Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Day

I was struck by a comment our Holy Father, Pope Leo, made about the Assumption and the signs of aging. Pope Leo XIV, Homily for the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, August 15, 2026. That led me to reflect that, at the end of her earthly life, the Blessed Virgin had reached old age. According to tradition—and the traditions vary a little—she would have been somewhere in her sixties or seventies.

Now, my mother assures me that sixty is the new forty, but in the time of Jesus, that was certainly not so. Mary had reached what would have been considered an advanced age then. And that is important to consider, because at her Assumption, body and soul into heaven, it was that aged body that was assumed and glorified, just as the risen Lord’s body was glorified. It was the body she had lived with for all those years. In assuming it, God declares that body to be good—even with everything that comes with age.

Many of you know those pains. Things begin to hurt; they stop working. We do not like the body quite as much in those moments. But that struggle with the body comes to us at nearly every age. When we are younger, we wish it were different in various ways—better, perhaps, or more like someone else’s. As we grow older, we just wish it worked. At times, then, we struggle to see how the body is good.

And yet, this is how God created us: body and soul, perfectly united in one human nature. He declares this unity good, and he even redeems us. He raises up the body and transforms it to be like Christ’s own glorified body—but only because the body was good to begin with.

The body, then, should be treasured as a wonderful gift from our Father. It should be cared for and appreciated, even in its moments of weakness, even when we wonder why it is a gift. When you stub your toe on a table, it is hard to think in that moment that the body is a good thing. You wish you had anything else but that! And yet, the body is good. Even its pains and limitations can serve a purpose and help draw us closer to our Lord.

As Christians, therefore, we must appreciate the body and the material world. We cannot reject them as if they were evil, which has been a great temptation in every age. We must embrace them as goods. We must care for our own bodies and for the bodies of those around us. We cannot despise people because they have become old and burdensome, or because illness has laid them low.

We must care for them, recognizing that their embodied lives are gifts given by God—gifts for all of us. Helping people carry their burdens, truly offering them compassion, showing them mercy, and helping them in those moments is a great work of mercy. It makes us more like Christ, more like our heavenly Father, and teaches us to love as he did.

So on this Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, let us remember the goodness of our bodies and the goodness of the material world. Let us make sure that our lives and actions treat them that way—not only our own bodies, but the bodies of everyone we meet. Let us truly appreciate these gifts and give God thanks for them.