We’re standing on the shoulders of all these great believers

Bishop Scott Bullock
Homily from the Vigil Mass for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Rapid City
December 31, 2024

I’m afraid that when I recently went over to visit the students at the School of Mines, I annoyed one young man. It’s not my desire or practice, but it happened. As I mentioned at Christmas, there was an event there where I sat on a panel and they were asking questions of us, and this young man stood up and pulled what he thought was a difficult question. He said, “Can you tell me why we believe as Catholics that Mary was assumed body and soul into heaven at the end of her life?”

One of our teachings about our Blessed Mother Mary. Do you have the answer? So I thought about it for just a second. I’ve heard that question a few times and this is where I gave him a challenging answer. It was intentional, but I knew it was going to annoy him. I said, “Well the reason why we believed that Mary was assumed in heaven is because we always have.”

The look on his face — it wasn’t what he was looking for. But actually, it is the answer and it’s a good answer, and it’s a sure answer. When (Pope) Pius XII made that solemn declaration about the Assumption of Blessed Mother Mary in 1950 that’s exactly what he said. He traced back through history and described all these generations of believers who had held this belief. Now there’s something in our modern hearts that can be a little skeptical about that, right? Well maybe they were all wrong and we’re right. But actually, that teaching, what we’ve always done, is based on the promise of Jesus who said that the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church, and we would be protected in truth. So, one generation after another believes that about Mary because the Holy Spirit protected and guided them in that way. That’s surety. That’s God guiding every generation. Sure, along the way maybe some got a little off track, but the Church never did. It always held firm to that belief. 

It’s really in the nature of our Catholic understanding that the spirit has guided us, and much about Mary we recognize has been given to us by what we call sacred tradition. It’s very evident in this liturgy that we celebrate tonight, that we’re standing on the shoulders of generations of believers and how they believed. On this the Solemnity of the Mary Mother of God, if we even look at the prayers that we’ve used tonight, they just come from all ages in our history. For example, very soon in the Mass when we sing, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord our God almighty.” Then after that we’re going to pray, I’ll begin praying what we call the preface going into the Eucharistic Prayer, and I’ll pray these words about Mary. We’ll say, “When she who knew not a man becomes a mother, she who has given birth remains a virgin, what joy is hers at your twofold gift she is full of wonder at her virgin motherhood and full of joy and giving birth to the Redeemer.” Nice words. Believers have been praying those words for about 1250 years. One of our most ancient prayers about Mary.

When I prepare to offer the gifts of bread and wine I’ll pray, “May this the offerings of your people make on this Memorial of Blessed Virgin Mary, may they be acceptable to you, O Lord, for by her virginity she pleased you and then humility conceived your Son, our Lord.” These are little newer words — we’ve only been praying these for 900 years. This is the great champion of Marian devotion Bernard of Clairvaux. Those are his words. 

But we’ve got some even older ones. The prayers that I prayed at the beginning of the Mass included these words, “Mary conceived Him in her heart before she conceived Him in her womb.” Those are about 1600 years old. Those are from Saint Augustine. 

You see, we’re standing on the shoulders of all these great believers. One generation after another proclaim Mary as the Mother of God, and we believe it because we trust the spirit guided the Church all along the way and we join that long line of believers. 

This is a pretty important truth, isn’t it? Mary the Mother of God. It’s right at the heart of our faith. She’s a mother, that is Jesus fully human and had a human mother. She’s the mother of God — God born for our salvation. Without that truth we can all go home. What it means, when we hear in the Gospel that Jesus, that the child is named Jesus, he is our salvation. We’re saved because God has to do the saving, hence the Mother of God, and we need to be saved as humans through humanity — the Son of Mary.

So, brothers and sisters, again we stand on the long line of believers tonight to the ends of the earth and to the ends of the ages in proclaiming the truth of the spirit has confirmed. Generation, after generation, after generation, we have been saved by the Son of Mary who is the Mother of God. So, let’s come now and receive the Son whom she bore to the world. Receive the one who is our Savior.