The Blessed Virgin Mary’s Assumption into heaven, body and soul, calls us to remember that death is not the enemy of life or something to be feared and defeated. Her Assumption is our destiny, and her Assumption is still the answer and the antidote to what the popes call a culture of death. Death will surely come to each of us, but our bodies are destined to rise, as Blessed Mary’s did. These beautiful truths are the answer to our neighbors’ anxieties about life and their fears of infirmity and death. Even now we can begin living the joy of the resurrection, even now we can live the victory of life and love over fear and death.