Assump21.    Revelation 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab.     This form of literature in which the book of Revelations is written is poetic and prophetic.  It was written when things were going badly for Christians to assure them that things were going to get better.  The Church put this selection from Revelations in this feast of Mary’s Assumption to reassure us that through Mary, the saints and the Church that God would bring us victory.

Luke 1:39-56.  Mary had just stated in Luke 1:38ab, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.  May it be done to me according to your word.”  Mary surrendered herself to God’s will.  Mary is certainly important because she was chosen to be the mother-of-God-made-man but far more important because she heard (Luke 11:28b) “the word of God and observed it.”  Putting Elizabeth’s need first before reveling in her choseness as the mother of the Messiah, Mary runs off to help Elizabeth in her pregnancy as an old woman.   Although not mentioned in the Scriptures, it can be assumed that the Holy Spirit informed Elizabeth that Mary was pregnant with the Messiah.  So Elizabeth cries out that Mary is blessed and that the baby John the Baptist leaps for joy in her womb.  Mary then revels in the fact that she is indeed blessed by God Almighty.  How great is the God who has made someone so lowly to bear the Son of the Almighty God into this earthly world!   God does great things for those who live dependent on God’s strength and not their own.  Mary recognizes that that blessing comes to her as a daughter of Abraham so that what God has done for her is done also for all God’s Promised People, the birth of the promised Messiah.   Blessed are those who live in the life God gives them and do not try to live in themselves as people independent of God, for only can God give true goodness.

1 Corinthians 15:20-27.   Through the sin of Adam, death came into the world that did not have death.  Instead Jesus through his sacrificial death on the cross redeemed us from sin and so gave us eternal life.  As Mary was assumed into heaven because she chose to belong to Christ and his will, Jesus also does great things for all who do the will of God.