Word to the Wise
Tuesday, August 15, 2017 - Aug. 15 - The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mass during the Day
[Rev 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab; 1 Cor 15:20-27; Luke 1:39-56]"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me and holy is his name." [Luke]
Holy Days of Obligation are not what they used to be! I remember the offical dogmatic declaration of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary because the declaration was made by Pope Pius XII in 1950, when I was first beginning grade school. We Catholic kids welcomed Holy Days of Obligation most of the time because we didn't have to go to school that day. We DID have to go to church, however. These days were considered by the Church as equivalent to a Sunday! In recent years, the bishops in the U.S.A. have gradually started moving these celebrations to the nearest Sunday because the churches are not exactly full on these days anymore. Mary may have gone directly to heaven, but her faithful followers are not flocking to Church to celebrate that belief on August 15 in the USA.
The words of the "Magnificat" which I quoted from today's gospel scripture are at the root of our faith in this matter. We believe that Mary enjoyed immediately what we will enjoy only at the end of time at the final resurrection - the completion of the work of redemption, even if we will enjoy the beatific vision at death. She became the most important member of the Communion of Saints. "the Almighty has done great things for her." August 15th is set aside as a day to celebrate this truth, but the Catholic world now is not the one that existed in 1950, and catechesis about Holy Days of Obligation does not seem to have emphasized the "obligation" part. The "Marian" side of the church allows for a maternal expression of faith. We are missing something if we let days like this go by without celebration. AMEN