If it's only an assumption of our lady into heaven, then we tend to have a picture in our mind, perhaps from some paintings that have been carried up into the sky, and such images are thought altogether wrong, obviously, but they can be very misleading, and for many it makes it very unreal. And of course we have to see the deeper meaning of it, that Mary enters into the resurrection and it's part of a whole transformation of matter by spirit, if you look on it, the whole creation is a gradual transformation of matter by spirit, first of all you get the whole material creation, the sun, the moon and the stars, and then you get life, and matter begins to exercise new powers altogether, and from life comes sensitivity and feeling and having a sense of experience and so on, and then from life comes human consciousness, and we're

[01:05]

in the stage when consciousness, human consciousness, is beginning to transform the matter of the body, and in all of us it's half transformed, partly the body is subdued, we control it in many ways, partly it's not under our control, and eventually, of course, it disintegrates and dies, and yet the plan of God in creation was not this disintegration and death, but the reconstruction of the body, that matter should gradually be transformed by the spirit until it becomes totally transformed, matter obeys totally the law of the spirit, and that's what happened in the resurrection of Jesus, his body and soul were totally transformed by the spirit, passed into the new life, into new creation, and we feel the same took place in Mary, because she was without sin, she was not subject to this disintegration of death, but passed through death into this transformation, and I think I want to see

[02:06]

it as something which, as I say, not a total exception, it's something which is actually the plan of God in creation, that all human beings should pass through death into this new state, where the body is transformed by the spirit, normally we undergo a certain degree of disintegration, but there are many holy people whose body is already prepared for the resurrection, and that should be our normal state, day by day, we're preparing this body for the resurrection, it may, the external aspect of it can disintegrate, but the interior reality of the body is transformed, and the Fathers used to say that in communion the spiritual body is being formed in us, we share in that, the body of Christ in the Eucharist is the risen body transformed by spirit, and we receive that risen life into ourselves, and our bodies are undergoing this transformation, we don't see it of course,

[03:11]

the matter of faith, but all the same there is that transformation, we're waiting for this body to be transformed, in a way it's important, you see the body, we're waiting for that redemption of our bodies, and that has taken place in Mary, and that is a sign for us all, and that's why it's very important, you see many people think of the future life and so on as a disembodied life, the spirit separates from the body, leaves it, and passes it beyond, but the Christian doctrine is the resurrection of the body, body transformed by the spirit, becoming a spiritual body, so we ought to open our hearts and minds to this mystery, and pray especially to Our Lady to enable us to realize the mystery, she experienced it in herself, and she can help us also to realize it in ourselves, and we think today also of the independence of India, it's a sort of purely a providence that it should

[04:12]

have taken place on this day of the Assumption, and again we've mastered the transformation of India, India has a great spiritual heritage, but of course also it has a very human weakness, and today we experience this human weakness more than anything, but we should never forget that behind that human weakness there is this spiritual tradition, from the time of the Vedas onward, the spiritual power is at work in India, and we have to pray that the spiritual power may transform the nation, transform the people, and bring about this inner transformation of body by the spirit, and we pray especially to Our Lady to intercede, to endure this for the whole world, that this plan of God, transformation of matter by spirit, may be carried forward to its final end, that is our hope and our prayer. This gospel phrases this hope, the Jews and the Gentiles, and the whole plan of divine

[05:22]

providence and revelation, we don't often realize that Jesus, as he says, came to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, he didn't come to preach to the Gentiles, God revealed himself in Israel in a unique way, Jesus came to instill God's revelation in Israel, and to bring it to its fulfillment, and that looked to the future, to open itself to the Gentiles, but he himself did not open it to the Gentiles. The story of St. John's Gospel, how Andrew brought the Gentiles to him, and Jesus, as we speak today, always his plan is to bring Israel to its fulfillment, and then from that a new movement is to spread, is to move to the Gentiles. You see, it's very significant here, this woman is a Gentile, Sarah of Zion, the Gentiles,

[06:23]

and she comes to him, he simply ignores her, and when they ask, he says, I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, did not come for the Gentiles, and then she goes on begging him, and he uses a very contemptuous language which the Jews use, didn't you have to take the children's meat, not into the dogs? The Jews were the children, and the Gentiles were dogs, it was a common way of speaking of them, just rejected. So he challenges her in that way, and then she says, even the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from that master's table, and the Gentiles say, great is your faith, it shall be done unto Israel. And so he opens it to the Gentiles, but not only provisionally as it were, and it took time for the church to realize that it had a message for the Gentiles, Peter had a special revelation, sheep sent down from heaven, with animals, rice, pita, till and eat, to

[07:23]

show him that he could approach a Gentile and receive him into the church. And then the next phase, the Gentiles, that is the Greeks and Romans largely, began to come into the church, and of course the Jews didn't accept it, and that was the situation Paul faced, the Jews whom Christ had come wouldn't accept Alistair, and the Gentiles who weren't expecting it, received it, and became entered into the church. So that was the situation with Paul, and we've gone on more or less with that ever since, with the idea that God revealed himself to Israel, Israel has rejected the Messiah, and now the gospel is preached to the nations, which has largely meant Europe, for the first 1,500 years it's practically the nations of Europe, few in the Middle East, a little pocket in Kerala for the Syrians, but practically it's a European religion.

[08:24]

And then in the 16th century it began to spread from America to Portuguese and India, and a little fringe now in Asia, about 2% of Asia is Christian, and so today we're challenged with a new understanding of the mystery of the gospel, of the plan of God, starting with Israel, a very small world, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, little parts of the Middle East, nothing beyond. Then it spread out to Greece, Rome, Europe, nothing beyond. Then it spread now in a vague way, in a very superficial way, to other parts of the world, but only today are we facing the real challenge of other religions, you see. It's never been recognized before that God has revealed himself in other ways. God has been revealing himself in India for 5,000 years, and we have the scriptures, the sacred scriptures of India, both Hindu and Buddhist and Jain and Sikh, and is a revelation

[09:27]

from God. And then we have also Islam, which is another way in which God has revealed himself. So today we're trying to see this divine revelation of Israel, unprohibited Christ, in the context not of the Greeks and Romans, but of the whole world. And it's a challenge for many of us, it's a challenge which is very enriching as you begin to see the gospel in a wider context, you see a deeper meaning in it. That's really what is happening. You begin to see the gospel in the context of the Vedas, of the Upanishads, of the Bhagavad Gita, of the Dhammapada, which we're reading, the Buddha, and so on. Then you begin to get a new vision of the gospel and of the plan of God. And I think this is the challenge of the Church today, you see, and the movement of the Holy Spirit is to awaken us to this new situation. That's what really happened at the Vatican Council, you see. At the Vatican Council, for the first time in Christian history, the Church recognized

[10:32]

the values of other religions. It said Catholics should recognize, preserve, and promote the spiritual and moral values of other religions, as well as their cultural and social values. So that opened the gates, you see, to a new vision of the place of Christianity in the world. And today we're challenged. In Asia, you see, Christians are a little minority. Two percent are Indian, all in Asia. Two percent. Ninety-eight percent of the people are not Christian at all. And they all have their own profound religion, which we've lived for over thousands of years. And we have to relate to the Hindus, to the Buddhists, all through Asia, and to the Muslims also spread through Asia as well. So we're challenged, you see, now, to see the place of Christ in the context of all these religions, and to see the place of the Church in the context of all those religions. So this is where we are today.

[11:32]

And we're all, as I say, challenged. We can't shut ourselves anymore in a limited Christianity, shut off from the rest of the world. It has to be related to other religions, each in our own way, obviously. We can't all study the whole theology of religion. But we can all, in some way, relate to our Hindu neighbors, for instance, with that respect, love, which is due. And the same way we can learn how to associate with others, but in depth, you see. It's not socially. Anybody can accept Hindus socially, but it's the challenge of Hindu religion itself, you see, or Buddhist religion. So this is how we have to ask ourselves today. And we have to ask this question of Holy Spirit. It's a moment in the history of the Church, you see. And some people have compared it, you know, to the moment when the Church came out of Palestine. A Jewish religion, speaking Aramaic, that was wholly centered in Judaism, moved out

[12:37]

into the Gentile world, the Greeks and Romans, another culture, another language, another whole world, and became a new Church. And now today, a similar thing is happening. The Church is coming out of this different European world, the Western world, opening itself to Asia and to Africa and to the whole world, and they're challenged to see the Church now in Christian revelation, in the context of God's feelings with the rest of the world. It's a very strange thing in our own insights, in the insight of the Church, and it's urgent, you see, for the world today. Religions are fighting one another, you see. Everywhere they're fighting each other. In Palestine, as a priest yesterday heard from Palestine, he never met a horrifying situation, you see. Jews, Christians, and Muslims, all killing one another in Palestine, the Greeks, you see. And then in India, we have Hindus and Muslims becoming very acute in the north now.

[13:37]

We have the Sikhs, you see. Sikhs and Hindus, Muslims, all these communal forces, if at work, dividing through religion, you see. Because people are convinced of their own religion, they can't recognize the others that see at their own values. And again in Sri Lanka, you see, we have the Hindus and Buddhists, basically. The Srilangis and the Tamils, the Hindus and Buddhists, of course. Religion's not the only question, obviously.

[14:03]

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