Homily of H.E. Mons. Claudio Gatti of August 15, 2006

1st Reading: Rev 11:19, 12:1-6.10; Psalm 44; 2nd Reading: 1 Cor 15:20-26; Gospel: Lk 1:39-56

Today is the feast of the Assumption into Heaven of Our Lady in body and soul. We remember this truth of faith in a inadequate way because, thinking of the Assumption, we believe, as far as we have been made to understand up to now, that Our Lady died and was immediately transfigured and taken up into heaven; but I am convinced that a procession of souls has also formed that accompanied her to Heaven from Purgatory. We can ask confirmation of this from Marisa, the only one here among us who has experience of the supernatural. (Marisa confirms what the Bishop has just said, adding that the procession of souls was accompanied by all the angels who made it even more beautiful).

I believe that we must place this event, concerning the Purgative Church and the Triumphant Church, always in the perspective of the resurrection of Christ. You know that the ecclesiastical authority has no jurisdiction over the afterlife but only over the people living on earth, so when Jesus said to Peter "What you loose on earth will be loosened in heaven and what you bind on earth will be bound in heaven" it did not refer to dead people who were already in Purgatory and Heaven, but only to the men of earth. Once again we were surprised by God's way of working because we would never have thought of this procession made up of both holy souls and souls who are starting the beatification process and who, while enjoying Paradise, still lack the beatific vision of God. Up to now we have identified Paradise with the vision of God, instead this has made us understand that even those with small imperfections must wait for a complete purification because to be before God one must be perfect. Then it happens that "the last will be the first and the first will be the last". People who held power and have also exercised it well during their existence are preceded by people who have had no power and who have lived in simplicity and in humility and this because before God the perspectives are completely different from ours.

I conclude by repeating the words that Jesus addressed to the Father thanking him for having kept these things hidden, even those things we have said about Paradise, from the powerful and the wise and for having revealed them to the humble and the simple. Once more the Gospel is truth and makes us understand things in the proper way.