It’s unusual for a Marian feast to fall on a Sunday and stay there. Granted, it’s Ordinary Time, so the church grants a little more leeway than, say, when the Feast of the Immaculate Conception falls on an Advent Sunday and gets put backward or forward because it’s important not to interfere with the flow of Advent Sundays.

What would we be missing, after all? It’s not as if the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time — and Year C, at that — were such a big deal

Besides, like the Sundays before this and the Sundays after, the Ordinary Time readings hammer on what the Lord promises will be the fate of believers: discord, disagreement, death. The weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, all that unpleasant sort of stuff.

The Assumption does not negate that reality. Everyone has to die, including believers — including the very Mother of God. But Jesus rose from the dead, promising that believers would rise with him, body and soul, on the last day.

Like Mary

Many parishes will celebrate today’s feast with an orgy of Marian songs. Well, there are so few occasions when we can sing them, right? So let’s use ‘em while we can.

The readings, of course, suggest using a setting of the Magnificat and a setting of Psalm 45 (less numerous than the Magnificat but do-able) — but what else? Let’s just sing every Marian song we know; people like them!

Folks, that’s overkill. Instead, consider a sturdy gathering hymn that rejoices in the Resurrection, or a setting of Psalm 118, the Easter psalm, as a communion processional.

The Assumption is not just stuck into the liturgical calendar like a raisin in a cookie, but is there to be integrated into the awesome sweep of the liturgical seasons. Just as Mary was raised up to heaven, body and soul, so we also will be if we remain faithful. That is the hope to which we are called.
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