Assumption of Mary offers us hope of eternity, says Pope
By staff reporter

21 August 2009

Nuns pray outside the Church of St Thomas of Villanova as the Pope celebrates Mass for the feast of the Assumption in Castel Gandolfo (CNS)

The Assumption of Mary is a sign of hope for all Christians that through baptism and by faithfully following Christ they will have eternal life, Pope Benedict XVI has said.

"In the Virgin assumed into heaven we contemplate the coronation of her faith, of that journey of faith that she indicates for the Church and for each of us - she, who at every moment welcomed the word of God, has been assumed in heaven," he said.

Pope Benedict, his right arm still in a cast, celebrated Mass for the feast of the Assumption in the tiny parish church of St Thomas of Villanova at Castel Gandolfo.

A woman, shouting in German, interrupted the liturgy and was led outside by Vatican security, who later described her as being overcome by religious emotion.

The Pope also recited the Angelus prayer at noon on Saturday and Sunday with visitors gathered in the courtyard of the papal villa. In both Angelus addresses he continued reflecting on Mary's life and her Assumption into heaven.

In his homily he said that even in moments of "darkness and suffering" Mary continued to follow God's plan of love, placing her life totally in his hands.

For Mary and for every Christian, he said, "all of life is an ascent, all of life is meditation, obedience, trust and hope, even amid the darkness".

Pope Benedict said life involved struggles between good and evil and was like "a voyage on often stormy seas; Mary is the star that guides us toward her son Jesus, the sun that rises over the darkness of history".

Mary's life and her Assumption "gives us the hope we need: the hope that we can win, that God has won and that, through baptism, we have entered into this victory", the Pope said.

In his Angelus address after the Mass the Pope tied the feast to the Year for Priests and asked the world's priests to teach their faithful about Mary, using as their model St John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests.

He said the saint repeatedly consecrated his parish to Mary, entrusting each parishioner to her care. St John also recommended "especially that mothers do the same with their children", the Pope said.

Welcoming visitors to the villa, the Pope looked at the connection between Mary and the Sunday Gospel in which Jesus said: "I am the bread come down from heaven."

Jesus was able to become human and give himself for the nourishment and salvation of all people because Mary said "yes" to God's plan that Jesus be born of a human mother, the Pope said.

"It is a kind of exchange in which God always takes the initiative but, in a certain sense, one that needs Mary in order to prepare the material for his sacrifice: the body and blood to be offered on the cross as the instrument of eternal life and, in the sacrament of the Eucharist, as spiritual food and drink."

God also needs every man and woman to welcome him so that Christ can live in the world, Pope Benedict said.

"And if we say 'yes' like Mary, or rather to the extent that we give our 'yes', that which happened in that marvellous exchange also will happen with us: we will be assumed into the divinity of the One who assumed our humanity," the Pope added.