15/08/2008 - The Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin Mary
1st. Rev 12, 1-6.10 Psalm 44 2nd. Reading 1 Cor 15, 20-26 Gospel Lk 1, 39-56
All-powerful and ever-living God, you raised the sinless Virgin
Mary, mother of your son, body and soul to the glory of heaven. May we see heaven
as our final goal and come to share her glory.
The opening prayer of Mass invites to the listening and the meditation of the
Word of God for us today. We see what God has made and let it help us to direct
our lives and to nurish our hope! God raised Mary, the virgin mother of Jesus
the Christ, to the glory of heaven. What is the glory of heaven and who is Mary
to be found worthy of it? The glory of heaven is the fact that in Mary God manifests
himself, and through her, he makes himself known through the beauty of his wisdom!
Being a gift of the Father, Mary would not merit it, so that the unconditional
and faithful love of God can be known!
The reading from Revelation speaks about a great sign that appears in the sky,
and of a Woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and a crown
of twelve stars! Perhaps the author of the book did not mean to speak of Mary,
but of the Church! So, why would he represent the Church as a woman that is
to give birth to a son? For sure he had in mind the image of the mother of Jesus
to speak about the Church. Clothed with the sun is the Church because it reflects
the grace of the Holy Spirit, and the light of the Gospel, and of the presence
in whom there is "the dawn from on high". Mary enjoys a special place
in the Church because she was there with the apostles in their first experience
of comunion and prayer! It is in Mary that all the radiance of divine light
shines, because she was never away from God. On the other hand, divine light
in us, identify the stain of sin and ego centrisim. The moon indicates the changes
that humanity, ruled by the rich and the powerful blown with pride, is subject.
It is under the feet of the woman! That Woman is the Church, that can pride
of the presence of Mary with her holiness, with her song in which the proud
and the mighty are thrown away! The crown of stars shows the regality of the
Church, regality lived in full by Mary, true handmaid of Jesus, who reigns with
him according to the promise!
Mary and Church, Church and Mary sustains each other, one reveals the character
of the other. Both of them have the same aim and the same hope. Mary wants to
see us obedient to Jesus, adn the Church helps its faithful to obey. Mary wants
to reach the place where Jesus is, and the Church is in movement towards it
singing the greatness of God, a song she learnt from Mary. Mary was welcomed
by Jesus in that place where the Church waits to be welcomed, where she can
receives the eternal benefits, where she can share the same glory, where she
can manifests the beauty and the greatness of God's love.
In this world we need to live oriented always towards the eternal blessings,
because we are living in times in which we are tempted by superficiality, seeking
self satisfaction and only enjoyment, forgetting the deep and holy aim of life.
Mary can help us. This is the meaning of today's feast day. Looking at Mary,
who reflects the light of God, we keep on journeying together, helping one another
in what is truly necessary and essential, eternal life! Looking at heaven, where
today Mary is welcomed, we learn also to live a holy life, giving more importance
to that which gives inner peace and creates harmony amongst people, the freedom
from things and the presence of God amongst us and in us!