Today is a feast of our Christian hope.  In heaven, right now, there is a human being who is the culmination of all that we hope for, an example of the fullness of time for all of us, when all is brought to completion and our souls and bodies are reunited in full glory.  For us, this Solemnity is like a continuation of the Easter Mystery, a continuation of the Resurrection and the Ascension of Our Lord.  Christ rose from the dead and returned back into eternal glory, body and soul, but in his case completely by his own power.  Our Lady is different.  She can’t get there on her own, not even she.  She is a creature like each one of us.  Unlike Christ.  He has a human nature, but he is a divine being.  That means he can get heaven on his own.  She can’t.  Like us, she must be called.  She must be graced.  She doesn’t ascend; she must be assumed by God.

And so her Assumption is a sign of what we hope for.  It is a sign of hope for us for our own eternal life and the future resurrection of the body which we profess to believe.  The Assumption of the whole being of Mary is the great promise to us, that we also can someday be with God in heaven, body and soul together, all of the pains of suffering and sorrow and death wiped away forever.  She reminds us that the goal of heaven is possible for us to reach.  She shows us that if we are faithful, we will reach our hope of eternal life with God.  And so, the Assumption of Mary fills us with joy, and encourages us along the way that still remains before we reach heaven.  She gives us the courage and the energy to reach the sanctity we are all called to by our vocation as Christians.  We must struggle to be good sons and daughters of God, to make an effort to keep our souls clean and to grow in love and friendship with God.  In this way, we will reach heaven: not in the same way as the Holy Virgin, because we are not free from original and personal sin as she was.  Nevertheless, if we die in God’s grace, after an opportunity for some additional purification if need be, our souls will go to heaven.  Later on, at the final resurrection of the dead, our bodies will also rise, and be reunited in glory with our souls.  Then, we will experience and enjoy the fullness of the eternal reward, body and soul together again, which Our Lady is experiencing even now.  We will join our Lord Jesus Christ, his most holy Mother, and all the angels and saints, in endless joy.