----- Forwarded Message ----
From: WILLIAM . . .
Sent: Sun, 14 August, 2011 18:17:02
Subject: An Assumption bouquet
. . .
Here is an Assumption bouquet I came upon that delights!
. . . in Our Lord,
William
Hi, William,
HOMILY
Here below is an Assumption of Blessed Mary Virgin Homily from Fr. Edward O.P. from Iceland.
Assumption of the Virgin Mary into Heaven
by
Iceland - http://www.simnet.is/e.booth/photo.htm
Infinitude cannot be separated from infinitude: what is true of numerical infinitude is even more true of Divine infinitude. If we may in our minds separate infinitude by nature and infinitude by participation, we cannot deny the reality that what is divine infinitude by participation is the full divine infinitude, the infinitude of his glory, and therefore is identical with the divine, not derived or subordinate.
Because of this commerce with the divine we must accept the fact that, without herself being divine, Mary's participation in the divine nature was the highest participation accorded to one who was a creature but was suffused completely with the divinity. What is an "either-or" in creation becomes a "both-and" of supernature in her. Those early believers who grasped that she was the "Mother-of-God" had discerned the ultimate simplicity of her nature that the commonality which united her with Divinity on the one hand and with the life of her Son, the sap of the divinity which coursed through the physical reality of all of those reborn in the fullest newness which is the eternal nature now of her Son, human because born of her, who was born of the Father from all eternity.
On Calvary her truly humanly dying Son had passed his physical eyes and the eyes of his mind from one to the other and had designated the beloved Apostle who was mounting daily in an élan of divine love "her Son," and designated Mary, passing daily from glory to glory, even in the midst of the greatest personal suffering of heart, as "your Mother" and by extension Mother of all men into whom the divine glory will be passed in order to restore to them what was so carelessly rejected. John realised more than the other apostles what this entailed: that men may live for ever, even though they pass through the process of death, which has become not an end but a passage-way to life. For he noted the words of Our Lord: "This is the Bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat therefof and not die" (Jn 6,50). Such thoughts were present among the apostles. When, in almost the last words in the Gospel of John, Peter questioned Our Lord about John: "What shall this man do?" He had felt himself to be inferior to John, but could not grasp the reason why this should be the case. Jesus found a formula of words which was capable of being interpreted as entailing personal immortality, and yet accepting the fact of death. "If I will that he remain until I come, what is it to you? Just follow me" (Jn 21,21-2). A safe and sure guidance.
But the human death of Jesus intervenes, and his body lies in the tomb until the morning of the day after the Jewish Sabbath is ended, when he breathes new life into his truly risen body, which becomes a special instrument of his divinity. He appears at will to his Apostles and other believers, and then Ascends in that body to the heaven which his divinity has never left. That Body is a universal means to salvation, it can be eaten Eucharistically to prepare true believers for their transformation to full images and participants of himself. But it is the way of following him through death to immortality, the way for all believers who anticipate their full participation in heaven, a divinising communicated by a God who communicated all of himself to men.
In the early days of the Church a persecution broke out in Jerusalem, of which Stephen was the first martyr. The first thought of John was his need to protect Mary. John's contacts were widespread, and he thought to take her to a pagan place where there must have been such contacts, but where she would be safe. There is no doubt that, at that time, John had been caring for Mary as a sacred responsibility given him by her Son. From small allusions, it has been conjectured that they could have been together, not exactly at Ephesus, but just outside (the traditional place is Salçuk), from 42 – 48. And Ephesus was the centre of the cult of Artemis-Diana. A tradition reports that she died at the age of 63. That could have meant that the Assumption would have taken place there. This was even suggested by a great Pope, Benedict XIV, more than two hundred years ago, who wrote the authoritative work on canonisation. „Leaving for Ephesus, Saint John took Mary with him, and it is from there that the Blessed Mother finally ascended with him from this life into heaven“.[1]
In that case, perhaps John was the only witness to her Assumption, into which he would have had a special and infallible insight. Amen.
[1] v. Benedicti XIV, Pont.Opt.Max., Olim Prosperi Card. De Lambertinis, De Festis Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, et Beatæ Mariæ Virginis, Libri Duo (4th edn. Padua 1766), I §101 (p.192), „Joannem mandata Christi abunde amplevisse, qui omni officio & pietate B. Mariam semper coluit, domi secum habuit, donec mansit in Palestina, profectusque Ephesum eam secum adduxit, ubi tandem Beata Mater ex hac vita ad Cœlum convolavit“.
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| Photo taken by Fr. Edward OP during his UK visit. |
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