By Archbishop Thomas Wenski - The Archdiocese of Miami

This is Archbishop Thomas Wenski’s homily on the feast of the Assumption, and the Mass marking the 25th anniversary of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary. The Mass was celebrated at St. Mary Cathedral Aug. 15, 2015. 

Christian poets have over the centuries sung the praises of Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother. The American poet, Longfellow, described her as our fallen human nature’s “solitary boast,” for Mary was sinless from the first moment of her conception.

The Solemnity of Mary’s Assumption is properly understood in light of her Immaculate Conception. The Second Vatican Council, reaffirming the Tradition (and Pius XII’s infallibly declaring the Assumption as a dogma of Catholic faith in 1950), taught that “the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory when her earthly life was over, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things.” (Lumen Gentium #59) God, in view of her special role in the history of salvation as the Mother of the Incarnate Word, anticipated the fruits of Christ’s redemption and preserved Mary from all sin — original and actual.

As Father Tom Rossica says: “Mary’s life can be summed up with four words that are found in the Gospels: ‘Fiat,’ in her response to the angel Gabriel; ‘Magnificat,’ as her response to God’s grace at work in her life; ‘Conservabat,’ as she cherished all these memories and events in her heart; and ‘Stabat,’ as she stood faithfully at the foot of the cross watching her Son die for humanity and awaited the fulfillment of Simeon’s prophecy about Jesus’ mission.”

In celebrating this Marian feast day we acknowledge that God does indeed keep his promises. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin “anchors” our hope that God created the human race for more than just to die one day. As we learned in the catechism of our youth, “God has made us to know Him, to love Him and to serve Him in this life and to be happy with him in the next.” Like Mary, each one of us is created in the image and likeness of God; and, like Mary, each one of us is called to a future of hope, realized in the vision of God in heaven.

Through her Assumption into heaven, Mary already participates in that future of hope to which we as a pilgrim people aspire – thanks to the grace of baptism which has made us children of God and heirs to the promises of Christ. Thus, Mary’s assumption, body and soul into heaven, stands as a counterpoint to the secularism of our age – and thus helps us to rediscover this eschatological perspective that has always been at the heart of the Gospel proclamation.

Today, of course, we celebrate the 25th anniversary of a religious community founded here in the Archdiocese of Miami, the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary. We join with Mother Adela Galindo and her sisters, along with their lay associates, in giving thanks to God for this community of sisters and for their vibrant and youthful witness to the renewal of consecrated life called for by the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council. As the bishops said at the Second Vatican Council, “the ultimate norm of religious life is the following of Christ (vitae religiosae ultima norma sequela Christi).”

The sisters make vows to live the evangelical counsels: poverty, chastity and obedience. These evangelical counsels are too often seen by the world — and sometimes even by the faithful — as simply renunciations. However, they are more than that — for each counsel in its own unique way is a specific acceptance of the Mystery of Christ lived within the Church. Thus, their lives as consecrated religious are at the very heart of the Church, “Cor Ecclesiae” — because their radical embrace of the Gospel makes manifest the inner nature of every Christian’s calling. The vowed life does proclaim and anticipate the future age when we will, like Mary, experience the fullness of the Kingdom.

In a recent interview, Sister Ana Margarita Lanzas, in speaking of the particular charism of their community, explained, “We ask: How would Mary do something? How would she speak or think or do a ministry? She would do it with kindness. She would be loving and motherly.”

“Fiat, Magnificat, Conservabat, Stabat”. These words describe what Mary did do — and they describe the life and the mission of the Sisters of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

By the will of Mary’s Son from the cross, we are her children. And though we are sinners, like the poet Longfellow, we make Mary our boast. Today, together with the Pierced Hearts and sharing in their joy as they celebrate the silver jubilee of their founding, we turn to Mary in confidence and we ask that, through her prayers and by following her example of obedient trust in God’s will, we too might be conformed to the image of Jesus, her Son. ¡O María, sin pecado concebida, ruega por nosotros, pecadores, para que seamos dignos de las promesas de Cristo!