Today is one of my favourite days of the year. It’s the Solemnity of The Assumption of the BVM. I can’t say I have a very strong devotion to the Holy Virgin in general, but this feast is kind of neat. It’s Easter in August. The reason I like this so much is that it gives a message of hope.
Our Lady was the first ‘regular’ person who ascended to heaven with body and soul. God promised we all will one day, but because Mary was so special, she got the special grace of ascending right after she died. That is what the Church teaches as a dogma since 1950 and what we in our collective spirituality believe for over one thousand years.
Being a former Protestant means that I know my Bible pretty well and I wonder where Mary’s Assumption differs from the story of Elijah, which is described in 2 Kings 2:6-17. I quote from the NIV translation:
Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here; the LORD has sent me to the Jordan.”
And he replied, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So the two of them walked on.
Fifty men of the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan. Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.
When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?”
“Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied.
“You have asked a difficult thing,” Elijah said, “yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours—otherwise not.”
As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha saw this and cried out, “My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And Elisha saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them apart.
He picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the cloak that had fallen from him and struck the water with it. “Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?” he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over.
The company of the prophets from Jericho, who were watching, said, “The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha.” And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him. “Look,” they said, “we your servants have fifty able men. Let them go and look for your master. Perhaps the Spirit of the LORD has picked him up and set him down on some mountain or in some valley.”
“No,” Elisha replied, “do not send them.”
But they persisted until he was too ashamed to refuse. So he said, “Send them.” And they sent fifty men, who searched for three days but did not find him. When they returned to Elisha, who was staying in Jericho, he said to them, “Didn’t I tell you not to go?”
Both stories are great stories of encouragement. Our bishop touched upon this in his homily this morning: although we are surrounded by death in this life, we as Christians don’t have to fear death, because it’s not the last thing. In our secular culture death is a taboo, because secular philosophy has no answer to death. God’s answer to death is life, as we can read in the second reading for today, where St. Paul writes that the last enemy Christ has conquered is death. Unlike in the Old Testament we don’t have to be very special people to be raised up to heaven like Elijah was. Everybody who has had a Christian baptism lives in this hope. That is the difference between Elijah and us, I think.
Isn’t God an awesome God? We can walk our path to holiness with confidence in His promises. We know death is not the end. And because we know this secret, nobody can break our spirits. It was the belief of the martyrs who died under the persecution of the Roman Empire, it is the belief of today’s martyrs in countries like North Korea and Saudi Arabia. It’s also our belief which makes us jump into the deep and really live our lives to the max in total freedom. If only more people knew!
Popularity: 16%
Imagine there would be plans to have a big fireworks display on the 4th of July in front of 