Pope celebrates Assumption of Mary

(August 16, 2010) Although Mary was taken up to heaven body and soul at the end of her earthly life, she "has not abandoned her mission of intercession and salvation" on earth, explained Pope Benedict XVI. The Pope reflected on Mary’s Assumption before reciting the weekly ‘Angelus’ prayer at midday on Sunday, the feast of the Assumption of Our Lady into heaven. Addressing a large crowd of pilgrims and tourists in the courtyard of the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, just outside Rome, the Pope explained that the meaning of the August 15 feast of Mary’s Assumption "is contained in the conclusive words" of Pope Pius XII from his definition of the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin in 1950, where he asserted that "the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory." The Pope said that the Virgin Mary's presence in the Church has been the subject of poets, writers, musicians and artists of every age. Commenting on Sunday’s gospel, the Pope spoke of Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth after the Annunciation "to bring her the Saviour of the world.” These two women, who awaited the fulfilment of the divine promise, the Pope said, anticipate, then, the joy of the coming of the Kingdom of God, the joy of salvation." The Holy Father thus exhorted all people to entrust themselves to Mary, who, as Pope Paul VI said, despite being "assumed into heaven ... has not abandoned her mission of intercession and salvation.
Earlier Sunday morning, the Pope celebrated the solemnity of the Assumption of Mary with a Mass in the local parish of St. Thomas of Villanova, very close to the summer papal residence of Castel Gandolfo. In his homily the Pontiff spoke about the final destination of Mary which is founded on the love of God. Explaining the idea of the "celestial glory" at which Mary arrived, Pope Benedict noted that people today are conscious that by "'heaven' we are not referring to just any place in the universe, to a star or something similar" but "to something much bigger and more difficult to define with our limited human concepts. "With this term 'heaven'," he said, "we wish to assert that God… does not abandon us even after death, but has a place for us and gives us eternity…” "It is His love that defeats death and gives us eternity, and it is this love that we call 'heaven' ..." This is a truth which the Pope said should always fill us with profound joy: the Christian promise of eternal life in heaven, "not just any salvation of the soul in an imprecise beyond." This gives Christians "a strong hope in a bright future and opens the way towards the realization of this future," he added. "We are called, as Christians, to edify this new world," he said, "to work so that it might become one day the 'world of God,' a world that surpasses all that we ourselves can build. In Mary assumed into heaven, fully participating in the resurrection of the Son, we contemplate the realization of the human creature according to the 'world of God,' the Pope added.