With the solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the realization that the summer of 2016 is winding down hits us with an even stronger impact. This summer has been marked with a general sense of distress and world-weariness. It would do no good for us to enumerate the many events of the summer, but perhaps focusing on them all in light of the Assumption of Our Lady can help us to be able to more fully understand exactly what all these events mean for us as Catholic Christian men and women.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church No. 966 states: “Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son’s Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians: In giving birth you kept your virginity; in your Dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life. You conceived the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death.”

The Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived and born without original sin, that fatal flaw that has affected the human race since the days of our first parents, Adam and Eve, and their fall from a primordial state of original innocence. The Church’s doctrine of original sin is “the reverse side” of the Good News of our faith: Salvation comes in and through Christ Jesus, our Lord. The catechism states: “The Church, which has the mind of Christ, knows well that we cannot tamper with the revelation of original sin without undermining the mystery of Christ.” The catechism tells us that original sin is ultimately a lack of trust in the Creator and abuse of God’s great gift of free will (CCC No. 397).

In the sin of choosing to disobey, the one thing that the Creator had asked our first parents to do – namely, to not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil ­– Adam and Eve forget their place in the universe. They forgot that God is Creator and that they are creatures. They, who were called to be “like God,” decided that they wanted to be “without God, before God and not in accordance with God” (CCC No. 398). They who were created in the image and likeness of God began to reflect a distorted likeness. Everything is put into disarray. The human being is divided in himself and his thoughts. He knows in the deepest part of his soul that he is created to know, serve and love God in this life and to be with Him in the next. But if he’s honest, he knows he really wants to serve himself first. His focus is on the things of this world, not on his true home, Heaven. The human being’s relationship with the world is disordered.

Our Blessed Lady teaches us what it means to be truly human, what it means to be truly free from the stain of original sin and that all-pervasive reality. She teaches us what it means to be truly human in this life: to be attentive, open, receptive, humble, strong.

As Mary lived in this world, she lives in the next. Pope Pius XII solemnly defined in Munificentissimus Deus on Nov. 1, 1950, that the “Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.” Mary can teach us to trust. She, like us, did not have it easy. She, like us, suffered. Yet, she who is without the stain of original sin, can teach us who suffer from the effects of original sin, to trust in God’s plan for the world and us.

In this tough summer of 2016, may this offer us some peace.