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 

Laughter and Life

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to reassess the circumstances where we have limited our experience of love and full life by restricting our faith to human experience.

Laughter in the Message

The Book of Genesis proclaims Abraham’s Visitors.

* [18:1] Chapters 18 and 19 combined form a continuous narrative, concluding the story of Abraham and his nephew Lot that began in 13:2–18. The mysterious men visit Abraham in Mamre to promise him and Sarah a child the following year (18:1–15) and then visit Lot in Sodom to investigate and then to punish the corrupt city (19:1–29). Between the two visits, Abraham questions God about the justice of punishing Sodom (18:16–33). At the end of the destruction of Sodom, there is a short narrative about Lot as the ancestor of Moab and the Ammonites (19:30–38).

* [18:3] Abraham addresses the leader of the group, whom he does not yet recognize as the Lord; in the next two verses he speaks to all three men. The other two are later (Gn 19:1) identified as angels. The shifting numbers and identification of the visitors are a narrative way of expressing the mysterious presence of God.

* [18:6] Three measures: Hebrew seah; three seahs equal one ephah, about half a bushel.

* [18:8] Curds: a type of soft cheese or yogurt.

* [18:10] One of them: i.e., the Lord.

* [18:12] Sarah laughed: a play on the verb “laugh,” which prefigures the name of Isaac; see note on 17:17. (Genesis, CHAPTER 18 | USCCB, n.d.)

The Response in Luke presents The Canticle of Mary.

* [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.)

The Gospel of Matthew proclaims the Healing of a Centurion’s Servant.

* [8:5–13] This story comes from Q (see Lk 7:1–10) and is also reflected in Jn 4:46–54. The similarity between the Q story and the Johannine is due to a common oral tradition, not to a common literary source. As in the later story of the daughter of the Canaanite woman (Mt 15:21–28) Jesus here breaks with his usual procedure of ministering only to Israelites and anticipates the mission to the Gentiles. (Matthew, CHAPTER 8 | USCCB, n.d.)

Rev. Martha Slocombe comments that Sarah’s laugh­ing was like­ly an invol­un­tary scoff­ing, but the denial of her laugh­ter was a con­scious choice. She want­ed to cov­er up her embar­rass­ment. So why include Sarah’s denial in scrip­ture? Why is it impor­tant? 

Because this did­n’t hold Sarah back from play­ing a great role in God’s plan. Because Sarah was not defined by the laugh­ter nor the denial of it: being a per­son of faith means reck­on­ing with our cringey and unsa­vory moments and not let­ting them define us. It’s an invi­ta­tion to be hon­est with our­selves because the Lord already knows the truth. It’s scary to hold up our cringi­est moments to God, to oth­ers, and maybe even most­ly to our­selves; and it’s also free­ing because it opens us up to the real and great pos­si­bil­i­ty God has in store for us. Some­thing beyond our wildest imag­i­na­tion. So don’t pray for God to take those moments away, pray that you will not let them define you and that you will be open to the plans that God has in store for you. (Slocombe, 2025)

Don Schwager quotes “Welcoming the Lord Jesus with expectant faith and humility,” by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.

"When the Lord promised to go to the centurion's house to heal his servant, the centurion answered, 'Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.' By viewing himself as unworthy, he showed himself worthy for Christ to come not merely into his house but also into his heart. He would not have said this with such great faith and humility if he had not already welcomed in his heart the One who came into his house. It would have been no great joy for the Lord Jesus to enter into his house and not to enter his heart. For the Master of humility both by word and example sat down also in the house of a certain proud Pharisee, Simon, and though he sat down in his house, there was no place in his heart. For in his heart the Son of Man could not lay his head" (Matthew 8:20). (excerpt from SERMON 62.1) (Schwager, n.d.)

The Word Among Us Meditation on Genesis 18:1-15 comments that Sarah’s visitors don’t condemn or reproach her for her outburst. They simply ask why she was laughing and then reassure her of God’s promise (Genesis 18:13-14). In fact, they might have been laughing along with her and thinking, “Just you wait; God isn’t done with you yet!”

God isn’t done with any of us yet. He is fully committed to his promises to us: promises to bless us, to forgive us, to fill us with his Spirit, and to bring healing to the hurts in our lives. He is also steadfast in his promise to mold us into disciples eager to witness to his love and redemption. So trust in his promises, even when they come to you in the form of an unexpected visitor with a preposterous message.

“Lord, let your faithfulness to me fill my heart with joy and laughter!” (Meditation on Genesis 18:1-15, n.d.)

Friar Jude Winkler comments in the Genesis passage how Abraham shows three visitors enormous hospitality that was expected in a desert country so as not to condemn them to death. God and angels receive from Abraham and promise a child to Sarah, who laughed about bearing a child, Isaac brings joy to the parents. In the Gospel of Matthew a Samaritan who calls for healing for the servant expresses an act of courtesy to acknowledge being considered unclean and trusting Jesus to just give the order. The people of Israel are slower to believe than the outsider. The healing of Peter’s mother in Law shows us to use the favour to serve others. Friar Jude notes that Jesus fulfilled Isaiah and took away our infirmities, the role of the Messiah in the Scripture and also including the Gentiles.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces Father Greg Boyle, the founder of Homeboy Industries, a gang-rehabilitation organization that operates on the principle that in the kinship of God, we all belong. Fr Greg asks  “How do we arrive at a place and tenor of community that asserts: Nobody VS. Anybody?” This is, in fact, a good definition of the kinship of God…. No Us and Them, just Us. This is, indeed, God’s dream come true….”  

I recently spoke on a panel … [and] I told the crowd that two unwavering principles held at Homeboy Industries were the following: 1) Everyone is unshakably good (no exceptions) and 2) We belong to each other (no exceptions). Then I posited: “Now, do I think all our vexing and complex social dilemmas would disappear if we embraced those two notions?” I paused, then continued, “Yes, I do.” And the entire audience exploded in laughter. I was startled. When the laughter subsided, I repeated quietly: “Yes, I do.”  

These two ideas allow us to roll up our sleeves so that we can actually make progress. So that we can love without measure and without regret. So that we can cultivate a new way of seeing. We finally understand that the answer to every question is, indeed, compassion. How else do we bridge the great polarizing divide that presents itself now, as a clear and present danger in our country? … (Rohr, n.d.)

We ponder the “What” and the “Why” around the limits we put on the extent of love, mercy and compassion, especially in our experience of Divine love, that limit our openness to fullness of life.

References

Genesis, CHAPTER 18 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved June 28, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/genesis/18?1 

Luke, CHAPTER 1 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved June 28, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/1?46 

Matthew, CHAPTER 8 | USCCB. (n.d.). Daily Readings. Retrieved June 28, 2025, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/8?5 

Meditation on Genesis 18:1-15. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved June 28, 2025, from https://wau.org/meditations/2025/06/28/1318550/ 

Rohr, R. (n.d.). Creating Communities of Change: Weekly Summary. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved June 28, 2025, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/creating-communities-of-change-weekly-summary/ 

Schwager, D. (n.d.). Say the Word and My Servant Will Be Healed. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved June 28, 2025, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2025&date=jun28 

Slocombe, M. (2025, June 28). Daily Reflection June 28, 2025 | Creighton Online Ministries. Creighton Online Ministries. Retrieved June 28, 2025, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/daily-reflections/daily-reflection-june-28-2025