Do we have to go to Church on this hot day in August?

  I can still remember as a teenager arguing with my mother. "Why do we always have to be the exception? Going to church in the middle of the week on the warmest day of August?" My mother's terse response: "Don't you love your Mother?"
 Catholic and Orthodox Christians have a strong devotion to the mother of Jesus. On August 15th, we celebrate the feast of the Assumption. It's one of the many traditions dating back to the 1st century and updated in the 20th century by Pope Pius XII. For "Catholic countries" it is a holiday, celebrated firstly by going to Mass and followed by much festivity. Once while travelling to Slovenia, I arrived at the border on August 15th only to discover everything was shut down. I slept in the bus station that evening, recalling that argument I had with my mother.
  In the 1st century, the feast was known as "The Dormition," the falling asleep of the Mother of God. Later in the 4th century, popular stories arose about the death of Mary. The belief was her body would not decompose since she carried the Savior in her womb. One of the stories I particularly like is that Jesus appeared to his mother after her death and took her to heaven, body and soul. Though there is no scriptural evidence for this; I like the belief because it tells me how much Jesus loved his own mother.
  This tenet of Catholic faith gained recognition after World War II. The Church affirmed this ancient belief of the Dormiton after the atrocities of Hitler, the 1st nuclear attack in Hiroshima, the cheapening of sex and the exploitation of women from the 1950's onwards. Pius XII declared the Assumption as an important fact of our faith in order to counteract the devaluing of the human body.
  Although, I had no idea why we had to go to church when I was a teenager; I loved my mother dearly. Many decades later, I began to explore the significance of this belief. To me, it makes absolute sense. We affirm the value and importance of everything that belongs to and contributes to physical, bodily human existence. I think we each have the potential to make our world a better place.  We are renewed by the incorruptibility of one person's body. Perhaps in all our struggles against pollution of the environment, our fight against poverty, pornography and so many injustices around us, we too can make a difference.
   August 15th is only one day to pause and to reflect on a hot summer day with the Mother of Jesus!