Thoughts on the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
We see in Mary’s journey from Nazareth to Ain-Karin, recounted in
today’s Gospel, a unique spiritual journey which, beginning with
her “yes” on the day of the Annunciation, is crowned by her Assumption
into heaven in body and soul. A journey to God, ever illumined and
sustained by faith.
The Second Vatican Council says that Mary “advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the Cross”. For this reason, she so pleased the King of the universe in her incomparable beauty that now, fully associated with Him in body and in soul, she is resplendent as the Queen standing at His right hand.
In today’s solemnity, the liturgy invites us all to contemplate Mary as
the “woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Rev 12:1) In her shines forth
Christ’s victory over Satan, described in apocalyptic terms as the
“great red dragon”
This glorious and at the same time dramatic vision reminds the Church
in all the ages of her destiny of light in the kingdom of heaven, and of comfort in the trials she must bear during her earthly pilgrimage. As long as this world endures, history will always be the theatre of the clash between God and Satan, between good and evil, between grace and sin, between life and death.
Mary, glorified in her body, appears today as the star of hope for the Church and for humanity. Her sublime exaltation does not distance
her from her people or from the world’s problems, on the contrary, it enables her to watch effectively over human affairs with that attentive concern with which she obtained the first miracle from Jesus at the wedding in Cana.
Revelation says that the woman clothed with the sun “was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery”. This calls to
mind a text of the Apostle Paul which has fundamental importance
for the Christian theology of hope. “We know”, we read in his
Letter to the Romans, “that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons,
the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved”
(8:22-24)
As we celebrate her Assumption into heaven in body and soul, we pray
to Mary to help the men and women of our time to live in this world with faith and hope, seeking God’s kingdom in all things; may she help
believers to be open to the presence and action of the Holy Spirit, the Creator and Renewer Spirit, who can transform hearts; may she
enlighten our minds on the destiny that awaits us, the dignity of every person and the nobility of the human body.
Mary, taken up into heaven, show yourself to everyone as
Mother of hope! Show yourself to everyone as Queen
of the civilization of love!
