August 15, 2005
As a “convert” to Our Lady, I can remember a time when I didn’t believe in her Assumption into Heaven. A friend in high school told me that if I didn’t believe in the Immaculate Conception and Assumption, then I wasn’t really a Catholic; so I folded my arms and said, “Well, I guess I’m not a Catholic then!” However, when I studied theology in college and really looked into the Church’s Marian teachings, I became convinced that it is all true.
If we were to imagine how Jesus could most perfectly fulfill the commandment of honoring father and mother, it would be difficult to think of anything better than saving her from sin from the moment of conception and taking her immediately, body and soul, into Heaven. Besides all that the Assumption says about Our Lady and her divine Son, it also points us in the direction of hope at a time in history when many people surprisingly deny the reality of Heaven. Mary is the model of the Church, the star pointing us to the place where Jesus will be adored with the Father and the Holy Spirit for all eternity.
I don’t write a lot of poetry, but as I was observing a spectacular sunset recently, it struck me as an image of Our Lady’s presence with us throughout our lives, so I put it into verse with the title:
Marian Sunset on Tuesday, Week III
Gently radiant is this blue sky
With a crescent moon at her feet.
Nearer to us the clouds fly
All are now gray underneath.
Pleasing but fleeting the other hues
Taking their bow before their curtain falls.
Wisps looking so solidly gray now in view
Weighted by the glory of the Sun who calls.
The lights must go out for the next act to begin
As the darkening world becomes night.
Nothing solid but the moon will remain
Granting faith more expectation than fright.
“You made the moon to mark the months”
And “a faithful witness in the skies”.
Through change of years she stands fast among us
Reassuring her Sun is present in disguise.
Night will reveal new majesty, though distant.
It is a necessary stage on the way.
For no eye is really ready in an instant
To pass from sunset to the glory of eternal day.
Fr. Richard Roemer, CFR
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