20260816 VICTORY OVER EVIL THROUGH FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE
16 August 2026, Sunday, Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
First reading |
Apocalypse 11:19,12:1-6,10 |
A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman adorned with the sun
The sanctuary of God in heaven opened and the ark of the covenant could be seen inside it.
Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman, adorned with the sun, standing on the moon, and with the twelve stars on her head for a crown. She was pregnant, and in labour, crying aloud in the pangs of childbirth. Then a second sign appeared in the sky, a huge red dragon which had seven heads and ten horns, and each of the seven heads crowned with a coronet. Its tail dragged a third of the stars from the sky and dropped them to the earth, and the dragon stopped in front of the woman as she was having the child, so that he could eat it as soon as it was born from its mother. The woman brought a male child into the world, the son who was to rule all the nations with an iron sceptre, and the child was taken straight up to God and to his throne, while the woman escaped into the desert, where God had made a place of safety ready.
Then I heard a voice shout from heaven, ‘Victory and power and empire for ever have been won by our God, and all authority for his Christ.’
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 44(45):10-12,16 |
On your right stands the queen, in garments of gold.
The daughters of kings are among your loved ones.
On your right stands the queen in gold of Ophir.
Listen, O daughter, give ear to my words:
forget your own people and your father’s house.
On your right stands the queen, in garments of gold.
So will the king desire your beauty:
He is your lord, pay homage to him.
They are escorted amid gladness and joy;
they pass within the palace of the king.
On your right stands the queen, in garments of gold.
Second reading |
1 Corinthians 15:20-26 |
Christ will be brought to life as the first-fruits and then those who belong to him
Christ has been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of all who have fallen asleep. Death came through one man and in the same way the resurrection of the dead has come through one man. Just as all men die in Adam, so all men will be brought to life in Christ; but all of them in their proper order: Christ as the first-fruits and then, after the coming of Christ, those who belong to him. After that will come the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, having done away with every sovereignty, authority and power. For he must be king until he has put all his enemies under his feet and the last of the enemies to be destroyed is death, for everything is to be put under his feet.
Gospel Acclamation |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Mary has been taken up to heaven;
all the choirs of angels are rejoicing.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 1:39-56 |
The Almighty has done great things for me
Mary set out and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country of Judah. She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. Now as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, ‘Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.’
And Mary said:
‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord
and my spirit exults in God my saviour;
because he has looked upon his lowly handmaid.
Yes, from this day forward all generations will call me blessed,
for the Almighty has done great things for me.
Holy is his name,
and his mercy reaches from age to age for those who fear him.
He has shown the power of his arm,
he has routed the proud of heart.
He has pulled down princes from their thrones and exalted the lowly.
The hungry he has filled with good things, the rich sent empty away.
He has come to the help of Israel his servant, mindful of his mercy
– according to the promise he made to our ancestors –
of his mercy to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’
Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back home.
VICTORY OVER EVIL THROUGH FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [REV 11:19; 12:1-6,10; 1 COR 15:20-26; LUKE 1:39-56]
In the Book of Revelation, we read of the ongoing spiritual warfare against the Evil One symbolised by the dragon. The battle between good and evil, truth and falsehood, love and hatred, and the spiritual and the worldly is fought each day. The Evil One, who is no less active and vicious than in the time of our forefathers. The First Reading portrays a woman and a dragon, symbolising the Church and the Devil. The woman also represents Mary, the Blessed Virgin, who conceived Jesus, the Saviour of the world, who would gain victory over the Evil One by His passion, death, and resurrection. However, His Body, the Church, remains in constant battle with the temptations of the Evil One.
We live in bewildering times. The international rule-based order is breaking down. Superpowers no longer recognise the decisions and directions of world bodies, such as the United Nations and the World Trade Organisation. The force of the law has been replaced by the law of force, bolstered by armaments, advances in science and technology, and economic power.
When countries start pre-emptive wars based on speculative future attacks from enemies, it sets a dangerous precedent. No one can live in peace. One country might see another as a threat because it is growing economically, militarily, or technologically. Trust and mutual respect break down, and countries suspect each other, particularly when one is more powerful than the other. On the one hand, small countries, for their own survival, will behave obsequiously towards those more powerful. On the other hand, they know this will be a double-edged sword, because the dragons and wolves they feed will eventually bite them. The moral order that maintains peace and harmony has broken down, and there is no right or wrong because might is always seen as right.
It is in this context that the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is celebrated – to give us hope that good will triumph over evil, and life over death. This is the assurance of St. John, who spoke of the ultimate victory of Christ and Mary over the dragon in the Book of Revelation. There, the dragon symbolises the anti-Christian Roman emperors whose political and military power seemed unassailable. The Church, represented by a woman and child, had no chance of survival against the Romans, let alone of victory over them. Today, we see this form of power appearing again when powerful nations seek to monopolise the world, using economic and military might to force other nations to submit to their will or else face destruction.
The dragon today appears in the form of lawlessness, not just in the lives of powerful nations, but also in individuals. It manifests in atheism, materialism, moral relativism, the destruction of families and marriages, and the promotion of transgenderism and same-sex unions. It seems that the intelligent do not need to believe in God, that religion is mere superstition for the naive. After all, we have only one life to live, and we must not miss out on the pleasures of this world. The emphasis of life is on pleasure, entertainment, and self-fulfilment. So this dragon still exists in new ways, equally destructive to the individual and society.
Yet, we must not give up hope simply because the dragon seems invincible in the world today, and the Gospel is being silenced by those who hold power over us. Truth is no longer spoken plainly because we fear being cancelled out by the media or the powerful. Yet, against such a dark cloud, there is a silver lining of hope. St. John gives us the image of the woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, surrounded by twelve stars. Undoubtedly, the image describes Mary, the mother of Jesus, clothed with the sun–that is, with the glory of God – since she lives totally in God, filled with His love and light. She is surrounded by twelve stars, symbolising the twelve tribes of Israel, the entire People of God in the Communion of Saints. At her feet is the moon, which represents death and mortality. We are told that Mary overcame death when her body and soul were taken up into God’s glory.
This was possible only because Mary brought forth Christ into the world. “She was pregnant, and in labour, crying aloud in the pangs of childbirth. The woman brought a male child into the world, the son who was to rule all the nations with an iron sceptre, and the child was taken straight up to God and to his throne, while the woman escaped into the desert, where God had made a place of safety ready. Then I heard a voice shout from heaven: Victory and power and empire for ever have been won by our God and all authority for his Christ.” Mary won the victory over the Evil One in the passion, death, and resurrection of her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. This is what St. Paul wrote in the Second Reading. “Just as all men die in Adam, so all men will be brought to life in Christ; but all of them in their proper order: Christ as the first-fruits and then, after the coming of Christ, those who belong to him.” Mary was rightly the first, after her Son, to be taken up to heaven, body and soul, as she was closely associated with His ministry and salvific event. The perfection of Mary was won by her Son. She therefore leads the Church by being the first to receive the full resurrection.
In celebrating the Assumption, we celebrate the hope of the entire Church to share in the resurrection of Christ, which Mary, as a creature of God, already shares in anticipation for the whole Church. But Mary’s assumption into heaven is not the end of her chapter in our history. Rather, it marks a new beginning in her role as Queen of Heaven. She is given a new vocation as the Mother of the Church, fulfilling the promise the Lord made to her at Cana in Galilee when she interceded for the wedding couple. He said, “My hour has not yet come” (Jn 2:4), referring to the time of His glorification. When the hour came (cf. Jn 19:28-30), Jesus gave her to us as the mother of the Church, represented by the beloved disciple (cf. Jn 19:26-27). For this reason, as the sons and daughters of Mary, our Blessed Mother, we are called to turn to her and follow her more intently to receive the graces she received, so that we, too, might enter into the glory of her Son.
This calls for an imitation of Mary’s faith and her love for God and for her fellowmen. The Gospel invites us to join Mary in her canticle of thanksgiving for God’s gifts to her. What are these gifts? The call to share in the salvific work of the Saviour. This is more than just giving birth to the Saviour. It is a call to share in His work of mercy and compassion. Hence, the Magnificat is preceded by the narration of Mary’s faith and charity. She responded to the needs of her cousin, Elizabeth, who was pregnant in her old age. When Elizabeth saw Mary, she praised her faith in God: “She gave a loud cry and said, ‘Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.'” We, too, must journey in faith with Mary by cooperating with the grace of God given to us, by having faith in Him ourselves, and most of all, by sharing His work of restoring humanity. As the Magnificat says: “He has shown the power of his arm, he has routed the proud of heart. He has pulled down princes from their thrones and exalted the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things, the rich sent empty away.” So, with faith and charity, we must transform the world by fighting evil and sin.
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
- Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
- Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
- It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
