At the Virgin Mary’s Tomb
Two “empty tombs” are venerated in Jerusalem: the tomb of Christ and the tomb of His Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. At the end of the Cedron Valley, in the Gethsemane area, in a Crusaders’ church which is now Orthodox, according to a very ancient tradition, backed up bu the concordance of literary sources and archaeological finds, there is the place where the Madonna was buried and then assumed into heaven, with her body.
It is here then, that every 15th August, the Catholics of Jerusalem and pilgrims have the grace of celebrating the feast of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven. This year again, many people went to visit the Basilica of the Assumption. There was a continuous bustle all day long, when was marked by some special moments animated by the Friars of the Custody of the Holy Land. In the afternoon, the Custody of the Holy Land, Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa presided the Second Vespers, very close to the Church of the Assumption, in what is called the Grotto of the Arrest, where a fresco, placed before a small altar, shows the Blessed Virgin Mary Assumed into Heaven. The small place was packed with local Christians and foreigners who live in Jerusalem, as well as some pilgrims. A moment of prayer that was solemn and intimate at the same time, ended with an invocation to the Queen of the Holy Land: “…remember that here you were made Our tender Mother and dispenser of Grace: watch over your homeland with special care, dissipate the darkness of error from it so that the Sun of eternal justice may shine here and the promise of your Divine Son, of forming a single flock under one shepherd may come true…”. Then the faithful and the Franciscans made their pilgrimage to the Basilica of the Assumption. The silent procession went down the long staircase of 48 steps (which together with the façade is still in the austere and solemn style of the Crusaders) and before the Tomb of the Virgin Mary the group experienced a short but intense moment of adoration and prayer, in the typical atmosphere of oriental churches, animated this time by the Marian melodies of the Western tradition….almost forming a single echo of the incessant prayers poured forth in this holy place over the centuries, by Christians of all denominations and pilgrims from all over the world. After the Custos and the Franciscans, each person present was able to enter the edicule to approach the rock bench which is all that remains of the Virgin Mary’s empty tomb. Latins are allowed to preside a brief liturgy only on this day, as the Basilica, also called the “Virgin Mary’s Tomb” is currently officiated only by Greek and Armenian Orthodox Christians. The Friars Minor, after a period of exclusive possession, were chased out once and for all in 1757. Although it is true that no canonical text tells us how Mary spent her last years and how she left the earth, some apocryphal books, which come under the name of the cycle of the Dormition of the Madonna, which can all be traced back to an original document, a Judeo-Christian prototype drawn up around the 2nd century, hand down pieces of information on the last days and on the death of Mary, saying that the Apostles laid the body of Jesus’ mother in the Gethsemane garden in a new tomb which they found empty after three days. The tomb, guarded annd venerated by the Judeo-Christians from the first centuries, was then isolated from the others and enclosed in a church. The veneration and worship of Mary here have continued all the time, despite all the transformations and it is around this empty tomb that the faith of the Christian people in the Assumption of Mary into heaven was born and nurtured.
If the Virgin Mary’s tomb is the holy place in Jerusalem directly connected with the Feast day of 15th August, the most important liturgical moment took place in the morning - just a few dozen metres from the Church of the Assumption - in the Franciscan basilica of Gethsemane. Here, the Custos of the Holy Land again presided a solemn Holy Mass attended mainly by Christians living in Jerusalem. In his sermon, Father Pizzaballa underlined how Mary anticipates our reality and the triumph of the whole Church. The Fathers of the Church - he said - saw in her who gave birth to the Son, the model for the Church and for all of us. This is how the passage of the Apocalypse that is read in the Liturgy of the Word of this Solemnity is interpreted: "In the heavens there appeared a grandiose sign; a woman dressed in the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars …She gave birth to a son, destined to govern all nations … " “Mary is the woman chosen by God for her simplicity and humility,“ the Custos of the Holy land continued. “Through her total assent, she can sing the Magnificat “my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit exalts in God, my saviour, because he has looked at the humility of his servant.” It is by following this example that we too can try to take the same path.” As the Pope said yesterday, recalling that this year is the 60th anniversary of the definition of the dogma of the Assumption, “Mary assumed into heaven is the sign that God does not abandon us… we believe that Mary, like Christ her son, has already defeated death and triumphs in celestial glory, in the totality of her being, in body and soul.
Two “empty tombs” are venerated in Jerusalem: the tomb of Christ and the tomb of His Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. At the end of the Cedron Valley, in the Gethsemane area, in a Crusaders’ church which is now Orthodox, according to a very ancient tradition, backed up bu the concordance of literary sources and archaeological finds, there is the place where the Madonna was buried and then assumed into heaven, with her body.
It is here then, that every 15th August, the Catholics of Jerusalem and pilgrims have the grace of celebrating the feast of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven. This year again, many people went to visit the Basilica of the Assumption. There was a continuous bustle all day long, when was marked by some special moments animated by the Friars of the Custody of the Holy Land. In the afternoon, the Custody of the Holy Land, Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa presided the Second Vespers, very close to the Church of the Assumption, in what is called the Grotto of the Arrest, where a fresco, placed before a small altar, shows the Blessed Virgin Mary Assumed into Heaven. The small place was packed with local Christians and foreigners who live in Jerusalem, as well as some pilgrims. A moment of prayer that was solemn and intimate at the same time, ended with an invocation to the Queen of the Holy Land: “…remember that here you were made Our tender Mother and dispenser of Grace: watch over your homeland with special care, dissipate the darkness of error from it so that the Sun of eternal justice may shine here and the promise of your Divine Son, of forming a single flock under one shepherd may come true…”. Then the faithful and the Franciscans made their pilgrimage to the Basilica of the Assumption. The silent procession went down the long staircase of 48 steps (which together with the façade is still in the austere and solemn style of the Crusaders) and before the Tomb of the Virgin Mary the group experienced a short but intense moment of adoration and prayer, in the typical atmosphere of oriental churches, animated this time by the Marian melodies of the Western tradition….almost forming a single echo of the incessant prayers poured forth in this holy place over the centuries, by Christians of all denominations and pilgrims from all over the world. After the Custos and the Franciscans, each person present was able to enter the edicule to approach the rock bench which is all that remains of the Virgin Mary’s empty tomb. Latins are allowed to preside a brief liturgy only on this day, as the Basilica, also called the “Virgin Mary’s Tomb” is currently officiated only by Greek and Armenian Orthodox Christians. The Friars Minor, after a period of exclusive possession, were chased out once and for all in 1757. Although it is true that no canonical text tells us how Mary spent her last years and how she left the earth, some apocryphal books, which come under the name of the cycle of the Dormition of the Madonna, which can all be traced back to an original document, a Judeo-Christian prototype drawn up around the 2nd century, hand down pieces of information on the last days and on the death of Mary, saying that the Apostles laid the body of Jesus’ mother in the Gethsemane garden in a new tomb which they found empty after three days. The tomb, guarded annd venerated by the Judeo-Christians from the first centuries, was then isolated from the others and enclosed in a church. The veneration and worship of Mary here have continued all the time, despite all the transformations and it is around this empty tomb that the faith of the Christian people in the Assumption of Mary into heaven was born and nurtured.
If the Virgin Mary’s tomb is the holy place in Jerusalem directly connected with the Feast day of 15th August, the most important liturgical moment took place in the morning - just a few dozen metres from the Church of the Assumption - in the Franciscan basilica of Gethsemane. Here, the Custos of the Holy Land again presided a solemn Holy Mass attended mainly by Christians living in Jerusalem. In his sermon, Father Pizzaballa underlined how Mary anticipates our reality and the triumph of the whole Church. The Fathers of the Church - he said - saw in her who gave birth to the Son, the model for the Church and for all of us. This is how the passage of the Apocalypse that is read in the Liturgy of the Word of this Solemnity is interpreted: "In the heavens there appeared a grandiose sign; a woman dressed in the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars …She gave birth to a son, destined to govern all nations … " “Mary is the woman chosen by God for her simplicity and humility,“ the Custos of the Holy land continued. “Through her total assent, she can sing the Magnificat “my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit exalts in God, my saviour, because he has looked at the humility of his servant.” It is by following this example that we too can try to take the same path.” As the Pope said yesterday, recalling that this year is the 60th anniversary of the definition of the dogma of the Assumption, “Mary assumed into heaven is the sign that God does not abandon us… we believe that Mary, like Christ her son, has already defeated death and triumphs in celestial glory, in the totality of her being, in body and soul.