Homily for Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (ABC), For the Mass During the Day, August 15, 2025

August 16, 2025 0 By BLACKCATHOLIC

The following transcript of the homily is in the original formatting that was used for the sake of live delivery with all cues, emphasis, and notes included. This homily is a remix of a previous sermon I gave back in 2023.

Transcript:

“Her child was caught up to God and his throne . . . Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: ‘Now have salvation and power come.’” Words taken from our first reading from the Book of Revelation.

In the Name of the Father + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

I feel that it is very appropriate that my first Holy Day Mass as a priest is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

And not only that – it comes at a church called Our Lady of the Lake.

And all this has taken place just days after my ordination.

So, as a priest, I have just been born, and I am preaching about the Blessed Mother, in this house of the Mother,

This house which is in some way a mother of my priesthood,

For my priestly ministry has begun here in this mother church,

This church which is the mother church of Hendersonville as far as Catholics are concerned.

But I want to draw attention to another mother,

The mother who labored to give birth and served as a great sign in the sky.

One of the readings the Church gives us for the Solemnity of the Assumption is parts from Revelation 11 and 12.

It in the reading John the Apostle receives in his extended apocalyptic vision:

“A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth.”

Now, from a Catholic viewpoint this woman from Revelation can be a couple of things all at once without any conflict.

This woman could obviously be Mary, the Mother of Jesus, about to give birth to the “male child destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod.”

The woman could also represent the faithful of Israel crying out for Jesus the Messiah.

And the woman could also be the Church giving birth to new creations from the seed of Christ and who will be attacked by the other sign in the biblical text selected for the Assumption feast.

And this other sign in the sky was the “huge red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven diadems” that “stood before the woman about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth.”

Now, the dragon can be a couple of things, too, with a number of different diabolical tasks on his evil mind.

The dragon could be the devil trying to destroy Jesus, trying to destroy God’s people Israel who are seeking the Messiah, or trying to destroy the Church.

However, we cannot forget how the dragon could also be the worldly powers, whether yesterday’s pagan or today’s secular (but still pagan) rulers who seek to do away with all that is authentically Christian and all that is truly Catholic simply because the truth is light shining in the darkness, but the world prefers “darkness to light, because [its] works [are] evil.”

But might I add as a possible interpretive point that the dragon in Revelation clearly hates the woman, too, because he who hates the child probably cannot stand the woman who gave birth to the child, either.

And so we can say that the dragon is after the woman and all that she is and all she stands for, and what are two of the things we saw she stood for?

Mary, the mother Jesus.

The Church, the mother of Christians.

And let me add one more.

Our Lady of the Lake church, the mother of this parish.

And the dragon’s aim – the devil’s aim – is to sweep his tail and cause all kinds of havoc among the children of these three most holy mothers.

And sometimes there appears to be havoc in our lives as well.

Just as the devil caused havoc among the stars that fell from the sky and sought to kill the child of the mother in Revelation after the temple was opened,

The same devil is always ready to appear and cause havoc in God’s temple of the Church, and when he does her children feel the danger and disorder of this havoc in our earthly and spiritual lives.

And you know, I too, have seen a sign appear in the sky – a woman clothed with the a dress torn from repeated battles with the dark forces of personal sins and personal problems,

with the blood red moon of trauma under her feet.

On her head was a drooping crown that had a shine that was smudged from confusion,

The confusion of what to do and where to go whenever we end right back where we started in our attempted exodus from the Egypts that seek to enslave us.

She wailed aloud in pain as the rifts of despair within her body threatened to pull her apart from the inside out.

And in labor she waits for the time that she is to give birth to a new era of life within herself.

My fellow children, WE ARE THIS WOMAN.

And we are in need of the help of someone who has been through it all and has given life before.

We need a Mother when we find ourselves in havoc. We need Mary and we need an assumption.

Because, going back to our selection in the book of Revelation, everything changed when the woman crowned with twelve immaculate stars became an Immaculate Mother.

Everything changed when the Child she took to up in her arms was taken up to the “Everlasting Arms.”

And everything changed yet again when later this Mother was herself taken up to be with the One she bore.

And so, “Now have salvation and power come”!

Again, we need a Mother for our times of havoc.

A Mother from US    –    to show US    –    how to be US

So that the HAV-OC doesn’t HAVE-US.

We need a Mother who is pure to help blot out the stains of the our sins and stich up the tears in the garments of our souls.

We need a Mother who reflects the light of the Son,

to give us a new moon for our feet’s foundation in our lives.

We need a Mother who has her head on straight,

so our minds can receive the crown of the knowledge of God’s presence in the midst of pain.

We need a Mother who literally bounded up the boo-boos of the body of Christ to kiss our bruises when we fall down.

BECAUSE MY EYES HAVE SEEN ANOTHER SIGN:

And it is the one where a Mother with a Child in her arms,

Crushes the head of the serpent – BELOW HER FEET.

To put it short – we need a Mother who was lifted up    –    to lift US up.

In this Church.

In this parish.

In our hearts.

To the “place prepared [for us] by God.”

Because, my brothers and sisters, everything changes when we allow ourselves to become children of the same Mother whom God chose for Himself.

We look to the example of Mary’s faithfulness to remain faithful to the Christ the Victor even when WE fail.

We look to the closeness of Mary to her Son in her womb to keep ourselves attached to Christ’s Body.

We look to her pure witness so that we might become witnesses of “the purest faith at Our Lady of the Lake.”

And we look to her Assumption to know the way we need to go

May she hold our hand as she beats back the havoc of the dragon!

May every day of our lives be a step closer to Our Lord through the Mother we need in our times.

And may we rise with Mary and shout in the heavens:

“NOW HAVE SALVATION AND POWER COME.”

In the Name of the Father + the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.