The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today, Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, challenge us to celebrate the blessings in our lives that resonate with our belief in Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
The reading from the Book of Revelation presents The Woman and the Dragon.
* [12:1–6] The woman adorned with the sun, the moon, and the stars (images taken from Gn 37:9–10) symbolizes God’s people in the Old and the New Testament. The Israel of old gave birth to the Messiah (Rev 12:5) and then became the new Israel, the church, which suffers persecution by the dragon (Rev 12:6, 13–17); cf. Is 50:1; 66:7; Jer 50:12. This corresponds to a widespread myth throughout the ancient world that a goddess pregnant with a savior was pursued by a horrible monster; by miraculous intervention, she bore a son who then killed the monster.
* [12:2] Because of Eve’s sin, the woman gives birth in distress and pain (Gn 3:16; cf. Is 66:7–14).
* [12:3] Huge red dragon: the Devil or Satan (cf. Rev 12:9; 20:2), symbol of the forces of evil, a mythical monster known also as Leviathan (Ps 74:13–14) or Rahab (Jb 26:12–13; Ps 89:11). Seven diadems: these are symbolic of the fullness of the dragon’s sovereignty over the kingdoms of this world; cf. Christ with many diadems (Rev 19:12).
* [12:5] Rule,iron rod: fulfilled in Rev 19:15; cf. Ps 2:9. Was caught up to God: reference to Christ’s ascension.
* [12:6] God protects the persecuted church in the desert, the traditional Old Testament place of refuge for the afflicted, according to the typology of the Exodus; see note on Rev 11:2. (Revelation, CHAPTER 12 | USCCB, n.d.)
Psalm 45 declares the woman is to forget her own house when she becomes wife to the king
* [Psalm 45] A song for the Davidic king’s marriage to a foreign princess from Tyre in Phoenicia. The court poet sings (Ps 45:2, 18) of God’s choice of the king (Ps 45:3, 8), of his role in establishing divine rule (Ps 45:4–8), and of his splendor as he waits for his bride (Ps 45:9–10). The woman is to forget her own house when she becomes wife to the king (Ps 45:11–13). Her majestic beauty today is a sign of the future prosperity of the royal house (Ps 45:14–17). The Psalm was retained in the collection when there was no reigning king, and came to be applied to the king who was to come, the messiah. (Psalms, PSALM 45 | USCCB, n.d.)
The Reading from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians proclaims Christ, the Firstfruits.
* [15:20–28] After a triumphant assertion of the reality of Christ’s resurrection (1 Cor 15:20a), Paul explains its positive implications and consequences. As a soteriological event of both human (1 Cor 15:20–23) and cosmic (1 Cor 15:24–28) dimensions, Jesus’ resurrection logically and necessarily involves ours as well.
* [15:20] The firstfruits: the portion of the harvest offered in thanksgiving to God implies the consecration of the entire harvest to come. Christ’s resurrection is not an end in itself; its finality lies in the whole harvest, ourselves.
* [15:21–22] Our human existence, both natural and supernatural, is corporate, involves solidarity. In Adam…in Christ: the Hebrew word ’ādām in Genesis is both a common noun for mankind and a proper noun for the first man. Paul here presents Adam as at least a literary type of Christ; the parallelism and contrast between them will be developed further in 1 Cor 15:45–49 and in Rom 5:12–21.
* [15:24–28] Paul’s perspective expands to cosmic dimensions, as he describes the climax of history, the end. His viewpoint is still christological, as in 1 Cor 15:20–23. 1 Cor 15:24, 28 describe Christ’s final relations to his enemies and his Father in language that is both royal and military; 1 Cor 15:25–28 inserts a proof from scripture (Ps 110:1; 8:6) into this description. But the viewpoint is also theological, for God is the ultimate agent and end, and likewise soteriological, for we are the beneficiaries of all the action.
* [15:26] The last enemy…is death: a parenthesis that specifies the final fulfillment of the two Old Testament texts just referred to, Ps 110:1 and Ps 8:7. Death is not just one cosmic power among many, but the ultimate effect of sin in the universe (cf. 1 Cor 15:56; Rom 5:12). Christ defeats death where it prevails, in our bodies. The destruction of the last enemy is concretely the “coming to life” (1 Cor 15:22) of “those who belong to Christ” (1 Cor 15:23). (1 Corinthians, CHAPTER 15 | USCCB, n.d.)
The Gospel of Luke presents Mary’s Visit to Elizabeth and The Canticle of Mary.
* [1:43] Even before his birth, Jesus is identified in Luke as the Lord.
* [1:45] Blessed are you who believed: Luke portrays Mary as a believer whose faith stands in contrast to the disbelief of Zechariah (Lk 1:20). Mary’s role as believer in the infancy narrative should be seen in connection with the explicit mention of her presence among “those who believed” after the resurrection at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 1:14).
* [1:46–55] Although Mary is praised for being the mother of the Lord and because of her belief, she reacts as the servant in a psalm of praise, the Magnificat. Because there is no specific connection of the canticle to the context of Mary’s pregnancy and her visit to Elizabeth, the Magnificat (with the possible exception of v. 48) may have been a Jewish Christian hymn that Luke found appropriate at this point in his story. Even if not composed by Luke, it fits in well with themes found elsewhere in Luke: joy and exultation in the Lord; the lowly being singled out for God’s favor; the reversal of human fortunes; the fulfillment of Old Testament promises. The loose connection between the hymn and the context is further seen in the fact that a few Old Latin manuscripts identify the speaker of the hymn as Elizabeth, even though the overwhelming textual evidence makes Mary the speaker. (Luke, CHAPTER 1 | USCCB, n.d.)
Rev. Larry Gillick, SJ, reflects on speaking with the wife of a high school classmate. He died last week and so she was sharing with me about the goodness of his life. She related that near his death he said to her, “Well I am off to heaven and if there isn’t a heaven, well I’ll be dead and not know it.”
The importance to our faith which is celebrated with this liturgy is that faith within questioning and fears and doubts is the center of our response to God’s relating with us. Mary was asked to hear, trust, travel, and live fully what she heard, or believed she heard. Maybe the angel wasn’t real and she just imagined that, or wished it were true. Reality did set in and within her womb and that of Elizabeth’s. Reality came forth in Bethlehem and throughout Israel in the life of Jesus and to His Death. Quite a final reality and Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. Did she doubt and tremble with fear, of course, she was a human. Did she trust while shaking in her sandals? She did! This feast celebrates her fidelity to all that she believed and encourages us all to shake, question, ponder and wait to see if we will live beyond death or just die. We do not assume that we will be raised ourselves, we believe it! (Gillick, 2025)
Don Schwager quotes “Christ the fruit of the faithful,” by Ambrose of Milan (339-397 A.D).
"You see that Mary did not doubt but believed and therefore obtained the fruit of faith. 'Blessed ... are you who have believed.' But you also are blessed who have heard and believed. For a soul that has believed has both conceived and bears the Word of God and declares his works. Let the soul of Mary be in each of you, so that it magnifies the Lord. Let the spirit of Mary be in each of you, so that it rejoices in God (Luke 1:46-47). She is the one mother of Christ according to the flesh, yet Christ is the Fruit of all according to faith. Every soul receives the Word of God, provided that, undefiled and unstained by vices, it guards its purity with inviolate modesty. (excerpt from EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 2.26) (Schwager, n.d.)
The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 1:39-56 asks what made Mary blessed? Elizabeth’s words in today’s Gospel point us to the answer: “Blessed are you who believed” (Luke 1:45, emphasis added)!
Today, imagine Mary standing before you, gently urging you to hold fast to God’s promises. She is telling you that Jesus is worth believing, that he is steadfast in his love for you, and that he longs to bring you into his heavenly glory. Listen as she exclaims, “Blessed are you who believe!”
“Holy Mary, Mother of God, help me to believe ever more deeply in your Son!” (Meditation on Luke 1:39-56, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler reflects on the texts of today. The Revelation passage proclaims the Ark of the Covenant found on the Day of the Lord as a sign of the coming of the end. The image of the Immaculate Conception comes from Revelation resonant with the suffering of Mary at the cross, Mary giving birth and the devil sweeping the stars representing angels from the sky. The child is given an iron rod with the enemies of Israel written on it. Mary is represented at one level but at another level the Church in the world is making up the lack in the suffering of Christ. The First Letter to the Corinthians proclaims Jesus has destroyed the power of death. In Luke, at the Visitation in Ein Karem, Mary is declared to have listened to the Word of God and embraced it. The Baptist responds in Elizabeth’s womb. The magnificat, from the song of Hanna, recognizes the anawim are always ready to accept the Word of God in Jesus. Mary was of the anawim, unmarried, from a poor family, who had to eek out a living in her time. The passage talks about the birth of the Baptist. Across the valley from Ein Karem is Abu Gosh where David left the Ark for three months before bringing it to Jerusalem, Friar Jude reminds us that Mary represents the New Ark of the Covenant.
Brian McLaren reflects on Paul’s challenging task of implementing Jesus’ inclusive message in a growing spiritual community: highlights Paul’s Letter to the Romans as an example of Paul’s unifying message:
What we have is not a premeditated work of scholarly theology, edited and reedited, complete with footnotes. Rather, Paul is dictating a letter to some people he loves on a subject he loves, expressing the honest, unedited, natural flow of his thoughts and feelings…. If we read Romans keeping these realities in mind, I think we will become more sensitive than ever to the wonderful dance of the Spirit of God and the mind of a man in the context of a community in crisis. Together, the Holy Spirit and Paul make move after move toward the single goal of justifying the gospel as good news for gentiles and Jews alike….
Paul asserts that God doesn’t play favorites. All human beings are on the same level, whatever their religious background. All violate their own conscience, all fall short of God’s glory, all break God’s laws. None can claim an inside track with God just because they have mastered a body of religious knowledge, avoided a list of proscribed behaviors, or identified themselves with a certain label. In this way, Paul renders every mouth silent and everyone accountable to God (Romans 3:19). There is no us versus them, no elite insiders and excluded outsiders. There’s just all of us—Jews and gentiles—and we’re all … united in our need of grace. (McLaren, n.d.)
The Solemnity of the Assumption is an opportunity to reflect on the example of Mary in faith, love and charity to support the anawim of our time.
References
Gillick, L. (2025, August 15). Daily Reflection August 15, 2025 | Creighton Online Ministries. Creighton Online Ministries. Retrieved August 15, 2025, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-august-15-2025
Luke, CHAPTER 1 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved August 15, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/1?39
McLaren, B. (n.d.). United in Our Need for Grace. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved August 15, 2025, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/united-in-our-need-for-grace/
Meditation on Luke 1:39-56. (n.d.). Retrieved August 15, 2025, from https://wau.org/meditations/2025/08/15/1354957/
1 Corinthians, CHAPTER 15 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved August 15, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/15?20
Psalms, PSALM 45 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved August 15, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/45?10
Revelation, CHAPTER 12 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved August 15, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/revelation/12
Schwager, D. (n.d.). My Spirit Rejoices in God My Savior. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved August 15, 2025, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2025&date=aug15a
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