Tomorrow is the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

After the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, his mother lived with the Apostle John for about another 12 years.

On the third day after her death, when the apostles gathered at her tomb, they found it empty.

They understood that Mary’s body had been taken up (assumed) into heaven. That is what “the Assumption” means.

Why didn’t her body just reabsorb into the earth like everybody else?

The grave had no power over this woman. She was immaculate and sinless from the time of her conception.

As she had shared with Jesus in his sorrows and agony, so she now came to share in his victory over death.

God had given her great privileges, and she had been faithful to the graces received.

* * *

Many who profess to be Christians have trouble with the Church’s teaching about Mary, the Mother of God.

They shouldn’t. To a thinking Christian, there is no alternative.

Followers of Jesus believe they he was both true man and true God.

Because he was true man, Mary is rightly called a mother.

Because he is truly God, she is called the Mother of God.

* * *

It is fitting that we should consecrate our lives to this Mother, and pray to her in words such as these:

O Mary, conceived without sin, I wish to place myself under your special protection.

I choose you for my patroness, my mistress and my mother . . . .

I desire to make a solemn profession of belonging unreservedly to you, imitating your virtues: particularly your angelic purity, your profound humility, your blind obedience and your incomparable charity . . . .

Obtain for me, dear Mother, the grace of being faithful to this profession all my life, so that I may merit the favour of being your child during all eternity.

Amen.

In Pakistan, August 12 is “National Minorities Day”.

Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani yesterday reaffirmed his government’s “obligation to strengthen the bond of love and promote culture of tolerance”.

He quoted a government decision to reserve a percentage of minorities in the government and said, “Extremism is a serious threat to the fabric of our society . . . perpetrators of crime against minority communities anywhere in Pakistan must be brought to justice, and they will be.”

Sounds pretty good. But is it believable?

Australian politicians also make some hardly-believable claims . . . for example, that Islam is basically a peaceful faith;  that terrorists are the exception – bad Muslims.

Was the Prophet Mohammed himself, therefore, a “bad Muslim”?

He personally ordered the annihilation of whole cities, and the beheading of those who failed to submit to his religion.

Such stories aren’t inventions of enemies of Islam, but are recorded in the writings of traditional Muslim authorities.

* * *

The Catholic faith teaches that there is one God, who is a Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Muslims are angered by such a suggestion.

Catholics believe that Jesus Christ was/is God’s only-begotten Son.

Muslims believe that “Allah has no son”.

So is there any point at which Muslims and Christians can come together?

* *  *

Islam’s holy book, the Qur’an, mentions the BLESSED VIRGIN MARY 37 times. It seems little interested in the mother of Mohammed.

* The Qur’an speaks of Mary as having  unique dignity:  “Remember when the angels said, O, Mary! Verily God hath chosen thee, and purified thee, and chosen thee above the women of the world.” (3:42)

* Mary’s sinlessness is also proclaimed by the Qur’an: “With goodly acceptance did her Lord accept her, and with goodly growth did he make her grow.”  (3:32)

* Islamic writers quote the Prophet saying, “Fatima (his own daughter) would be the chief of the women of Paradise, were it not for Mary, daughter of Imran (i.e. the Mother of Jesus)”.   (Ibn Hanbal, Musnad 3:80)

Something to think about.

A Catholic Order in the USA (Maryknoll Fathers) is dismissing one of its priests for speaking in favour of ordaining women priests.

He was given two weeks to revoke his stand or face formal removal from the priesthood.

Comments:

(1) The Priest himself, Father Bourgeois, refuses to conform, saying last week that Catholic banning of women priests is “rooted in sexism,” which “like racism, is a sin.”

(2) Some would defend Father B by quoting the Catholic Catechism, “Man has the right to act in conscience . . . he must not be forced to act contrary to his conscience . . . especially in religious matters.”

 (3) Others would accuse the Church of “discriminating against women”, demanding that women be “empowered” (including letting them be priests).

Comments on the comments:

(1) “Sexism” and “racism” aren’t sins. They are ill-defined terms of abuse, best avoided. If an action towards a person of a particular sex or race is based on an attitude of malice, that is a sin – a sin against Charity. But restricting the priesthood to men only, as practised by the Catholic Church – and practised by Jesus himself in his lifetime — is not based on malice.

(2) Nobody is “forcing” Father B to do anything. He can promote women priests as much as he likes — but must do so as a layman. If a member of Carlton AFL football team decides in conscience to kick the ball towards the opposing team’s goal, nobody denies his right to kick footballs anywhere he wants — but not while a member of a team.

 (3) Women already have almost absolute power. They have the dominating influence on all (nearly all) young humans, from birth until puberty or whatever. Rightly so. Men’s skills lie elsewhere — in another direction — fatherhood.

* fatherhood, physically, in begetting the child

* fatherhood socially, in going out to work as the family’s provider, and

* fatherhood spiritually, in being, if so called by God, a priest.

Hosni Murabak, ex-president of Egypt, has been shown on TV, world-wide, lying on a hospital bed inside a metal cage in a courtroom.

His humiliation is complete.

His chance of a fair trial is nil.

The apparent moral of this story is that — in this world – if there is a war on, you had better win.

Do whatever it takes.

If you win, you won’t have to justify your tactics.

If you lose, they’ll kill you.

* * *

They’ll say they are killing you for “crimes against humanity” or whatever.

In fact, you’ll be dead because you didn’t win.

If Britain had lost the 1939-45 war, Churchill would been hung for war crimes.

Whoever ordered the bombing of Dresden would have swung for conducting a “Holocaust”.

Likewise whoever ordered the bombing of Hiroshima.

* * *

But in the realm of reality, it’s not in this world that judgement happens.

Judgement is something God reserves to himself.

So the ultimate winners will be the “losers” of this world – the powerless, those who suffer for their faith.

It was in the early days of the Christian movement, while thousands were being martyred, that the Catholic Church grew faster than ever before or since.

Hence the saying: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.”

* * *

So the real – as opposed to the apparent — moral of all this is to do what is right.

Persevere in obedience to God, regardless of the cost.

Leave the outcome of your obedience to God.

God is the God of history.

Two weeks ago, Israel reopened the site where Jesus was baptised in the Jordan River to Christian pilgrims who wish to visit.

Since the 1967 war, when Israel captured that part of the west bank from Jordan, the site had been a heavily mined no-man’s land.

The area has now been renovated and cleared of mines at a cost of over $2 million.

Israel hopes this will help attract more Christian tourists.

Of 3.45 million tourists visiting Israel last year, 70 percent were Christians and 40 percent said their visit was a “religious pilgrimage”.

* * *

In an era when the media would have us believe that Christianity is on its last legs, it’s interesting that millions of people cross the world to see this holy place.

Baptism is an indispensable part of the Christian religion.

More than a welcome ceremony, after which the family takes photos etc., Baptism is a sacrament of the Catholic Church.

One of seven.

By means of water and the words of God, the baptised person is cleansed of sin, reborn and made holy, with a view to entering eternal life.

The water represents a washing away of sin.

It also represents a drowning — making the word “reborn” more than a metaphor.

The Bible says that “as we are baptised in Christ Jesus . . . in his death . . . so we also may walk in newness of life.” (Romans, chapter 6)

If one is unwilling to join Jesus in his death – becoming “dead” to sin, i.e. giving it up completely — one can hardly expect to receive the new life of God.

* * *

If one has failed to live in the spirit of one’s baptism, is all hope lost?

No. That is why we have the sacrament of Confession (or Penance) where one’s sins can be absolved and make a fresh start.

Reading the Bible, praying etc., aren’t enough.

The Bible doesn’t bring you to God.

The Bible points to, and sheds light on, the Sacraments, that is all.

It’s in the Catholic Sacraments themselves that we encounter — not just words about God — but God himself.

A mosque built in Amman, Jordan, has been named after Jesus.

According to the Australian Cathnews website, “both Muslims and Christians have shown appreciation for it”.

A few weeks ago, a billboard was erected in Sydney carrying the message “JESUS: A PROPHET OF ISLAM”. Plus a phone number to ring and receive a free copy of the Quran.

Within 24 hours that billboard had been vandalised — the word “Islam” being partly torn away.

One of the organisers, a Mr Mohamed, said, “I’ve had positive feedback from Christians, atheists, Muslims . . . saying, ‘we support you, keep up the good work’”

He added, “About 10 percent of calls have been really offensive: ‘no one wants Muslims here etc.’”

Didn’t he receive any responses pointing out (politely) that the billboard message is simply not true?

He should have.

No need to be offensive. But Jesus wasn’t and isn’t a prophet of Islam.

* * *

When Jesus lived, there was no Islam to be a prophet of.

Jesus died in the year 30AD. Mohammed founded Islam 600 years later.

Jesus taught that he himself was the Son of God.

Islam says that he is not.

Jesus taught that God is a Trinity (God, one and unique in his essential nature, is three really distinct persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost).

Islam says that he is not.

The teachings are incompatible.

* * *

Jesus Christ told his disciples not to blend in with other faiths – but to convert non-Christians to Christianity:

 “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you . . . .”   (St Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 28)