We celebrate the great Feast of the Dormition and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on August 15. My grandmothers, when they prayed the rosary, often together, with us children, used to announce the Fourth Glorious Mystery as “The Assumption of Mary, body and soul, into Heaven.” 
   What must it have looked like, this rising of a human body into the sky? At each of the Fatima apparitions, Lucia described Our Lady’s leave-taking as rising into the sky, towards the East, “into the immense distance of the firmament.” She didn't die. She fell asleep.
   Mary’s Dormition helps us believe that death is falling asleep in the Lord. Yet, falling asleep, is resting after a long day of labor in the vineyard. Our Maronite Ramsho (vigil prayer) reminds us daily: 
   In expectation and trials, our souls praise you. // Like the five virgins behold our lamps.  //  
   Our faith, our hope and our love are wounded; // The wind lashes at our burning lamps.  //  
   O desire of my soul, it is to you that I cry: // When will the bridal party come? // Already my spirit is weakening.     The Church we are in today, East and West, is proof of the ardent zeal of the first disciples who “worked out their salvation with fear and trembling” after they have witnessed the Life, Death, Resurrection, Ascension of the Lord. They lived the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost and they witnessed the Dormition and Assumption of Mary the Mother of God. The Church is the proof of the ardent zeal also of the generations of disciples since these early “super” apostles. We must build on what they have built, for the Kingdom of God must be restored and confirmed by every generation thru the labor of the workers in the Vineyard and according to St. Paul’s excellent witness addressing the Colossians (1:24): “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am supplementing what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church.” Therefore, it is us who are witnessing to His sacrifice on Calvary, His Resurrection, and His Ascension. We must witness to Christ, alive and reigning. We witness that our own bodies will be restored, swept up into a manner of  being that knows no decay, no sin, no sadness. We are witnessing to Eternal Life, beyond what modern man can see, and buy, and sell, and manufacture. 
   In this month of August, we witness not only to the Transfiguration of Christ, on August 6th, but to the novena’s fullness: the Assumption of Our Lady on August 15th. She is the first to follow him into that Realm. This aspiration for heaven must drive us forward with joy when life seems very dark. Jesus went before us; Our Lady has gone before us. Let us follow them by building His kingdom on earth, which one day will become his perfect Kingdom in Heaven.