Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, on this day, we celebrate a great feast of the Church. It is a special solemnity in honour of the Assumption of the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is none other than the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Assumption refers to the moment when Mary did not suffer earthly and bodily death, but was lifted up by the power of God, or assumed, into heaven, body and soul altogether.
This is a great occasion, which the Church and faithful had believed in for quite some time, even since the days of the early Church, when the tradition of the Apostles and the Church passed down through the ages told us about how the Blessed Virgin Mary spent the rest of her earthly life after the death and resurrection of Jesus her Son, and how she was assumed into heaven at the end of her worldly existence.
This belief in the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is presented richly in the Scripture readings which we heard during the Vigil Mass and the Mass of the Day of this special solemnity. We heard a lot about the Ark of the Covenant, crafted at the time of Moses from precious ornaments and materials, in order to contain the Law of God, the two stones containing the Ten Commandments God had given to His people.
And how is it relevant to today’s celebrations and festivities? This is because while the old Ark of the Covenant has been lost, especially at the time when the First Temple of God built by Solomon was destroyed by the Babylonians during the fall of Jerusalem about five hundred and eighty-six years before the birth of Christ, we now have a new and everlasting Ark of the Covenant, that is no longer something perishable and destroyable by fire and by human means.
The old Ark of the Covenant contained the two stones of the Law of God, the Ten Commandments which represents the Law. And besides the two stones, it also contained the manna, the bread which kept the people of Israel alive during their time in the desert where there is no life, for over forty years during the entirety of their journey. And then last of all, it also contained the staff of Aaron, the staff of priesthood and authority as given by God.
Do you know that Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, our God, is the new Ark of the Covenant? We may not be able to notice this, but let me elaborate in a while. She is the new Ark of the Covenant, because firstly, she contained all of the same things that the old Ark had contained, but all were even far better than the original Ark.
For she bore within her, in her womb, the Lord God Himself, Jesus Christ, who is the Bread of Life, the High Priest and the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets of God. In Jesus all the things that were stored in the first Ark of the Covenant, were also present. And through this comparison, we can already see what the purpose of Jesus and His coming into the world were.
He came to bring life and care to His people, by shedding for them His own Body and Blood, offering it as a perfect offering and sacrifice to the Lord, as the atonement for all of our sins, as the High Priest for all of us mankind, and by doing this, He fulfilled perfectly what the Law had said, and which the Prophets had prophesied about. And He made a new Covenant with all of mankind, a new Covenant sealed with His own Blood.
And He came into this world, in a vessel great and far purer than any vessel that this earth could have given Him. For while the original Ark of the Covenant was made with pure gold and precious goods of the earth, the new Ark of the Covenant, that is Mary, the bearer of the new Covenant made in Jesus Christ, is pure, immaculate, both body and soul, free from the taint of sin, as God had intended her to be, and in her life, her actions were flawless.
This is why, as the mother of our Lord, the Master and Lord of all life, and One who has conquered death, Mary did not suffer death nor the consequences of sin, which had brought death upon all mankind. And it is therefore fitting for the mother of the Master of Life, the new Ark of the Covenant, to be spared from death which all of us mortals have to endure, as the consequence of our sins. This is firstly because she has no sin to begin with, set aside from the rest of mankind as the bearer of the Lord.
And then, as the mother of God, it is completely comprehensible that the Lord would not let death to claim her, for He Himself had conquered death. Thus, this is why, we believe in the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as the symbol of triumph against death, as God Himself had prophesied at the beginning of time, when men first fall into sin.
The woman would crush the head of the serpent, and this is the triumph that man would bring to Satan and his forces, who have hounded us and endangered us for so long. This is the triumph against evil that God had promised us. Through Mary, we saw a great light and had hope once again. A world in darkness, a future of hopelessness, because of Mary who bear the new Covenant, the Promise of the Lord, had crushed forever our oppressor.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, however, one thing that we have to take note today is that all of us too, are in fact the Ark of the Covenant. Why is this so? That is because we have received the Lord into ourselves too! We who have received Him in the Eucharist, have the Lord Himself dwell inside us, because the bread we eat is His real Body, and the wine we drink, is the very Blood of our Lord Himself.
What is important for us to take note is that we have to be aware that just as the Ark of the Covenant was prepared with the best materials possible, and the new Ark, Mary, who bore our Lord in her womb, was prepared immaculate, holy and perfect, we too have to do the same with our own Ark, which is our body, our heart and our soul. Otherwise, truly we have sinned and blasphemed against our Lord.
Remember that St. Paul reminded us in his letter to the Church and the faithful in Corinth that we are all the Temple of the Holy Spirit? That mean we have been made the Temple of the Holy Presence of God Himself. And if we defile the sacredness and the sanctity of this Temple, then truly, we would make ourselves unworthy of our Lord and condemn ourselves to the eternity of suffering in hell.
Therefore, today, all of us ought to leave the Mass knowing that we all have been challenged, so that we can take note of our own words, actions and deeds, so that in all things we do and say, we can try to achieve and maintain the sanctity of our lives, our body, heart and soul. This is what we need to do, and what we can do, in order to keep ourselves worthy of our Lord, who does not tolerate sin, and yet He gives us chance after chance, for He is loving and merciful.
May Almighty God, and His mother, the Blessed Virgin assumed into heaven, body and soul, continue to be with us, and help to guide us, that we may find our way to Him, and so that we can keep ourselves holy and worthy, so that at the end of the day, we will be worthy of the eternal inheritance promised to us, God bless us all. Amen.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 