In my Igbo and Mbaise culture of Nigeria, today being the 15^th of August and the feast of the Assumption of our Blessed Virgin Mary, we celebrate our new yam festival. This is the time the first yam harvest is celebrated. At this festival people travel from afar back to their villages with many friends and in laws from neighboring towns gathering to celebrate with us. To begin the celebration, for the Christians, we bring our first yam produce, fresh from the farm to the church for blessing by the priest. After the blessing, the yam is cooked and served to everyone present at home. This is a celebration to mark the beginning of the rich and abundant harvest and celebration of their labor which has yielded abountiful harvest. Eating of the new yam celebration is usually followed by people gathering at the Market Square and dancing and thanking God for the bountiful harvest.

This has been a practice of my people even before we started practicing Christianity and since then, taking our first yams for the priests’ blessings was enculturated. The joy of that thanksgiving is likened to a mother’s joy after giving birth and bringing the child to the church to dedicate to God in thanksgiving for sparing her life throughout the labor of pregnancy.

Mary on hearing that her older cousin Elizabeth was pregnant hurriedly went to be with her in solidarity, not mindingthat she too was with child and the exchange that ensued – the Magnificat in today’s Gospel reading.

The feast we celebrate today of the Assumption of our Blessed Mother reminds us also of her victory as a mother who carried her baby through pregnancy, gave birth, and raised her child successfully. We remember that our blessed mother after giving birth, she and Joseph had to flee to Egypt for safety of the Child Jesus. In today’s world, thiscouple with their child would be seen as immigrants fleeing from violence and the cruel abuse of their leader, seeking a place to settle and raise their child. Astheir country of origin became unbearable, they had no hope of survival, so they fled. And I think of all immigrants fleeing from hardships both economic and political especially those releasing their little children to travelunaccompanied across the border. Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, has always been a symbol of hope and a companion for all who are marginalized. From her own family experience of living in another country as a stranger or immigrant, people believe that she works for the unity of the people of God in search of understanding, compassion, peace and human dignity for immigrants who are being kept in the margins of our society. In fact, among all women who ever lived, Mary is singled out as the one who has the most enduring power in the Christian imagination. And so, she alone can bring immigrants and the inhabitants who fear strangers together through her Son Jesus Christ.

May today’s feast remind us of our own Yes to God’s call as consecrated people of God in our different spheres of life. May we be the voice for the voiceless and the less privileged in our society. May this feast of Assumption bring peace and joy in our homes, communities and world at large.