September 2010

                                        MARY’S ASSUMPTION 

On August 15^th, in the Mass celebrating  Mary’s Assumption into heaven, we heard, “Today the virgin Mother of God was taken up into heaven to be the beginning and the pattern of the church in its perfection, and a sign of hope and comfort for your people on their pilgrim way.  You would not allow decay to touch her body, for she had given birth to your Son, the Lord of all life, in the glory of the incarnation”.  This is such a profound recollection, a recollection that reminds us of how God, through His faithful and trusting lovers, leads us back to him.  

There is so much that can be said about Mother Mary.  We think of her personality, her internal life.  We think about what we saw in how she lived her life, her silent example.  We can see how her spiritual life energizes her human life. 

We have heard about her great “yes”.  She consented of her own free will to be the Mother of God.  I don’t know that she understood all the implications of that decision, but she believed with all heart that she was being called by God to do his will and that was all she needed. 

And doing God’s will was not to be an easy path.  Because of her internal strength, she was able to cooperate with God’s grace and to rear a child who was destined to live in a hostile world, beleaguered by Roman invaders, pagans and some misguided religious leaders.  She was to enjoy his changing water into wine, see him heal the sick and bring the good news to the poor.  She was also to see him humiliated and hung on a cross, the flesh she had given him torn apart.  But she endured and helped the God-man fulfill his salvific mission. 

Mary reflects what God wants us to understand about human dignity.  She lived to protect a life from conception to death.  And so, for her benefit as well as ours, it makes sense that the Lord would raise her body and soul into eternity.  She was raised for the honor which the Lord saw fit to give her. Remember, the Lord, Jesus, has the power over life and death.  He told us that he is the Resurrection and that we will be body and soul in eternity.  Surely he would not deprive his mother of the grace to keep her earthly body free from mortal corruption?  For our benefit, the lord shows us how a human being completes the cycle of human life by being born to give honor and glory to God, giving him that glory during life and then experiencing glory with God for all eternity.   

Mother Mary reminds us to believe in life after death and not to be afraid.  During one of her appearances in an apparition given to St. Bernadette, she tells Bernadette, “I don’t promise to make you happy in this world, but in the next.”  We  should expect that Mary would help us to keep in mind the glory she knows and the glory she wants to share with us, her children, and with God.  Isn’t that the kernel of our greatest desire, to be in heaven with God and those we love for all eternity?