15/08/2009 - Assumption of the B.V.Mary
Ist. Reading Rev 11,19;12,1-6.10; Psalm 44 IInd. Reading 1Cor 15,20-26
Gospel Lk 1,39-56
"At your right hand stand the queen in gold of Ophir": this is how
the Psalm sings. The Jewish people called queen the mother of the king. The
king in God's reign is Jesus. His mother, the Virgin Mother, today is taken
to be next to him. From here she continues her mission to be mother, continue
to love all those who form part of the mystery of her Son. Mary received from
God, as from a young age, the mission to be a mother: once her mission to be
a mother towards the Son was over, she continued her mission towards the disciples;
now even though he leaves her earthly life, continues the mission of bringing
God's love to all men. In the many places where she is honored, not only the
Christians, but also by Moslems, Hindus, Animists, come together with joy and
trust in prayer. It was from a woman in the Islamic Faith that I heard this
beautiful expression about Mary: " You are the most beautiful among all
mothers"! Not all know that she was assumed "body and soul" into
the glory of God, but all believe that she is alive and present before God.
We know that she participated fully to embrace the will of the Father when she
pronounced her "Behold", as the Son has said it from all eternity;
then she participated in the incarnation of the Son, living with him the same
life, feeding herself for him and making him live with her own blood; hence
she served him with her motherly love in every physical and emotional need;
she shared as much as possible in his mission starting from Cana, in Capharnaum,
and along the roads of Galilee, towards Jerusalem, up to Calvary hill. Today
we rejoice that her singular closeness to the Son did not come to an end, but
continue today for our own sake!
It is certainly useful, but above all a pleasure, to hear again the words of
her prayer when she replied back to Elisabeth, who proclaimed her as the blessed
among all women, and who blessed her faith in the promises of God. Mary does
not stop to speak about her merits, but turn her eyes and those of her relative
towards God and his greatness. God shows his greatness when he bends down and
consider our littleness: "He has looked at the lowliness of his servant".
It is only by God's merit that Mary can enjoy the blessedness of the just, because
it is he who has worked in her "great things". What God did with her
gives joy to all generations throughout the centuries, even though the big of
the earth are not even able to imagine them, let alone share in them. Mary wants
to help us free ourselves from the desires of the great things celebrated by
the world because, in turn, they make people suffer because of their deceit.
Those who are full of ambitions are brought low, those who full of wealth will
be sent away empty handed, and those who retain themselves great, shall be forgotten.
God has his own plans, and these are the ones for men to follow, even by us.
By believing Mary made herself ready to God. She believed without seeing, and
because of this, God was able to use her for his great wonder, that is, of giving
flesh and form of man among men, to his eternal Son.
She is truly a great sign who appeared in Heaven. The Book of Revelation pictures
that sign as "a woman vested with the sun, with the moon under her feet,
and with a crown of twelve stars around her head…she was with child", ready
to give birth. It is not necessary to think of Mary, but its more easy to think
of the Church vested with the baptismal tunic who gives continually to all the
peoples the presence of the Son of God, and because of this, she is like her
son, persecuted and contested. But who, in the Church, is presented more than
Mary? Who has more than her has listened to the Son, who more than her has incarnated
within her the Word of the Father? What is said of the Church, can be said of
Mary: she is the first member of the Church of which she is a figure. She is
"the great sign" of the great love of God for men.
The Church is "vested with the sun": once she is immersed in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, her dress is a splendor
of the revelation of God. In the Church, only Mary has kept intact the flame
of obedient love. That Woman is Mary in the Church!
The moon, with all his changes, is "under her feet": the Woman is
not subject to the changing events, the events that the powerful, the proud
and the rich (Lk 1,51-53) think that they can make work in their favor. She
intervenes with warning accompanied by consolations. That Woman is Mary, who
loves all with the same love by which the Church reaches all peoples.
The stars around her head like a royal crown, reveal her authority. Mary, a
true queen loved by the King, proposes to us to obey always to her Son, to do
what he will say. The Son speaks today through the Church, made minister of
his Word and heir of his Spirit.
Mary continues to be at the center of the Church to teach her as how to give
birth to the Child (Rev 12,2.5), for the salvation of the world. She is the
queen whom we love and from whom we learn how to love the King, our Lord!