Homily: Solemnity, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Readings:  Rv 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab; Psalm 45; 1 Cor 15:20-27; Lk 1:39-56

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A warm welcome this morning to the members of our own Marian Servants of the Word Incarnate, who have gathered here today on this most special day, their Day of Commitment. And how fitting that we should celebrate their commitment as Marian Servants today, on the Solemnity of the Assumption. For Mary, the lowly servant of God who proclaimed the greatness of the Lord, was raised to new heights and glorified.

Yes, indeed, the Almighty has done great things for her. And now, in the eternal presence of Father, Son and Spirit, she continues to do God’s work – she lifts up the lowly, fills the hungry with good things, and challenges us all to join her in God’s work in the world.

Some years ago, Diane and I spent a week in Venice. We visited the Frari Basilica, just so we could see Titian’s amazing painting of the Assumption. It's a three-tiered painting: the Apostles below, gazing up in awe; Mary in the center, looking equally astonished, being lifted up and surrounded by angels; and above it all, the Father, with a crown for the Queen of Heaven and Earth.

Believe me, just to see that painting was worth the airfare, for it reminds us of the greatness of today’s solemnity. (I've always considered it the greatest of all paintings.)

Titian's "Assumption of the Virgin" (Click to enlarge)

The Assumption, though, wasn’t officially declared a dogma of faith until Pope Pius XII did so on November 1, 1950. Even so, this dogma of Mary’s assumption into heaven wasn’t something new; it simply confirmed long-held beliefs regarding the uniqueness of Mary.

In the Eastern Church we find homilies on the Assumption, or the “Dormition” as it’s called in the East, dating back to the fifth century. And in the Byzantine Catholic rite there’s a beautiful prayer that echoes this anticipation of resurrection:

“In giving birth you kept your virginity; in your Dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life. You conceived the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death.”

The Church, then, has long been celebrated Mary’s singular participation in her Son’s Resurrection by which she was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory when her earthly life had ended. For us the Assumption offers a glimpse of what we can expect of our own resurrection on the last day; for it is the destiny of all those in Christ. As St. Paul tells us in our 2^nd reading, we shall be raised up from the dead with a glorified body like that of Christ Himself to experience complete and perfect union with God.

In a sense, though, Mary’s body is extraordinarily special; for Mary, conceived without sin, carried in her body the Incarnate Body of God Himself. As the Council of Ephesus confirmed, as the Mother of Jesus Christ, she is also the Mother of God. Yes, these two are joined not only as mother and Child, but also in a mystical, mysterious way, so that when her life on earth was ended, God glorified her, both body and soul.

We see the implications of this in our first reading, from the Book of Revelation, a passage chosen not for its literal meaning, for still for more than a mere convenience of words. We recognize Mary as the woman clothed with the sun, with a crown of twelve stars, and with the moon under her feet -- as one who is above all creation.

Although this passage certainly applies to the Church, still Mary is Mother many times over -- Mother of God, Mother of us all, and Mother of the Church -- the symbol of what we all should be.

Today, then, we celebrate Mary as Theotokos, the God-bearer, the Mother of God, and Our heavenly Mother. But she’s more than that. As a disciple of Jesus Christ, she’s also our sister. As the perfect disciple, she’s our model, our model of how to live the Christian life, our model of faith and hope.

Theotokos

She is among "the first-fruits" that Paul refers to, the first fruits of "all those who belong to Jesus" and who share in His triumph. We see her in this role most clearly in today's Gospel passage from Luke.

The young Mary, now Mother of the Incarnate God, is told by Gabriel of her aging relative’s pregnancy. In a humble act of love, Mary makes the difficult journey from Galilee to Judea to visit Elizabeth.

Mary, servant and first disciple, is greeted by her kinswoman, Elizabeth: “Blessed are you among women...” Not to be outdone, Elizabeth’s son, John, “leaped in her womb” at Mary’s greeting.

"Blessed are you among women..."

Mary responds in humility and acknowledges the grace that fills the whole scene: her Son is the reason for the leaping with joy.

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior” [Lk 1:46-47].

All three, Mary, Elizabeth, and John, are filled with the Holy Spirit, filled with joyful anticipation of the fulfillment of God's promise of a Savior.

How fitting for us today, that the world’s Savior was greeted first by a child in the womb, an unborn infant who responded to the Holy Spirit’s revelation of the King of Kings. Mary, then, filled with the Spirit and full of grace, the first and best of Jesus’ disciples, receives wholeheartedly the beauty and bounty of God. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we, too, experience God’s indwelling presence, his kingdom; for through the Spirit God reigns within each of us. 

Think of the scene – this encounter of two gifted women almost overwhelmed by the love of God, a scene that offers us a glimpse of how our God visits us in the ordinariness of our lives.

In this simple scene we see how God, the Presence that holds us up, remains with us in all our human activities. As Paul reminded the philosophers of Athens: 

“In Him we live and move and have our being” [Acts 17:28]. 

It’s through these daily, ordinary encounters with God, that you and I experience God’s tender mercies.

As our model of faith and hope, Mary shows us all how to live as God’s humble servant. She accepted her mission with uncompromising faith and obedience. She acted with unwavering trust because she believed God would fulfill the Word he had spoken. Her great hymn of praise echoes the song of Hannah and proclaims the favor of the Lord: God exalts the lowly and he fills the hungry.

What a gift God has given us in Mary!

And so, today, as we experience God’s indwelling presence in the Eucharist, let’s ask Mary, our Mother, to intercede for us, so that, through the Holy Spirit, we might receive the Body and Blood of her Son worthily, all for the Glory of God.

Homily: Solemnity of the Assumption (Vigil)

Readings:  1 Ch 15:3-4; 15-16;16:1-2; Psalm 132; 1 Cor 15:54-57; Lk 1:27-28
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In 1854 Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a belief the faithful had held for centuries. And almost 100 years later, in 1950, his successor Pope Pius XII proclaimed the dogma of her Assumption; and by doing so once again confirmed that which the faithful had long believed.

These two events span the limits of Mary's life on earth. The Immaculate Conception celebrates God's bringing her into being without sin. And the Assumption celebrates Mary's singular participation in her Son's Resurrection by which she was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory at the end of her life.

The two events, although separated by a lifetime, are actually very closely related. In truth we can't have one without the other. And so once her Immaculate Conception was proclaimed to be part of the deposit of faith, it was inevitable that her Assumption would follow suit.

Mary's Assumption is the destiny of all in Christ and gives us a glimpse into what we too can expect when our own resurrection occurs on the last day. As St. Paul reminds us in tonight's second reading:

Death is swallowed up in victory.
Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting? [1 Cor 15:54-55]

...all through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Assumption of Mary

And so, through the power of Christ's resurrected glory, we will experience complete and perfect union with God in a glorified state, just as Mary experiences it now as a result of her Assumption.

Why did God do this for Mary? Why did He assume her, body and soul, into His heavenly presence? We can't say for sure, because the Assumption's a mystery; we'll never fully understand it. But we can understand it partially, and say with some assurance that Mary's Assumption occurred because, as the Mother of Jesus Christ, she's also the Mother of God.

This, too, was taught by the Church from its earliest years. Mary had been called Theotokos - the God-bearer -- since at least the third century, and was officially proclaimed the Mother of God by the Council of Ephesus in the year 431. That Council proclaimed that her body, her immaculate body, a body conceived without sin, held the Incarnate Body of God Himself. This was also a proclamation about Jesus, confirming both His divine and human nature.

Mary, Ark of the Covenant

This understanding of Mary as "God-bearer" is foreshadowed in today's Old Testament reading. The Ark of the Covenant was the mark of God's intimate presence among His people. In the same way, the Church calls Mary the "Ark of the New Covenant" for it was she who carried the Messiah, she who was God's sacred vessel.

Just as King David leapt and danced in front of the Ark as it was carried into Jerusalem, so too does the unborn John the Baptist leap and dance in his mother's womb when he first encounters Mary, the Ark of the New Covenant. Because Christ has this absolutely unique relationship with the body of Mary, His Mother, at the end of her life she is glorified, both body and soul.

Mary is Mother many times over: Mother of God, Mother of us all, and Mother of the Church, the symbol of what we all should be. Today, therefore, we celebrate Mary, Theotokos, Mother of God, and Our heavenly Mother. But she's more than that, more than our Mother. She's also our sister, a fellow disciple of Jesus Christ.

But as the perfect disciple, she shows us how to live the Christian life, a model of faith and hope. Mary is among "the first-fruits" that Paul speaks of, the first-fruits of "all those who belong to Jesus" [1 Cor 15:23] and who share in his triumph.

In today's Gospel passage, Jesus isn't downplaying His Mother's role - just the opposite. For Mary is doubly-blessed, not only as the Mother of Jesus, but also as the perfect disciple who hears the word of God and observes it. Jesus is simply telling that woman who confronts Him in the street that she, too, can be one of His family. It's better, He tells her, to belong to His spiritual family than to His earthly family.

The Visitation: Mary and Elizabeth

Mary is blessed on both counts. She is His true mother, the God-bearer, the Ark of the New Covenant. But she's also the one who hears and keeps the word of the Lord...and does so in perfect humility.

Yes, Mary is the first and the best disciple of Jesus, something that Elizabeth proclaimed when Mary visited her: "Blessed are you among women..." [Lk 1:42] and John "leaped in her womb" [Lk 1:44]. In all humility Mary responded, "My soul proclaims the greatness of the lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior" [Lk 1:46]. All three, Mary, Elizabeth and John, are filled with the Holy Spirit; filled too with joyful anticipation of God fulfilling His promise of a Savior.

How fitting a reminder to us today that Jesus Christ was greeted first by a baby in the womb, an unborn infant who pointed to the Incarnation as the Holy Spirit revealed the presence of the King to be born.

This is the power of the Holy Spirit; He is God's gift, enabling us to experience the indwelling presence of God and the power of his kingdom. Through the Holy Spirit God reigns within us.

From all this we learn that God visits us in the ordinariness of our lives, and remains with us in all we do. He is the presence that holds us up. As St. Paul reminded the philosophers of Athens, and as the liturgy instructs us: "in Him we live and move and have our being" [Acts 17:28].

It's through these encounters with God, these encounters that occur in the midst of our day-to-day lives, that we are saved by God's tender mercies. As our model of faith and hope, Mary shows us all this and more.

She accepted her mission with uncompromising faith and obedience.

She acted with unwavering trust because she believed God would fulfill the word he had spoken.

Mary fulfills the dreams and hopes of all as she proclaims: God exalts the lowly and he fills the hungry.

Brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit is ever ready to renew our faith in God's promises and make us strong in love for God and our neighbor.

Today, as we experience God's indwelling presence in the Eucharist, let's remember that Mary was the very first to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. As Gabriel said to her: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you" [Lk 1:35]. And like Mary, it is through the power of the Spirit that we receive within us the Eucharistic Presence of her Son, for the Glory of the Father.

And today, especially today, let us ask our Mother Mary to intercede for us with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Ask her to pray for our world, a world that has forgotten God, and world that has replaced peace with violence, replaced love with hate, replaced hope with despair. Ask her to intercede, to plead for a global healing that will bring all to Jesus Christ.

Praised be Jesus Christ...now and forever.

Homily: the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Readings: Rv 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab; Psalm 45; 1 Cor 15:20-27; Lk 1:39-56
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Many years ago, back in my Navy days, I was sitting alone in a restaurant in Keelung, Taiwan. It was Christmas Eve, but you wouldn’t have known it – no Christmas decorations, no crèche, no last-minute shoppers, not even the secular symbols of reindeer or snowmen. It was just another bleak December evening in this country of few Christians.

Keelung Night Market

The restaurant was fairly crowded and so a young Chinese couple asked if they could join me at my table. Of course I agreed. They wanted to practice their English and so we talked as I picked at my rice and pork.In those days Navy chaplains gave out pocket-sized copies of the New Testament and Psalms. One was sticking out of my shirt pocket and the young woman asked if it were a dictionary. I think she wanted a copy. "No," I replied, “It’s a copy of the New Testament, a book of Christian Scripture.”

Well…that generated a blank look. So I asked if they were Buddhists. They said their parents were but that they weren’t believers. Then the woman said, “Can you explain it, tell us about it?”

Have you ever tried to explain Christianity to someone who knows absolutely nothing about it, nothing of Jesus Christ and His saving work? Where to begin to tell these two well-intentioned people about our faith? I suppose I could have started with Abraham and Moses and David, but that would take hours.

For some reason, maybe because it was Christmas, I instead went back to Nazareth, to the greatest event in human history, to that day when Mary gave her consent to God to become His Mother.

After brief stops in Nazareth and Bethlehem, I went on, struggling to tell them something of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, something of the Gospel and the gift of faith. I told them of the Holy Spirit, and about the universal, Catholic Church founded by Jesus, and its mission to make disciples of all nations, even Taiwan.

But throughout it all, I found myself coming back to Mary, the Mother of God, this unique woman who always points to Jesus and by doing so has inspired and brought faith to so many; for she is humanity’s greatest advocate. Throughout her life, again and again, she pondered in her heart the mysteries of the Incarnation; and as St. John reminds us, in total faith and remarkable strength of character, “She stood by the Cross of Jesus” [Jn 19:25].

Yes, her life of faith, fullness of grace, and perfect discipleship is bracketed by two miraculous events, two of God’s gifts to Mary and to all of humanity.

Her life on earth began with the Immaculate Conception, when she was brought into being with a perfect, sinless soul – for the vessel that will carry and nourish our divine Savior must be perfect.

And that earthly life ended with the Assumption, when her body too was brought into perfection, into God’s heavenly presence. After all, how can this body, this body that gave flesh and blood to God Incarnate…how can this body suffer corruption?

Telling all this to my young Taiwanese couple while struggling to eat with chopsticks is no easy task. And so to reward me they bought me a beer. I repaid them by giving them my New Testament. As I left them I hoped that my weak attempt at evangelization might have yielded some fruit. But that’s the Holy Spirit’s job.

Later, walking back to the ship through a soaking rain, I remembered that I had used a holy card as a bookmark in that little New Testament. On one side was that beautiful painting of the Assumption by Titian, a painting that hangs today in the Frari Basilica in Venice. On the other were the words of the Magnificat, Mary’s prayer of praise and thanksgiving.

Titian's Assumption behind the Frari's Main Altar (Venice)

Yes, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary – today’s solemnity.

Although the Assumption wasn’t officially declared a dogma of faith until 1950 by Pope Pius XII, it was a common and accepted belief within the entire Church for centuries. Indeed, we find homilies on the Assumption, or the “Dormition” as it is often called in the Eastern Church, dating to the fifth century.

The Assumption celebrates Mary’s singular participation in her Son’s Resurrection by which she was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory when the course of her life was finished. Why did God do this for her? With partial understanding, we can say that Christ has a unique relationship with the body and soul of Mary, for her body held the Incarnate Body of God Himself.  And so, when her life on earth ended, God glorified Mary, both body and soul.

We see implications of this in our first reading, from the Book of Revelation, where Mary is seen as the "woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars" [Rev 12:1] – as one who is above all of creation. She’s also depicted as a mother, which she is, many times over: Mother of God, Mother of the Church, Mother of us all.

But as a disciple of Jesus Christ, she’s also our Sister. And as the perfect disciple, she’s our model, our model of how to live the Christian life, our model of faith and hope. She is among "the first-fruits" [1 Cor 15:20] that Paul refers to, the first-fruits of "all who are called to belong to Jesus" [Rom 1:6] and who share in His triumph. 

We see her in her role as disciple most clearly in today’s Gospel passage from Luke. What a remarkable scene! The young Mary, now Mother of the Incarnate God, is told by Gabriel of her aged cousin’s pregnancy; and in a humble act of love, she leaves in haste and makes the difficult journey from Galilee to Judea to visit Elizabeth.

Yes, Mary is a true disciple, a fact that Elizabeth points out when she greets her: “Most blessed are you among women...”  An inspired Elizabeth, recognizing who has come to visit her, continued, “…and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” [Lk 1:42-43] But the Spirit’s not through, for John leaped in Elizabeth’s womb at Mary’s greeting.

Mary acknowledged the divine grace that filled the whole scene: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior” [Lk 1:46-47]. All three, Mary, Elizabeth and John, greeted one another filled with the Holy Spirit, and filled too with thanksgiving and joyful anticipation of the fulfillment of God's promise to give a Savior to all of creation.

How fitting a reminder to us today that Jesus Christ was greeted first by a baby in the womb, an unborn infant who pointed to His coming as the Holy Spirit revealed the presence of the King to be born. This is the power of the Holy Spirit, brothers and sisters, the gift that enables us to know and experience the indwelling presence of God and the power of his kingdom. The Holy Spirit is the way in which God reigns within each of us. And so Mary, filled with the Spirit and full of grace, joyfully receives the gift of God’s presence.

From this you and I learn that God visits us in the everyday experiences of our lives, encounters steeped in God’s love. We also come to realize that God remains with us in all our human activities, for He is the presence that holds us up. As St. Paul reminds us, “In Him we live and move and have our being” [Acts 17:28].

And it is through these divine encounters, these everyday meetings with God and His people, that we are saved by God’s tender mercies. As our model of faith and hope, Mary shows us all this and more. She accepted her mission with uncompromising faith and obedience. She acted with unwavering trust because she believed that God would fulfill the Word He had spoken.

Her great hymn of praise proclaims the favor of the Lord: He has "lifted up the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things” [Lk 1:52-53]. And He does so through us. The Holy Spirit is ever ready to renew faith and hope in God's promises and to make us strong in love for God and our neighbor. Yes, Mary is our model in this too, especially in this age of violence and hatred, an age that celebrates the culture of death.

Let us, like Mary, be the vessels that carry God’s love, God's life into the world. For her Son came that we “might have life and have it more abundantly” [Jn 10:10].

Let’s thank Mary, our Mother, for her fiat, for her acceptance of God’s presence within her, so that today, through the Holy Spirit, we too might receive within us the Body and Blood of her Son, all for the Glory of the Father.

Homily: Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Readings:  Rv 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab; Psalm 45; 1 Cor 15:20-27; Lk 1:39-56
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Titian's Assumption (Frari-Venice)

Today we celebrate one of the great solemnities of the liturgical year, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Although the Assumption wasn’t officially declared a dogma of faith until 1950 by Pope Pius XII, it had been a common and accepted belief within the Catholic Church for centuries. This is especially true in the Eastern Church where we find homilies on the Assumption, or the “Dormition” as it is often called in the East, dating to the fifth century. And so the defined dogma of Mary’s bodily assumption into heaven isn’t something new; rather, it simply confirmed the long-held beliefs regarding the uniqueness of Mary.

The Assumption celebrates the Blessed Virgin’s singular participation in her Son’s Resurrection by which she was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory when the course of her life was finished. Of course, the message for us is that Mary’s Assumption gives us a glimpse into what we too can expect when our own resurrection occurs on the last day.

Mary’s assumption is really the destiny of all those in Christ.  As St. Paul tells us in our 2nd reading, we shall be raised up from the dead with a glorified body like that of Christ Himself. Through the power of Christ’s resurrected glory, we’ll experience complete and perfect union with God in Christ in a glorified state, just as Mary experiences it now as a result of her Assumption.

In the Byzantine Catholic rite there’s a beautiful prayer that echoes this anticipation of resurrection: “In giving birth you kept your virginity; in your Dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life. You conceived the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death.”

Why did God do this for Mary? Why did He assume her, body and soul, into His heavenly presence? We can’t say for sure, because the Assumption is a mystery, and as a mystery of faith we can never fully understand it. But we must believe it, and so our understanding will not be based on reason, but rather on a supernatural belief.

We can, however, understand the mystery partially, and can say with some assurance that Mary’s Assumption occurred because she, as the Mother of Jesus Christ, is also the Mother of God, that her body, her immaculate body, a body conceived without sin, held the Incarnate Body of God Himself. And so Christ has an absolutely unique relationship with the body of Mary, to the extent that, in a mystical, mysterious way, the Body of Christ is also, to some extent, the body of Mary.

We can understand, too, that on the day of his Ascension into Heaven, Christ had already glorified, in a certain way, the body of Mary; and that, therefore, when her life on earth was ended, Mary necessarily had to be glorified, both body and soul.

We see implications of this in our first reading, from the Book of Revelation. The passage was chosen not because of its literal meaning, but because of a convenience of words. Mary is seen as the woman clothed with the sun, with a crown of twelve stars, and with the moon under her feet – as one who is above all of creation. Although this passage applies to the Church, Mary is Mother many times over, Mother of God, Mother of us all, and Mother of the Church, the symbol of what we all should be.

And so today we celebrate Mary, Theotokos, Mother of God, and Our heavenly Mother. But she is more than that, more than our Mother, for as a fellow disciple of Jesus Christ, she’s also our Sister. And as the perfect disciple, she’s our model, our model on how to live the Christian life, our model of faith and hope. She is among "the first-fruits" that Paul refers to, the first-fruits of "all those who belong to Jesus" and who share in his triumph. And we see her in this role most clearly in today’s Gospel passage from Luke.

What a remarkable scene! The young Mary, now Mother of the Incarnate God, is told by Gabriel of her aged cousin’s pregnancy; and in a humble act of love, makes the difficult journey from Galilee to Judea to visit Elizabeth.

Yes, Mary is the first and the best disciple of Jesus, something that Elizabeth points out by greeting her with, “Blessed are you among women...” Not to be outdone, Elizabeth’s son, John, “leaped in her womb” at Mary’s greeting. What an extraordinary response to what seems such a simple act on Mary’s part. But Mary continues and quietly yet strongly acknowledges the incredible grace that encompasses the whole scene: her son-to-be is the reason for the leaping with joy. “My soul proclaims the greatness of the lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior.”

All three, Mary, Elizabeth and John, greet one another filled with the Holy Spirit, and filled too with a joyful anticipation of the fulfillment of God's promise to give a Savior. How fitting a reminder to us today that Jesus Christ was greeted first by a baby in the womb, an unborn infant who pointed to His coming as the Holy Spirit revealed the presence of the King to be born. This is the power of the Holy Spirit; for He is God's gift to us. He enables us to know and experience the indwelling presence of God and the power of his kingdom. The Holy Spirit is God reigning within each of us.

And so Mary, filled with the Spirit and full of grace, the first and best of Jesus’ disciples, receives wholeheartedly the beauty and bounty of God. And from all this we learn that God visits us in the ordinariness of our lives. Here we see what would seem to be a not unusual family meeting of two gifted women and the encounter is suffused with the love of God.

We also come to realize that God remains with us in all our human activities, for He is the presence that holds us up; in Him we live and move and have our being. And it is through these encounters with God, these encounters that occur in the midst of our daily lives, that we are saved by God’s tender mercies.

As our model of faith and hope, Mary shows us all this and more. She accepted her mission with uncompromising faith and obedience. She acted with unwavering trust and faith because she believed that God would fulfill the word he had spoken. Her great hymn of praise echoes the song of Hannah and proclaims the favor of the Lord: God exalts the lowly and he fills the hungry.

The Holy Spirit is ever ready to renew faith and hope in God's promises and to make us strong in love for God and our neighbor. And so, today, as we experience God’s indwelling presence in the Eucharist, let’s turn our eyes towards Heaven, where Jesus and Mary await us, in the company of all the saints who make up, for all eternity, the Mystical Body of Christ!

Let’s pray to Mary, our Mother, asking her to intercede for us so that, through the Holy Spirit, we might worthily receive the Body and Blood of her Son, and like her become God-bearers for the Glory of the Father.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

The Coming Persecution

Whenever I allude to my belief that within a few short years the Catholic Church in the US will suffer severe persecution, folks tend to dismiss me as a wacko. Now on many issues I might very well hold some curious beliefs, but on this subject I'm as sane as they come. And although the Catholic Church will be the primary target of this persecution, Christians in general -- particularly those who actually put their Christian beliefs into practice -- will not escape the oppressive power of the federal government. As evidence let me pass along a few news items to demonstrate the direction in which things are moving.

The first item addresses a federal government legal attack on a Catholic college in North Carolina. Belmont Abbey College, a school founded by the Benedictines, decided that as a Catholic college it could not in good conscience include abortion, contraception and sterilization in its employee health care plan. After removing coverage for these procedures the college found itself on the receiving end of complaint by the federal government's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The EEOC took the complaint (originally made by eight faculty members) to the next level by issuing a letter of determination accusing the college of discriminating based on gender. Belmont Abbey's dispute with the federal government isn't over, but the government's actions are just a preview of what we can expect under any national health care plan run by the feds. To read more about Belmont Abbey College's ongoing problems, click here.

Another item, this one applicable to Christians in general, is the federal prosecution of two school administrators in Florida's Santa Rosa county who led a prayer at a dedication of a new high school field house. The two men, Pace High School Principal Frank Lay and school athletic director Robert Freeman, will go on trial in federal district court in Pensacola on September 17. That's right, the federal government will prosecute these two men for the criminal act of praying. Let's see, as I recall, the First Amendment of the United states Constitution guarantees that the government may not prohibit the free exercise of religion. Seems to me that perhaps it should be the federal government on trial here. As you might expect the American Civil Liberties Union -- an organization that is particularly dismissive of the civil liberties guaranteed by our Constitution -- is behind the ridiculous prosecution of these two men. For more info, click here.

Here's another. Apparently the State Bar of Arizona is considering requiring all lawyers to swear that their personal views on homosexuality will not affect their provision of legal services. On the surface it sounds fairly innocuous. After all, everyone deserves legal representation when necessary. The problem is that under this rule an attorney could not refuse to represent a homosexual who was, for example, filing suit against the Catholic Church. In other words, a Catholic attorney who accepts Church teaching on homosexual acts would be forced to choose between his faith or his job. Read more here.

I found these three stories in a few minutes of browsing this morning. They are just symptoms of an effort to move our nation and its people away from God. And so, as the decline continues, we can only raise our voices in the public square and continue to pray for our nation. And especially today, on the solemnity of the Assumption, let us ask Our Blessed Mother, our nation's patron saint, to intercede for us and lead to conversion those who would lead us in another direction.

Titian's Assumption (Church of Santa Maria dei Frari in Venice)

God's peace...