My dear friends,
        This week, we have a holy day of obligation. Tuesday is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We will have Mass in the church at 7:30 in the morning and 7:30 in the evening. I hope to see you there.
       This ancient feast honors the day of the death of the Blessed Mother and her assumption into heaven. That means that she went to heaven with both body and soul. It’s a foreshadowing of our own bodily resurrection at the end of time. As the Immaculate Conception, she was born without sin and lived without sin. She said yes to God and gave birth to our God in the glory of the Incarnation. She was the greatest disciple of the Lord and remained with him, even at the moment of his death on the cross. As a witness of the Resurrection, Mary went out into the world to declare the praises of God. Tradition tells us that she ended her days on earth in Ephesus, in modern day Turkey. As the first Christian and as one united fully to God, she shares first in the mystery of the Resurrection. That’s what we will celebrate this Tuesday.  
        Though the feast day is very old, the teaching of the Assumption is our most recent dogma (a required belief of the Catholic faithful). Pope Pius XII made the proclamation at the conclusion of the Jubilee, a holy year in 1950. After the horrors inflicted upon humanity in World War II and the Holocausts, the pontiff chose this teaching as a way to honor the dignity of human life. Mary, though sinless, was a human being. She was not divine; she was just a blessed person. If a human being can become the Mother of God, then humanity is truly loved by God. If she goes to heaven in both body and soul, the human body matters and needs to be treated with dignity in both life and in death. As a contrast to the sheer brutality and evil unleashed in the Twentieth Century, Pope Pius gave us a reason to see the beauty of human life and the dignity of the body. In the Blessed Mother, we see that clearly. We are called to follow her in our own path to salvation.
       This Tuesday, keep that in mind. We don’t just go to Mass because the Church makes us; we gather in celebration because the teaching calls us to see the beauty of our lives and all humanity. We come to recall the marvel of being made in the image and likeness of God. We join our prayers with those of the Blessed Mother, assumed into heaven. It is a day to give thanks. That’s why we will be in church.

Happily yours in Christ, Fr. Joe