It is possible to honour Our Lady and still miss the point.
That is the danger hidden in tonight’s Gospel.
A woman in the crowd is overwhelmed by Jesus.
She cries out:
“Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!”
In other words: What a woman your mother must be.
What a privilege to have given birth to You.
And Our Lord answers:
“Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”
He is not correcting praise of His Mother.
He is telling us why she is blessed.
Mary’s greatness is not simply that she gave Christ His human flesh.
Her greatness is that when God spoke, she listened.
When God commanded, she obeyed.
When God asked everything, she gave everything.
That makes tonight’s feast uncomfortable.
Because Catholics can become very good at praising Mary without becoming anything like her.
We can light candles.
Say the Rosary.
Wear medals.
Sing Marian hymns.
Keep statues in our homes.
All good things.
But if we praise Mary while refusing God’s will, we have missed precisely what Jesus praises in His Mother.
“Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”
That was Mary’s whole life.
God spoke at Nazareth.
She answered: yes.
God led her to Bethlehem.
She went.
God allowed Simeon to tell her that a sword would pierce her soul.
She remained faithful.
Christ left Nazareth and began His public ministry.
She let Him go.
At Calvary, when nearly everything seemed destroyed, she stood beneath the Cross.
Mary did not obey God only when obedience felt consoling.
She obeyed when it cost her.
The First Reading shows David bringing the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem.
The Ark was sacred because it belonged completely to God.
It was not an ordinary chest being put to ordinary use.
It had been set apart. Consecrated.
God’s presence rested upon it.
That is why the Church sees the Ark as a figure of Mary.
But perhaps there is something here we need to recover.
To belong to God means that God has a claim upon us.
We live in a culture that says: my body, my plans, my life belong to me.
Mary shows another way.
Her whole life says: I belong to God.
My body, my future, my joys and my sufferings — everything is His.
We sometimes want the God close enough to comfort us but not close enough to command us.
We want Him to bless our plans rather than change them.
We want a Christianity that consoles without demanding.
Mary gives us no such Christianity.
Her first great word in the Gospel is: “Let it be to me according to your word.”
And that sentence costs her everything.
That is why the Assumption is not a reward for sentimentality.
It is the crowning of a life completely surrendered to God.
Then Saint Paul tells us where that surrender leads:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
Notice the language.
Death is defeated.
We spend enormous energy trying not to think about death.
We disguise ageing.
We distract ourselves from eternity.
We speak as though everyone automatically goes somewhere pleasant when life ends.
Saint Paul is more serious.
Death has a sting. And the sting is sin.
That is why the Assumption should not merely make us think affectionately about Mary.
It should make us think seriously about our own death.
One day there will be no more postponing.
No more “I will go to Confession eventually.”
No more “one day I will put things right.”
The day comes when our earthly choices become complete.
Mary’s life was ready for Heaven because her life already belonged to God.
Does ours?
Not: do I have devotion to Our Lady?
But: does my devotion make me obedient like Our Lady?
Is there something God has clearly asked of me which I am resisting?
A sin I defend.
A reconciliation I refuse.
A duty I resent.
A sacrifice I keep avoiding.
A teaching of Christ I quietly reject because it interferes with the life I want.
We can say ten Rosaries and still say “no” to God.
Mary said one complete “yes”.
And she never took it back.
That is the road to the Assumption.
Grace is not given so that we can remain unchanged.
Grace makes possible the response Mary gave.
“Let it be to me according to your word.”
My brothers and sisters, tonight the Church places Mary before us to be imitated.
Hear the word of God.
Keep it.
When it comforts you, keep it.
When it corrects you, keep it.
When it contradicts the spirit of the age, keep it.
When it costs you, keep it.
When everyone else walks away, keep it.
Because the world passes.
Our plans pass.
Our bodies pass through death.
But the person who belongs to Christ is being prepared for something death cannot destroy.
“Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Mary has received that victory.
Tonight Our Lady shows us the sure path to Heaven:
Hear the word of God.
Keep it faithfully.
Do His holy will.
And persevere in His grace until the end.
St. Mary's, St. John Bosco and St. Edward's 