(Please read the passage cited above first.)
Christ has been raised. He is risen as the first-fruits of the dead. Just as in Adam we all have died, so also in Christ we all rise to new life. First Christ was raised as the first one; then after him all of us who belong to Christ.
Today we celebrate the assumption of Mary, the Virgin Mother of Christ. She is one in Christ. At the end of her mortal life, Christ brought Mary to heaven in body and soul. On the other hand, Mary is not the only one in heaven in the fullness of her human nature, with her body and soul, because all of us are destined to be in heaven with the fullness of our human nature.
The English poet William Wordsworth, once wrote of Mary that she is “our tainted nature’s solitary boast”. In so many words, Wordsworth was saying that no other woman or man could equal what she alone did and that therefore all the rest of us are lousy, hopeless and condemned sinners. Mary, however, is one of us because she is the first one after her Son to be raised to heaven and we will follow her and be with Christ with the body and soul we have here. This body will be transformed into the likeness of Christ as a heavenly body, glorious, fully-energized, incorruptible and spiritualized.
Often when we super-praise someone more than we should, we insult the rest as though there were nothing or hopeless people. We can say the same about the words of the poet. Perhaps the poet has super-praised Mary. If the Virgin Mary is so majestic that no one can follow her, then we are nothings and hopeless sinners.
On the other hand, we praise Mary for the special task she had as Mother of Jesus, but we praise her as one of our own, as a member of the Church.
Mary is a special member of the Church, but she is not the whole Church. All who believe in Christ, we and the rest, make up the one Church with Christ. The Church is bigger than Mary. The Church in its fullness is Christ who has united together all who believe in him and this includes Mary.
It is not correct to say that the Assumption separates Mary from us. Mary is always part of us. Her position is heaven we celebrate today because all of us along with her and Christ will be in heaven with our bodies and souls.
Mary is not a goddess for us to adore and she is not separated from the rest of the human race. She is one of us, redeemed, as we are, through the cross of her Son and the mercy of God. The God of mercy raised her to heaven and will likewise raise us up to heaven in the same way.
God has destined us for heaven at the end of our life on earth, with our souls and bodies, just as God did for Mary. We are not nothings, but rather, we are beloved children of God, incorporated into the body of Christ.