WITH MARY ASSUMED WE ARE PILGRIMS OF HOPE

We are in the holy year of the Jubilee, a year of grace and rejuvenation, especially in our life of faith, in our spiritual life. Pope Francis has specified the theme of the Jubilee Year 2025 as Pilgrims of Hope. In the Bull of Indiction entitled ‘Spes non confundit’ – ‘hope does not disappoint’ – (Rom. 5:5), the Pope opened the Jubilee year by saying “Hope is … the central message” of this jubilee year, since, in today’s world, “uncertainty about the future may at times give rise to conflicting feelings, ranging from confident trust to apprehensiveness, from serenity to anxiety, from firm conviction to hesitation and doubt. Often we come across people who are discouraged, pessimistic and cynical about the future, as if nothing could possibly bring them happiness” (SnC, 1).

The Bl. Virgin Mary is a woman of hope and our model of hope, because she was truly a pilgrim of hope. She is also considered the mother of hope because she embodies hope through her life of faith and her role as the mother of Jesus, the source of salvation. Her “Yes” to God reversed the consequences of Eve’s disobedience and opened the way to redemption. She is a model of faith and trust in God, even in the face of suffering and uncertainty, and a source of comfort and guidance for those seeking hope. The Blessed Virgin Mary’s life, from Annunciation to the Crucifixion of Jesus, demonstrates how to maintain hope even in the face of suffering and uncertainty. Her Assumption into heaven is seen as a sign of hope for humanity, a glimpse of the redeemed life that awaits believers.

The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a celebration of hope. A celebration of hope that God rewards his faithful servants who cooperate with him to fulfil his salvific plan. Hope filled her life and animated her actions. We can learn from Mary how to hope in God’s word, so that each of us may become a hospitable home where hope flourishes. The Blessed Mother’s life is filled with moments when she showed us that faith nourishes hope amid difficulties. As a young woman Mary was already betrothed to Joseph when she was visited by the Archangel Gabriel and asked whether she would conceive and bear the Son of God. When she was expecting to give birth any day, she was told that she had to travel to Bethlehem for a census. And when she did deliver Jesus, it was not in a house but in a stable for animals. And yet rather than complaining or doubting, with tremendous hope in God whose handmaid she was, she treasured these things in her heart and pondered them.

Shortly after Jesus was born Mary and Joseph had to flee in the night to the safety of Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod, who felt his rule threatened by Jesus. We know that the story didn’t end there for Mary. Surely there were other moments of trial as well as she raised Jesus, the greatest moment of trial being of course her standing at the foot of the Cross. These moments tested her faith and hope in an unequivocal way.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is often represented by the moon, since she has no light of her own but reflects the light of Jesus, just as the moon reflects the sun’s light. Mary shows us that the way to hope begins with faith in Jesus and reliance on him for strength and grace. Mary shows us that the way to happiness and freedom from sin is to seek Jesus and grow in intimate friendship with him. Only he, through the Holy Spirit, can lead us to the Father and only he can unite a broken humanity. Unlike the new secular religion of “wokeness” Jesus Christ offers us the chance to repent and be healed; he does not condemn and humiliate. In him every person can find healing, purpose and true community.

Jesus declared this fact to his disciples as he approached his own Passion and death: “Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived when each of you will be scattered to his own home and you will leave me alone. But I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world” (Jn 16:32-33).

In a 2006 reflection on the Assumption, Pope Benedict XVI affirmed how the present society may struggle to understand its importance. “Some people today live as if they never had to die or as if, with death, everything were over; others, who hold that man is the one and only author of his own destiny, behave as though God did not exist, and at times they even reach the point of denying that there is room for him in our world.” Pope Francis spoke thus at the celebration of Assumption in 2020. The Assumption of Mary gives us hope that “we are precious, destined to rise again”, he said during the Angelus. “God does not allow our bodies to vanish into nothing. With God, nothing is lost!”

We can sum up the joy Mary’s assumption holds for us in the statement of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops: “Bl. Virgin Mary’s entry into heaven prefigures our own hope of experiencing the same eternal life.”  This event reveals not only the love God has for his children but also the realization of what he intended before death entered the world. Mary was able to “experience the immediate perfect union with her Son in heaven, never knowing, tasting or suffering from bodily corruption or decay (due to death) in any way”.

How marvellous is it to know that this is precisely what awaits us! When we reflect on this reality, we should be filled with joy. This is why in many classical church buildings, particularly in the Eastern churches, we notice that the Assumption is depicted at the building’s exit, on the western wall. This is so that we are constantly reminded of our earthly life’s end in light of Mary’s Assumption, offering ourselves to be enveloped in our Lord’s loving embrace.

The Feast of Assumption has always been loved dearly by the faithful who are children of Mary. It is a sign to us that someday, through God’s grace and our efforts, we too may join the Bl. Mother in giving glory to God. There is nothing in Scripture that speaks of the Assumption of Mary. But Luke tells us that nothing is impossible for God and the Assumption is that sign. The Assumption is a source of great hope for us too, for it points the way for all followers of Christ, who imitate her fidelity and obedience to God’s will. Where she now is, we are meant eventually to be and may hope to be, through Divine grace.

The Assumption of Mary teaches us the way of faith, prayer and repentance as the path to victory. It also guarantees that Mary intercedes for us powerfully, as the first of all the saints. Mary, also being the source of grace, helps each of us and the Universal Church on pilgrimage in times of trial.

The Church honours Mary as the Mother of Hope, recognizing her as a powerful intercessor and a source of strength for those who seek God’s grace and guidance. As we celebrate this Jubilee Year, let us look to Our Lady for her motherly protection and ask her to pray that we can grow in faith, hope and charity, so that we can be luminous examples of disciples of Jesus in a world desperately searching for hope.

Yours affectionately in Don Bosco,

Fr. Jose Koyickal sdb
Provincial