Melbourne News

Feast of the Assumption Mass heralds Gracefest

Thursday 16 August 2012
 
By Fiona Power
Kairos Catholic Journal

ON A COLD August night, St Patrick’s Cathedral was aglow for the Feast of the Assumption Mass, which also marked the opening of the Archdiocesan faith festival Gracefest.

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More than 1700 people, including families, students, Religious, seminarians and guests of the Archdiocese, gathered to pray and honour Our Lady, and remember the graces in their lives, in a celebration reflective of both the unity and diversity of the Melbourne Catholic Church community.
 
Following a sacred music prelude performed by Fatai Veamatahau, the Mass began with a colourful banner procession featuring members of movements, organisations, schools and orders in the Archdiocese of Melbourne.
 
Principal celebrant Archbishop Denis Hart celebrated the Mass with Oscar Andres Cardinal Rodriguez SDB and Bishop Vincent Long OFM Conv, with Mgr Greg Bennet, Fr John Salavano, Fr Paul Murray OP, priests of the Archdiocese of Melbourne and orders concelebrating.
 
The celebration included music led by the St Francis’ Youth Choir, All Saints Choir, Fitzroy and the Vietnamese Catholic Community, with organist Mr Rhys Arvidson.
 
Screens set up throughout the cathedral relayed proceedings throughout the crowded cathedral.
 
In his homily, Cardinal Rodriguez said the feast of the Assumption was a wonderful time to begin Gracefest, since Mary is full of grace. He said the feast is day of great joy for the Church because Mary is present in heaven, soul and body.
“This fact must surely change our way of thinking about heaven,” he said. “It's true, there is room in heaven for the human body. Heaven is decidedly different, perhaps, from what we imagined.”
 
He expressed his gratitude to Archbishop Hart for the initiative to begin the feast of grace, part of the Year of Grace celebrations in the Archdiocese of Melbourne, on the feast of the Assumption.
 
He said all people of faith need to be with those who suffer, who need support, and are longing for purpose and “take them the joy of the Gospel, the joy of grace, the joy of being Christians”.
 
“We are happy because we have this grace in our lives, because we are blessed abundantly and we are destined to be in heaven with our Lord,” he said.
 
Cardinal Rodriguez said the day’s Gospel, the Magnificat, provides an understanding of a moment in Mary’s earthly life and a picture of what she is like now, in heaven,
“Mary is in heaven, but she is among us still. With her we are learning to magnify the Lord. With her we are learning to sing the praises of God.”
 
He said in The Magnificat Mary identifies with the poorest of the poor, which she continues to do.
“Whatever part of the lives of God's children on earth is hurt or bewildered or losing hope, or suffering injustice, or feeling rejected, with that very part of the human world today, Mary identifies and, against all expectation, and in spite of the seeming hopelessness of it all, she sings a song of hope.”  He said this is what the world needs most now.
 
Cardinal Rodriguez said Mary is the first of the redeemed, and belongs to Christ more than anyone.
“No wonder, then, she rose at the Assumption, for Christ was already risen in her heart and in her life long before the moment she fell asleep in death.” He said a number of saints, so filled with the love of God, had experienced levitation.
“… No wonder, then, that Mary, who was innocence itself, Mary who was preserved free from original sin, Mary who was, from the beginning, loved into existence by God as a wondrous immaculate girl-child, uniquely beautiful, uniquely good, no wonder she found herself, at the point of death, being lifted up into heaven, soul and body.”
 
Cardinal Rodriguez quoted Bishop Fulton Sheen:
"If the distant moon moves all the surging tides of earth, then the love of Mary for Jesus and the love of Jesus for Mary should result in such an ecstasy 'to lift her out of this world'."
 
Cardinal Rodriguez said Pope Benedict XVI, writing on the subject of the Assumption in 2005, reflected on the paradox of Mary’s closeness to God resulting in her proximity to us.
“Precisely because she is with God and in God, she is very close to each one of us. While she was in this world she could only be close to a few people. Being in God, who is close to us, actually 'within' all of us, Mary shares in this closeness of God. Being in God and with God, she is close to each one of us, knows our hearts, can hear our prayers, can help us with her motherly kindness and has been given to us, as the Lord said, precisely as a 'mother' to whom we can turn at every moment."
 
Cardinal Rodriguez said Mary responded to God, and in times of need, with her whole being—body and soul.
He quoted St Aelred of Rievaulx:
 
"Let us lift our eyes to heaven, into which she ascended today. Let us consider her in that place and let us not forget her mercy. We can be sure that as she is more excellent and blessed than any creature, so she is more favourable and merciful than every creature. Therefore let us confidently beseech her and place our trust in her ... let her be our common joy, our common glory, our common hope, our common consolation, our common reconciliation, and our common refuge. If we are sad, let us fly to her that she may gladden us. If we are disheartened, let us fly to her so that she may make us cheerful. If we are disheartened, let us fly to her so that she may lift us up. If we are troubled, let us fly to her so that she may console us. If we are suffering persecutions, let us fly to her so that she may protect us. If we are at odds with her Son, let us fly to her so that she may reconcile us. Let her be our guardian in this life and our protection at death. May she protect us from sin even now, and later may she present us to her beloved Son."
 
Cardinal Rodriguez said in baptism, Christians are called to holiness, and to spread the gospel of joy and the consolation of this truth of faith, with Mary’s intercession in heaven.
 
“Every time we educate someone, every time we evangelise someone we are helping him or her to ascend, and to gradually fulfil this call, this vocation he gave us, that we be, in the Letter to Ephesians, holy and immaculate in love…”
 
Photos by John Casamento. Copyright Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne 2012.
 
Gracefest continues with events until Sunday 19 August.
Details: cam.org.au/evangelisation, or call the Archbishop’s office for evangelisation on 9926 5761