"At the foot of the cross stands His mother" (Jn. 19:25)
BRO. MARS TALKS ON THE ASSUMPTION
OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY TO THE HOLY ANGELS OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT
St. James the Great
Parish
Ayala Alabang Village,
Muntinlupa City
August 14, 2012
8:00-9:00 P.M.
The icon of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus adored by Holy Angels
This month’s
prayer meeting of the Holy Angels of the Blessed Sacrament in St. James the
Great Parish of Ayala Alabang coincided with the Vigil of the Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin Mary. Hence, I decided to give a talk on the dogma and the
solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s glorious assumption into heaven.
An antique angel guarding the icon of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus Christ
Despite the
storm, I arrived at the parish conference room in time for the group’s prayer
meeting. The members of the Holy Angels group were already waiting for me. As
soon as I arrived, the agape started
with the blessing before meals which I led. After the sumptuous meal, the
prayer meeting started.
Atty. Marwil N. Llasos leads the opening prayer
As usual, I
led the opening prayer – the Prayers of the Angel at Fatima. Thereafter, I
proceeded to give my talk. First, I apprised the members of the Holy Angels
about the on-going fight against the RH Bill. I asked them to continue to pray
for the defeat of the Bill in the Philippine Congress. Next, I recalled the
great feasts celebrated by the Church in August – the Transfiguration (August 6);
St. Dominic (August 8); St. Maximilian Kolbe (August 14); the Assumption
(August 15); and the Queenship of Mary (August 22).
The "Holy Angels" stand at prayer
Since the prayer meeting of the Holy
Angels was held during the feast of St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe who died on the
Vigil of the Assumption, I
briefly mentioned his holy and heroic life. I noted that among the saints, St.
Maximilian Kolbe is unique because he was beatified a confessor but canonized a
martyr. He is hailed in the universal
Church as a “Martyr of Charity” because
he gave his life for a father of a family in Auschwitz concentration camp on August 14, 1941. I shared his
last words to his brothers in Niepokalanow before his arrest by the Gestapo, “Forget not
love,” and commented how St. Maximilian gave witness to love in a place
full of diabolical hatred. I also quoted his words (my favorite as a Marian
preacher): “Do
not be afraid of giving the Immaculate Mother too much love; for you will never
come to love her as Jesus did.”
Atty. Marwil N. Llasos starts his talk
by apprising the members of the Holy Angels group about the on-going
fight against the diabolical RH Bill
After recalling the various feasts in August,
I proceeded to reflect on the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into
heavenly glory. I noted that the feast (solemnity) of the Assumption is the
greatest feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary – it is The Feast of Mary. Incidentally, it is the most ancient Marian
feast – observed both in the East (Dormition) and the West (Assumption).
The "Holy Angels" listen to the report of Atty. Marwil Llasos
I likewise mentioned that there was
nearly unanimous or universal belief in the Assumption until the “Reformation.”
In fact, even Martin Luther says this about Mary, “There can be no doubt that Mary is in
heaven. How it happened, we do not know. And since the Holy Spirit has told us
nothing about it, we can make of it no article of faith … It is enough to know
that she lives in Christ” (Sermon, August 15, 1522).
I
then recalled that the dogma of the bodily Assumption of the Blessed Virgin
Mary was proclaimed by the Venerable Servant of God Pope Pius XII on November
1, 1950 in his Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus
Deus: “we
pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the
Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of
her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”
Marian preacher Marwil N. Llasos shares his reflections on the glorious Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
I noted that the dogma of Mary’s
assumption into heaven was proclaimed not on August 15 but on November 1. I
stated that the Pope’s choice of date indicates that he wanted the Blessed
Virgin Mary, the Queen Assumed into Heaven, to be seen as the Queen of All
Saints.
The spouses Mike and Cristina Bichara listen to the talk of Atty. Marwil N. Llasos
I reflected that Pope Pius XII’s
proclamation of the dogma of the Assumption in 1950 was opportune. After the
holocaust and the murderous Second World War, the Pope in defining the dogma of
the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was refuting the errors of the
prevailing philosophy of the time – that the end of man is the gas chamber, the
gulag, the mass grave or abortion clinics. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin
Mary reminds us of our destiny – that heaven in our true home. Like the Blessed
Mother, we are destined for heaven – body and soul.
Members of the Holy Angels group diligently jot down notes
After narrating the beautiful story
of the death and assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary based on tradition and
private revelation given to mystics, I said that I visualize how the Lord
called His mother to Himself using the words in the Song of Songs 2:10-13:
“My beloved spake,
and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo,
the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The
flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the
voice of the turtle is heard in our land; The fig tree putteth forth her
green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my
love, my fair one, and come away” (KJV).
Atty. Marwil N. Llasos relates the pious story about Mary's death and assumption to heavenly glory
I mentioned that the Liturgy accommodates
the verses to the Blessed Virgin Mary. I also talked about how the mystics
describe Mary’s entry to heaven. According to the pious story, when the Virgin
Mary entered heaven escorted by cherubims, all the angelic hosts exclaimed, “Who is she?”
because they have never seen such beauty, holiness and grandeur in heaven
among the angelic beings because the Mother of the Lord surpassed them all in
beauty, excellence, holiness and grandeur. In the Liturgy of the East, the hymn
Axion Estin is said of Mary:
“It is truly right to bless thee, O Theotokos,
ever blessed, and most pure, and the Mother of our God.
More honorable than the cherubim,
and beyond compare more glorious than the seraphim.
Without corruption thou gavest birth to God the Word.
True Theotokos, we magnify thee.”
Members of the Holy Angels listen intently to Atty. Marwil Llasos
After mentioning the question of the angels, “Who is she?,” I proceeded to recite the Catena Legionis of the Legion of Mary
with the words taken from Song of Songs 2:10:
“Who
is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as
the sun, terrible as an army set in [battle] array?” (DRV).
Atty. Marwil N. Llasos shares his reflections on the Assumption as the "Holy Angels" listen
I differentiated the Ascension of Our Lord
from the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Only Jesus ascended into heaven
because only He came from heaven. Our Lord Jesus Christ stressed: “No one has ever
gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven – the Son of Man”
(Jn. 3:13, NIV). Jesus Christ ascended to heaven by his own divine power. On
the other hand, Catholic doctrine teaches that the Immaculate Virgin Mary was
assumed into heaven by the power of her Son and God. She is portrayed as being
carried aloft by angels. Revelation 12:14 graphically illustrates this: “The woman was
given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place
prepared for her in the desert …” (NIV). Wings symbolize angels (angels
are depicted in Scripture as winged beings) as well as the power of God (cf. Ps. 17:8; Ps. 91:4). The desert is a
Biblical metaphor for refuge or safety – and heaven is the ultimate place of
refuge.
Revelation 12:1 and 12:14
I reflected on Psalm 132: 8 which says, “Arise, O Lord,
into thy rest; thou, and the ark of thy strength” (NIV). I argued
that the verse typologically applies to the Lord and His Ark of the Covenant – Mary His Mother. I
pointed out that the Ark was seen in heaven by the Seer of Patmos in Revelation
11:19 and it turns out to be a woman in Revelation 12:1:
“Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and within
his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of
lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a great hailstorm.
A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with
the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her
head” (NIV)
Atty. Marwil N. Llasos explains the Biblical basis of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
I reflected on the significance of the
identification of the heavenly sign as a “woman.” I stated that the term “woman”
indicates a gender dimension. I heaven, there is no gender because those who
are there are spirits. “Woman” connotes bodily existence. Hence, the woman in
Revelation 12:1, viewed as Mary, provides Scriptural support to Mary’s bodily
existence in heaven.
Atty. Marwil N. Llasos shares his
insights on the dogma and feast of the glorious Assumption into heaven
of the Immaculate Virgin Mary
To draw the depth of insight from the Church’s
dogma of the Assumption on the Blessed Virgin Mary, I provided the following
reflections to the Holy Angels of the Blessed Sacrament:
(1) The Assumption tells us that our destiny is
heaven.
(2) It reminds us that we will be saved in the
totality of our human personhood – body and soul.
(3) It gloriously shows forth the power of Christ’s
resurrection – of his victory over sin and death – that death no longer has the
final say. By Christ’s resurrection, death itself has been caught captive and
thus we can even taunt death: “O death,
where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Cor. 15:55).
An angel statue at the Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration (PEA) chapel of St. James the Great Parish
(4) Mary precedes us in grace and glory and her
glorious assumption serves as a shining example of what Our Lord Jesus Christ
will do for us. Thus, Mary is the loadstar or polestar for us to look up to in
this valley of tears. She is the star of the sea. Where she is, we will be.
What she is, we will become.
(5) Mary’s Assumption imbues us with a special confidence
in the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary because of her new closeness to
God. Mary is so near to God, yet so near to us. On
earth, she was close only to a very few people because of limitations of space
and time. In heaven, she is close to each one of us.
(6) With Mary our mother in heaven, we can look
forward to heaven as our true home. Heaven is true home because there is a
mother in there. In heaven awaits a grand family reunion with God our Father,
Jesus our Brother and Mary our mother and our dear loved ones. Heaven is truly
a family affair!
August 15 - Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
After my talk, I entertained questions from
the members of the Holy Angels of the Blessed Sacrament. Before I gave the
closing prayer, the members of the Holy Angels group gave me their prayer
requests for the closing prayer. I entrusted the prayer requests to the Lord
through the intercession of our Mother – the Queen assumed into heaven.
The Angelic Shepherd, the Servant of God, Pope Pius XII proclaims the dogma of the Assumption on November 1, 1950
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axion_Estin
St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe, OFM Conv.: He died on the Vigil of the Assumption
