Celebrant: Blessed is she who trusted that the Lord's words to her would be fulfilled. Like Mary, let us now trust that he will hear our prayers.
Deacon/Lector:
Celebrant: Father, by bringing Mary body and soul to heavenly glory, You give us new hope. May we never doubt that you will hear and answer our prayers, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
"The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us, 'Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, is in the process of performing or has already completed. In all he says and does, man is obliged to follow faithfully what he knows to be just and right' (n. 1778). From this definition it emerges that the moral conscience, to be able to judge human conduct rightly, above all must be based on the solid foundation of truth, that is, it must be enlightened to know the true value of actions and the solid criteria for evaluation. Therefore, it must be able to distinguish good from evil, even where the social environment, pluralistic culture and superimposed interests do not help it do so" (Address to the Pontifical Academy for Life, February 24, 2007).
Along with Easter and the Ascension, today's feast is a perfect opportunity to preach about the Christian truth of the victory of life over death. Christ is life, and he shares his victory over death with all the members of his Body, the Church. That is why Mary, who was and is closer to him than anyone else, is the first to share, body and soul, in this victory.
The truth of her bodily assumption likewise reminds us that human beings are not disembodied souls, but rather a unity of body and soul. This is a critically important truth to emphasize, given that the culture of death so often relies on a "dualism" that says that it's only the spirit (good intentions, love, etc.) that matters, while "what we do with our bodies" really is of little consequence - whether it means sexual relations, or destroying the body by abortion or euthanasia. On the contrary, the truth is that the body is just as much an aspect of the person as is the soul. To attack the body is to attack the person.
Finally, the Assumption reminds us that in God's plan for life, mother and child go together. The pro-life movement stands with both the mother and the child and asks, "Why can't we love them both?" In bringing Mary to bodily glory with him, Jesus shows that there can be no closer human bond than that between a mother and her child.