"A Little Bit of Heaven on Earth"

By Fr. Tim Zak, SDB, Provincial

This homily was given on Sunday, August 15, the Solemnity of the Assumption, at the Mass with First Religious Profession and Renewal of Religious Profession.

“Let us all rejoice in the Lord, as we celebrate the feast day in honor of the Virgin Mary, at whose Assumption the Angels rejoice and praise the Son of God!” This is the entrance antiphon for the Mass today, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We didn’t recite it because we had the entrance hymn. Thanks to the musicians for helping us do what the antiphon says: rejoice in the Lord, rejoice and praise God on this beautiful day.

We have multiple reasons to rejoice and give praise today. Not only is it the Solemnity of the Assumption, but Paul and Francis will make their first religious profession, and Dan, John, and Kevin will renew their religious profession as Salesians of Don Bosco. What a great reason to celebrate.

On this day, several countries and cultures honor our Lady under different titles: Our Lady of La Vang from Vietnam, Our Lady of Good Help from Champion, Wisconsin (the only approved apparition of Our Lady in the USA), Notre Dame du Cap from Canada, Nuestra Señora de Antigua de Panamá, among others.

As we celebrate the Assumption of Mary, we can see it as the completion of her journey, the fulfillment of God’s promises, and the fullness of life in Christ. To understand the greatness of this completion, let’s consider how the journey began. We could start at the nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but we know God’s plan began even before that. We go back to the Immaculate Conception, when God preserved Mary from every stain of sin, so she would be a worthy mother for the Son of God. But we could go back even before the Immaculate Conception to consider how God held Mary in his heart from all eternity, delighting in her beauty, until the right moment in time when she was to come into this world. What God had designed in his plan of salvation, and advanced with the Immaculate Conception and nativity of Mary, God has now brought to completion in the Assumption.

The words of St. Paul to the Philippians help us understand what God is doing: “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1.6).

The action of God in the life of Mary sheds light on the religious professions that we will witness this afternoon. As God prepared Mary for her role in history, and as Mary continued to cooperate with God’s plan in her life reaching its completion in Heaven, so God has prepared these men for this day. Through the grace of their Baptism and Confirmation, through all the experiences of life that have formed them, most especially their families, through the stirrings in their heart to respond to a call to Salesian religious life, we can see Divine Providence at work; and we can rejoice and give praise that these men, like Mary, have cooperated with God’s plan in their life. I repeat the words of St. Paul, “…the one who began this good work in you will continue to complete it…” We have the sure hope in the victory of Jesus, manifest in Mary sharing Christ’s glory, that God will also accompany you every step along your journey to reach its completion in eternity.

We have considered the beginning of God’s plan for Mary, and for these brothers, to help us recognize the greatness of this Solemnity, the sharing in the glory of Christ. Staying attentive to that glorious end of the journey, we can consider what it means for us today. It is a message of hope and comfort.

We don’t know in detail what Heaven will be like. Our image of Heaven is shaped by what is revealed in Scripture, and maybe by some private revelations and by our own imagination. Today’s Solemnity and religious profession give us a glimpse of Heaven. Mary is taken up body and soul into heavenly glory. She is the beginning and image of the Church, a sign of hope and comfort for us pilgrim people, as we will pray in the preface. These men making religious profession are also signs of hope and prophetic images of a world yearning to reach completion.

By their religious profession, they are living out in a radical way the prophetic vocation of all the baptized. Like the prophets of old, like John the Baptist, they remind us of the primacy of God in our lives.  In the search for fulfillment, the riches or pleasures or power of this world will not satisfy the human heart. These men witness to us that God must come first in our lives. In our world experiencing isolation, not only because of the pandemic, but also individualism, divisions, and violence, these men give us a prophetic witness to fraternity, where we can be united in Christ, where life in community can become more and more communion of life. During this pandemic, we have seen the very unfortunate rise in depression, anxiety, and other mental health concerns, even to the point of suicide. People have lost meaning. The radical witness of religious profession is a prophecy that we don’t live for ourselves, we are sent out on mission to serve, not to be served. The meaning of life must be found outside of ourselves, in the emptying of ourselves, so there is space in our hearts for God’s grace. Remember how the Angel greeted Mary, “Hail, full of grace,” and how Mary gave herself without reservation to God’s plan for her. Like Mary, our brothers here are showing how to let God’s grace fill our lives, paradoxically by giving our lives in service to other.

On this joyful day of the Assumption, as we get a glimpse of the glory of Heaven that awaits us, we also can see a bit of Heaven on earth, recognizing in the religious profession of Francis, Paul, Kevin, John, and Dan their prophetic announcement of the world yet to come. We are comforted by the faithfulness of God to continue bringing to completion the work of grace he began in each of us on the day of our baptism. We are filled with hope, that we will become sharers, with Mary, in the glory of Heaven. And we rejoice that our brothers, through their religious profession, enable us to experience a little bit of Heaven on earth.