire to be with God. Our entire lives must be because we desire to be with God. Our entire lives must be consecrated and dedicated to this ideal. That I choose God above all things because I want to be united to Him. By an astounding miracle of love, God has given us the opportunity to actually be united to Him. We don't contemplate that enough. What a miracle it is to actually be united to God. Besides the angels, what other creatures have that ability? None of them. We are the only ones. So therefore, we are the only ones.
We have this ability. Why don't we take better use of it? Why don't we take better care of it? There are many reasons for it. But the biggest one is precisely because we are distracted. We are blinded. We are confused. What are we distracted, blinded, and confused by? Well, ourselves. Our comfort. Our desires. The goods that we have. The goods and pleasures of this world. Temptation. Any number of other things that we can talk about. But essentially, it comes down to that.
The Distraction of Worldly Comforts
Our own will. And our own desires. Boiling it all down, that's what it comes down to. And the world, of course, is very happy to supply us with every possible creature comfort and every possible good and benefit that could possibly be given to us. Just for the sake of being able to encourage this blindness and this ignorance. So that we desire nothing else. This is one of the curses of the modern world where comfort has now become something of a god unto itself. Everybody is worried about their own comfort all the time. Everything is about our own, what we need.
What we need to survive. And of course, what we need to survive is not what is considered to be comfort. Comfort is a luxury. Comfort is an extra. It's a bonus. It's an add -on. We don't have to be comfortable to save our souls. We don't have to be comfortable to have everything we have ever wanted. But unfortunately, that's not what the world sells to us. It's constantly selling us this idea that we deserve, we need, and we are owed certain comfort. A certain level of comfort. Of course, this blinds us. It's not that comfort in and of itself is bad. But the problem is when it becomes so important that that's all we care about.
That it's the only thing that concerns us. It's the only thing that motivates us in any aspect. That is when it becomes a problem. The world sells it to us because so long as we are comfortable, we're not likely to cause any trouble. It's the old saying of Cicero. Through bread and games. If you give bread and games, people will give up their liberty. People will give up everything for bread and games. We are willing to sell our souls and our eternal happiness just to be happy and comfortable here on earth. Just to have what we want here on earth. We are willing to give up whatever it is that God wants for us.
Which is everything. Not just transitory happiness here on earth, but eternal happiness in heaven. Not just some comfort and relaxation here, but eternal rest in him. We are willing to give that up because as far as we can tell, we do not possess it yet. We do not have it yet. And as such, we don't have time for it. So rather, we focus on the now as opposed to the then. We build on the present. We build on what this world has to give to us instead of what heaven has to offer us. We surrender ourselves to the things of this world so that we can be able to possess the things of this world.
Choosing Eternal Life Over Earthly Pleasures
We give up everything that the next world has for us simply because we want to stay in this world. Which we are never going to stay in. This is one of the reasons why it's important to understand a very simple fact. Each and every one of us is going to die. We should be confronted with our own mortality every day. That's a frightening reality, yes. But it's also a reality that each and every person must confront if we are to understand and put into context this life. Now it may seem like I've gone far afield from talking about Our Lady, but I really haven't.
Because she's the one creature who completely dominated and understood this context. She's the one creature who understood and comprehended that this life is only the antechamber. It is only the waiting room for actually achieving what real life is. That is why C .S. Lewis referred to this land as the Shadowlands. This is just where the shadow exists. The reality is where God is. Eternity. And this is where we need to be pointing and directing our life. Our life is to achieve eternity. We're hurtling toward the end of this life whether we like it or not. Whether we slow it down with comforts or not.
Whether we enjoy ourselves or not.
The Example of Judith and Our Lady
So this life, we can either take advantage of it and serve God, or we can lose ourselves to it. Essentially, those are our two choices. And we need to take advantage of that. Of that knowledge to be able to overcome ourselves. To that extent, we have in this feast day, the epistle which is taken from the book of Judith. It's the praises of the Jewish people after Judith killed the general Holofernes. The way she did so was she got him drunk and she ended up cutting off his head in his own tent. Now she is of course an archetype of Our Lady. She is someone who demonstrates the power of Our Lady.
She is the one who cuts the head off of our enemies. She is the one who wins victories for us. Holofernes represented something specific and that is the sins of luxury. He presented lust, drunkenness, comfort, etc. And Our Lady struck his head off and by that means the Israelites won. It's important that we understand what is being said here. Our Lady achieved eternal happiness, eternal joy, eternal peace. Eternal glory. Because she focused all of her attention on serving God. She consecrated every instant of her life to the love of God. And she is giving us the power.
She has the power and she gives us the ability to be able to cut off the heads of our enemies. So that we may be able to do the same. To live wholly and entirely for Him. With Him and in Him. That is our goal.
Living for God Alone
And that is what we must live for. Regrettably, it's easy for us to get distracted and it's easy for us to lose ourselves. So therefore we need to start paying better attention. We need to make more of an effort. But we also need to direct ourselves to our Blessed Mother. She is the one who shows us the way of victory. This is Our Lady of Victory after all. She conquers. She wins. She is victorious. Because she is who she is. She accomplished what she accomplished. Her ascension into heaven. Her ascension into heaven. Her ascension into heaven. Excuse me. Is because precisely of her victories each and every day of choosing God above all things.
Of loving God above all things. Of desiring God above all things. So while the world tries to sell us on this life. We need to remind ourselves of what Our Lady is presenting to us. Which is the choice of the next life over this one. Each and every time. The choice to love God more than to love ourselves. The choice to love and serve God and Him alone. Because everything else is a lie trapped in a cheat. Nothing else. The world may cover up this life in all of its beauty and all of its glory. And just show us how wonderful it can be. And how comfortable and simple it can be.
But it leaves out the entirety of the context. Which is this life is at the service of the next life. Even the pagan philosophers understood that. Socrates said it. That a good life is the end of life. That is to say the purpose for life. The reason that we have life is so that we can live a good life. Even the pagans understood that. Why can't we? Today above all days. When we are contemplating the assumption of Our Lady. Her entrance, her triumphant entrance into heaven. Where she is to be crowned Queen of Heaven and Earth. It's time for us to look very hard at ourselves.
And how we live our lives. And the decisions we make in our daily life. To try to understand and comprehend a little bit more. How is it that I can love God better? How is it that I can serve Him more? How is it that I can choose eternal life over this life? And we can start to think about this. And we can start to disentangle ourselves. Of the many enemies that have entrenched themselves in our souls. And we can ask Our Lady, like Judith. Please cut the head off of our enemies. Destroy those sins and those entanglements and attachments that we have within ourselves.
So that we may be able to be free to follow our Lord. To follow her example. To pursue the love of God in all things. And we may be able to be eternally happily with our Queen and our Mother in heaven. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Summary
The homily begins by celebrating the Assumption of Our Lady, highlighting her unique grace as the Mother of God. It emphasizes that her singular desire to be united with her Son, Jesus Christ, should inspire us to focus our lives on God. The sermon warns against the distractions of worldly comforts and desires, which can blind us to our true purpose. It challenges us to prioritize eternal happiness over temporary pleasures, reminding us that comfort is not necessary for salvation. Drawing on the example of Judith from the Bible, the homily illustrates how Our Lady's victories over sin can guide us in overcoming our own spiritual battles. It calls us to seek her intercession and strive to live wholly for God.