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Question

Good morning Father Angelo,

I hope everything is going well for you and I thank you for the very valuable service you carry out for all of us.

My question concerns the assumption of Mary. While meditating on this mystery, it occurred to me that on the day when Our Lady’s assumption took place, there must have been a great celebration in heaven. But I wonder: St. Francis, St. Dominic, Father Pio, and all the saints who came afterwards were not present; were only the Patriarchspresent who had died before our mother Mary? I mean King David, Moses, etc.

I then considered that the saints who died after Our Lady could have enjoyed this beautiful event when they too ascended into heaven. However, I was disappointed in thinking that future saints may not have partaken of this beautiful event from the beginning, to honor and venerate the mother they loved so much on earth. So, I thought that perhaps due to a space-time phenomenon that I do not understand, actually the same occurred that happens in the perpetuation of the sacrifice of the Mass, where we partake of the very event of the sacrifice on the cross of our Lord Jesus.

I thank you for any enlightenment you may wish to bring to these two questions of mine, I promise to remember you in prayer to Jesus and I send you my most cordial wishes.

Ar

Answer from the priest

Dear Friend,

1. It is a beautiful intuition that you had about the participation of the Saints in the event of the Assumption of Mary.

2. To show its plausibility, I will refer to the very Eucharistic mystery of which we celebrate the memorial in the Holy Mass.

In the Eucharist, Jesus makes us contemporaneously present to that event.

In that event, even though we are contemporaneous, we participate without seeing it, that is, we partake of it in faith.

However, it is a real participation.

3. When we will be on the other side, we will see the way in which we currently participate in it contemporaneously.

We will see, however, that it really occurred in that way.

4. Well, in the Mass, Christ makes himself present (contemporaneous) in all the events of his life.

In the Roman Canon, the Church professes this faith by saying: “O Lord, as we celebrate the memorial of the blessed Passion, the Resurrection from the dead, and the glorious Ascension into heaven of Christ, your Son, our Lord“.

Now in the mystery of his resurrection and ascension into heaven there is also the mystery fulfilled in his mystical body, that is, in souls, in the Church.

5. Among these, first of all we are made partakers, contemporaneous, in the resurrection and ascension that Christ accomplished towards his Holy Mother.

In the Assumption into Heaven of Our Lady (as you call her with a beautiful and exquisite expression) we remember her resurrection from the dead which took place at the command of Jesus and her assumption into Heaven.

6. Therefore at Mass we are made contemporaneous with that event, even if we do not see it. And we partake of its benefits.

Upon ascending to Heaven, Our Lady enjoyed its beatific vision.

She saw perfectly what God sees.

And therefore she saw each of us who would come much further ahead in time.

In the Mass she too is always present in union with Christ.

It makes us contemporaneous with the joy of the event of her assumption, even if we do not see it.

But one day we will see everything and we will be happy that we were made contemporaneous and partakers of that event without our knowing it.

I thank you for the beautiful insight you offered us.

I wish you well, I keep you in my prayer and I bless you.

Father Angelo