Reflections of Mother Angelica on the assumption of Mary: it simply makes sense

Today, August 15, is the party of the Assumption, a solemnity that commemorates the end of the earthly life of the Virgin Mary and the assumption of her body and soul to heaven. This day also marks the anniversary of the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN).

On this day of 1981, the founder of Ewtn, Madre María Angélica de la Andación, began her television program from a study in a garage in Alabama. The transmission began what today is the world’s largest Catholic World Network. (Note: ACI Press is an EWTN News service, affiliated with EWTN).

While Catholics celebrate the Assumption and Ewtn commemorates 44 years of spreading the eternal word, we remember what Mother Angelica said about the mother of Jesus and her assumption to heaven.

The Assumption of Mary

“This is the party of the Assumption of Our Lady, and many people do not understand it,” said Madre Angélica, a clarisa of perpetual worship, during a transmission of Ewtn on August 15, 2000. “They confuse everything with the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady. And it is different.”

The assumption is a relatively new party in the Church, but the celebration has roots in the first centuries of the Christian faith. Mother Angelica explained to her audience that “when all the apostles knew that Our Lady had died, everyone went to her, except Thomas.”

“Saint Thomas, according to tradition, always was late, always late,” Mother Angelica joked. “We all have someone like that in our family. They are always late.”

“So when he arrived, they opened the (sepulcher) and she was no longer … and from the beginning of Christianity, it was always believed that she went to heaven. It simply makes sense.”

Mother Angelica said it makes sense “because she was so pure and so holy. There was no reason for her to break down how it will happen to us.”

“Our Lady could never commit a small sin. So what does it benefit from all thanks, we will benefit from the blood of Jesus, for redemption,” he said. “One says, ‘Why should she be so different?’ Because it was created by God and before time began, he had it in his mind to be the mother of his son, the eternal word. ”

“You can’t even think through the second second that the Mother of God could be in the hands of Satan. That would desecrate the temple,” he added, “I mean, that is common sense. You don’t need anything else to realize that the temple of God had to be absolutely perfect for his cause.”

While Maria was born perfect, said Mother Angelica, “we were all born with original sin, and we have consequences for original sin, even after baptism.” We experience “jealousy, anger and exaggerated sensitivity. We are born with many things that are not like Jesus. And that’s why we have to overcome these things.”

But eventually, “The Assumption of Our Lady is something that we are all going to have”, because “we are all going to resurrect … the day will come to the end of the world when God will breathe and say: ‘Get up’.”

“The secret of holiness”

“Our Lady had to be amazing, because he always said yes to God. That is the secret of holiness,” said Mother Angelica. “Oh, you don’t have to be brilliant, you don’t have to be a genius, you don’t have to build buildings, you don’t have to do any of those things. You have to do God’s will with love and sacrifice.”

Ultimately, “everything is reduced to love,” he said. “And you only do the will of God because you love. Our Lady always loved God and always did her will with perfect union.”

In the solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, “we must thank God because she created such a woman,” said Mother Angelica. “There had to be someone like her. And only from her, only from this holy and perfect woman, the eternal word could come.”

Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in CNA.