Perhaps no other feast on our liturgical calendar speaks as well of human life, its purpose and destiny as does the Solemnity of the Assumption. This feast asserts that all life has its source in God, is loved and aided by God and returns to Him. It is a view of life which our increasingly secular world needs to have.

The dogma of the Assumption states that Mary, after her earthly pilgrimage, was taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven – not soul only but body as well, a body like ours that knew pain, tiredness, joy, sorrow.

It indicates that God works through the human condition – as he does through the two women, Mary and Elizabeth, pictured in the Gospel of the feast – to redeem all creation. Mary – Mother of God, Mother of Jesus – is the one who indeed is “full of grace” but all human life is graced because of the death and Resurrection of Jesus.

Such an outlook on life is clearly at odds with, for example, the invasion of Iraq and all that has happened as a result of it. In April, Pope Benedict XVI described the situation there as one from which “nothing positive comes”.

The humanitarian debacle in the Darfur Region, where a likely 400,000 have been killed and 2.5 million people displaced, is another indication of the failure to recognise God’s presence in all human life.

The crime that continues to ravage our country is also another sign of the lack of respect for life. Whatever gains the Government and our crime fighters have made have not been sustained.

Those who will stop at nothing to kill a brother or sister to get even have little appreciation of human life and what is required of them as children of God. This lack of respect for human life is also evident on our roads. How else can one explain the reckless attitude of many drivers?

Temple on the sea

The attack on the Siewdass Sadhu Shiva Mandir, the Temple on the Sea, a place sacred to those who worship there, is further evidence of this disrespect.

This is no mere vandalism. However one looks at the destruction that took place there, the attack is not only an attack on the temple but total disrespect for those who worship there.

We support the views of the Inter Religious Organisation which, in its release, strongly condemned the attack and reminded the public that “freedom of worship is a fundamental right” enshrined in the nation’s Constitution.

The Feast of Assumption calls us to live more confidently in the knowledge of a God who keeps his promises and thus leads us to live each day with true hope or anticipation.

Of course, it does not mean that we do nothing in the face of oppression and rampant injustice or that we live resigned to whatever happens, but that the mystery of the feast should become a sounding board and a reference point from which to view all that threatens our human existence.

Guided by the example of Mary and the blessing she was accorded we believe that God’s grace will be victorious over sin and all that may lead us to despair. Therefore, as followers of Christ, we should keep ourselves open to the Spirit of God, who continues to work in our midst.

But this feast must serve too as a reminder of what we are about as Church. The Church’s statements are increasingly treated with ridicule, but it cannot afford to lose sight of its purpose, which is to lead all to salvation.