Blessing and Believing

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.

Saint Mary's Cathedral Basilica

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 

Covenant and Community

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today, Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, invite us to celebrate and share the joy of our relationship with Christ especially with people to whom we can bring love and support.

Community and Care

The reading from the Prophet Zephaniah, proclaims “Shout for joy, daughter Zion!”

h. [3:14] Zec 9:9.

i. [3:17] Jl 2:27. (Zephaniah, CHAPTER 3 | USCCB, n.d.)

The reading from the Letter of Paul to the Romans celebrates Mutual Love.

f. [12:9] 2 Cor 6:6; 1 Tm 1:5; 1 Pt 1:22 / Am 5:15.

g. [12:10] Jn 13:34; 1 Thes 4:9; 1 Pt 2:17; 2 Pt 1:7 / Phil 2:3.

h. [12:11] Acts 18:25.

i. [12:12] 5:2–3; Col 4:2; 1 Thes 5:17.

j. [12:13] Heb 13:2; 1 Pt 4:9.

k. [12:14–21] Mt 5:38–48; 1 Cor 4:12; 1 Pt 3:9.

l. [12:14] Lk 6:27–28.

m. [12:15] Ps 35:13; Sir 7:34; 1 Cor 12:26.

n. [12:16] 15:5; Phil 2:2–3 / 11:20; Prv 3:7; Is 5:21. (Romans, CHAPTER 12 | USCCB, n.d.)

The response from the Prophet Isaiah expresses Israel’s thanksgiving to the Lord.

* [12:1–6] Israel’s thanksgiving to the Lord, expressed in language like that of the Psalms. (Isaiah, CHAPTER 12 | USCCB, n.d.)

In the Gospel of Luke, Mary’s Visit to Elizabeth is celebrated in the Canticle of Mary known as the Magnificat.

* [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.)

Andy Alexander, S.J. comments that upon hearing that her elderly relative Elizabeth is also pregnant – because nothing is impossible with God – Mary’s first and immediate instinct is to go and help Elizabeth.  Full of grace, and carrying the human expression of God’s dying-to-self love, Mary shows us that when we receive God’s love, the grace will be there to share it with others.  To highlight this central part of our faith, our new Pope, Leo XIV, outlined this movement in his inauguration homily.

Brothers and sisters, I would like that our first great desire be for a united Church, a sign of unity and communion, which becomes a leaven for a reconciled world.

In this our time, we still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, the fear of difference, and an economic paradigm that exploits the Earth’s resources and marginalises the poorest. For our part, we want to be a small leaven of unity, communion and fraternity within the world. We want to say to the world, with humility and joy: Look to Christ! Come closer to him! Welcome his word that enlightens and consoles! Listen to his offer of love and become his one family: in the one Christ, we are one. This is the path to follow together, among ourselves but also with our sister Christian churches, with those who follow other religious paths, with those who are searching for God, with all women and men of good will, in order to build a new world where peace reigns!

This is the missionary spirit that must animate us; not closing ourselves off in our small groups, nor feeling superior to the world.  We are called to offer God’s love to everyone, in order to achieve that unity which does not cancel out differences but values the personal history of each person and the social and religious culture of every people.

Brothers and sisters, this is the hour for love! The heart of the Gospel is the love of God that makes us brothers and sisters. With my predecessor Leo XIII, we can ask ourselves today: If this criterion “were to prevail in the world, would not every conflict cease and peace return?” (Rerum Novarum, 20).

With the light and the strength of the Holy Spirit, let us build a Church founded on God’s love, a sign of unity, a missionary Church that opens its arms to the world, proclaims the word, allows itself to be made “restless” by history, and becomes a leaven of harmony for humanity.

Together, as one people, as brothers and sisters, let us walk towards God and love one another.  [Inauguration homily] (Alexander, n.d.)

Don Schwager quotes “John prophecies from the womb,” by Maximus of Turin (died between 408-423 AD)

"Not yet born, already John prophesies and, while still in the enclosure of his mother's womb, confesses the coming of Christ with movements of joy - since he could not do so with his voice. As Elizabeth says to holy Mary, 'As soon as you greeted me, the child in my womb exulted for joy.' John exults, then, before he is born. Before his eyes can see what the world looks like, he can recognize the Lord of the world with his spirit. In this regard, I think that the prophetic phrase is appropriate: 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you came forth from the womb I sanctified you' (Jeremiah 1:5). Thus we ought not to marvel that after Herod put him in prison, he continued to announce Christ to his disciples from his confinement, when even confined in the womb he preached the same Lord by his movements." (excerpt from SERMON 5.4) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 1:39-56 comments that our joy, however, is not something we should hide or keep to ourselves. As Jesus’ followers, our lives should shine with the joy and light of God’s love. Through our demeanor and our actions, we can make that joy readily apparent to everyone we meet. We can bring the light of Christ to a world that often sits in darkness!

On this special feast day, perhaps you could pray the joyful mysteries of the Rosary, or maybe just the second decade, the Visitation. As you do, let the joy so evident in this scene bubble up in your heart. Then “go in haste” to share this joy with all those you encounter today!

“Lord Jesus, help me to shine with the joy I experience in knowing you.” (Meditation on Luke 1:39-56, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler comments on the joy expressed by Zephaniah to visit Jerusalem ruled by God himself. Paul’s Letter to the Romans speaks of Christian virtues that we see in the reaction of Mary and Elizabeth. Mary set out for the hill country to Ein Kareem outside Jerusalem. Mary celebrates the fact of raising the lowly as the Queen of the anawim, people who but for the grace of God are not going to make it. Mary remains for three months and this refers to a greater sign nearby where David left the Ark for three months. Friar Jude reminds us of the role of Mary as the new Ark of the Covenant.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces indigenous author Sherri Mitchell who describes how we can heal our collective human shadow through compassion and spiritual maturity. There are other times when we meet our shadows with darkness. When this happens, we will simply expand the shadow and create more space for harm to occur. So how do we face the shadows that we see, and make the choice to bring light instead of darkness? How do we get to the place where we are willing to stop blindly lashing out, and end the illusion of war within ourselves and with others? 

We do so by facing ourselves, in every reflection, in every moment, with some degree of compassionate awareness and spiritual maturity. This is the real challenge of our lives…. 

The question is not why we are here, but how we show up most powerfully to meet the times that we are part of. The work that we are required to do is to reconcile the external world that we have created with the inner wisdom that we have acquired. Can we see how we, collectively, have played a role in the reality that is unfolding around us? Can we look at the world that we’ve created and identify our fingerprint in the design?…  

Are we willing to recognize the patterns of harm that we have been involved in, and consciously choose to heal the reverberations of that harm that are unfolding all around us? Will we as a species finally find a way to create a reality of peaceful coexistence, now that we know that failing to do so would be a complete destruction of ourselves? (Rohr, n.d.)

We ask the Spirit to inspire our action to bring loving support to people to celebrate their lives as children of God.

References

Alexander, A. (n.d.). Daily Reflection Of Creighton University's Online Ministries. Creighton University's Online Ministries. Retrieved May 31, 2025, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/053125.html 

Isaiah, CHAPTER 12 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Bible Readings. Retrieved May 31, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/isaiah/12?2 

Luke, CHAPTER 1 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved May 31, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/1?39 

Meditation on Luke 1:39-56. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved May 31, 2025, from https://wau.org/meditations/2025/05/31/1289960/ 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Embracing the Shadow: Weekly Summary. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved May 31, 2025, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/weekly-summary-embracing-the-shadow/ 

Romans, CHAPTER 12 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved May 31, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/romans/12?9 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). Joyful Anticipation of the Messiah. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved May 31, 2025, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2025&date=may31a 

Zephaniah, CHAPTER 3 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved May 31, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/zephaniah/3?14