Lord God, the day of our salvation dawned when the Blessed Virgin gave birth to Your Son. As we celebrate her nativity, grant us Your grace and Your peace. We make our prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
By Misericordia.
I hope none of you are scandalized by the title, and if you don’t get the joke reference, then that’s probably good. The Mystery of the Assumption isn’t something we can totally wrap our heads around. We can sort of picture the Sorrowful, Joyful Mysteries, and the Luminous Mysteries to a certain extent, but the Glorious ones seem hard to tap into. And if there are any Mysteries I’d want to experience concretely in myself, it would most likely be them! … But I’ve never witnessed anyone being Assumed into Heaven.
I can’t even tell the difference between images of the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception, so how can I begin to understand the meaning of these events so far surpassing my comprehension?
The Assumption, by Juan Carreno de Miranda
The Immaculate Conception, by Bartholomé Esteban Murillo
It’s also confusing- Mary was already so intimately united to God, so what changed? Well, I’m not a theologian so I don’t know the answer, but I assume (no pun intended) that for Mary, everything was the same and yet very different.
Although within the context of time, Mary’s life has never been disconnected from the assent, her Fiat, which she uttered at the Annunciation, her Fiat which was the visible and verbal disposition of her soul. Her very being was a manifestation of that Fiat. The rays of her Immaculate Heart depict the glory of the Risen Christ who made His Dwelling within her. So, in a certain sense, her transition from this world to the next was not such a jarring event. She didn’t experience the separation of Body and Soul that occurs for all of us at death, but instead was sweetly carried to the home she always contemplated.
With this frame of mind I feel even further removed from all things Divine, and it’s hard to get excited about this Mystical Event. It is true that the eyes of her soul always look towards Heaven, and that the trajectory of her life was always catapulting towards Heaven. But this arrival was not merely an extension or continuation of her earthly life. It was a fulfillment of promise, a glorification of apparent lowliness, an elevation to universal Motherhood.
I can only imagine a small sliver of the joy of the Heart of Mary when the veil of this life was lifted and she was permitted to gaze upon her God who called her His Beloved Daughter, her Son for whom her heart was pierced, and the Spirit who emitted His rays from her every word, thought, and action. Pondering Psalm 45, our Responsorial Psalm for today, which became my favorite Psalm in Religious Life, helps me see the delight of both Mary and the Lord, the explosion of joy, a never ending finale of divine fireworks. I’m sure the noise of that Heavenly Homecoming party would put all college fraternities to shame. The eschatological Richter scale was off the charts!
When I think of the life of Our Lady I still feel kind of jealous though. I wish I wasn’t stuck with original sin! So not fair! (I feel the inner 4 year old coming out!) But Mary, Our Mother’s Assumption wasn’t for herself alone. Just as her Immaculate Conception was for the salvation of our souls, so was the rest of her life. In her Assumption she offers us her Son, who in turn offers us His promise of Eternal Life, the glorification of our littleness, and the relationship with His and our tender Mother.
We will, God-willing, share her joy in the Heavenly Kingdom prepared not only for her but for us! So I pray that all of us can take this event and use it as an opportunity to open our hearts toward Heaven in imitation of her own, asking Our Lady to help us remember the promise in the midst of darkness, the meaning of apparent meaninglessness, and the protection and perpetual presence of her love that has its origin in the Heart of her Divine Son.
So what happened when Mary assumed? She received the ability to help make a saint out of you and me.
From The Rule of Saint Clare, Chapter VI:
After the most high heavenly Father saw fit by His grace to enlighten my heart to do penance according to the example and teaching of our most blessed Father, Saint Francis, I, together with my sisters, willingly promised him obedience shortly after his own conversion.
When the blessed Father saw we had no fear of poverty, hard work, trial, shame, or contempt of the world, but, instead, regarded such things as great delights, moved by compassion he wrote a form of life for us as follows:
“Because by divine inspiration you have made yourselves daughters and servants of the Most High King, the heavenly Father and have espoused yourselves to the Holy Spirit, choosing to live a life according to the perfection of the holy Gospel, I resolve and promise for myself and for my brothers to always have that same loving care and solicitude for you as I have for them.”
As long as he lived he diligently fulfilled this and wished that it always be fulfilled by his brothers.
Shortly before his death he once more wrote his last will for us that we or those, as well, who would come after us would never turn aside from the holy poverty we had embraced. He said:
“I , little brother Francis, wish to follow the life and poverty of our most high Lord Jesus Christ and of His Holy Mother and to persevere in this until the end; and I ask and counsel you , my ladies, to live always in this most holy life and poverty. And keep most careful watch that you never depart from this by reason of the teaching or advice of anyone.”
Saint Clare, pray for us!
Saint Dominic, 1170-1221
Spanish priest and founder of the Dominican Order.
An excerpt from The Lives of the Brethren of the Order of Preachers, compiled by Blessed Humbert de Romans, AD1277.
Suddenly he was rapt in spirit before God and saw Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin sitting at His right. It seemed to Blessed Dominic that Our Lady was wearing a cape of bright blue, the color of sapphire. As Blessed Dominic looked around, he could see religious of all the orders but his own around the throne of God, so that he began to weep bitterly and stood far away, not daring to approach the Lord and His mother. Then Our Lady motioned for him to come near. But he would not dare, until Our Lord Himself also called him. Then Blessed Dominic cast himself before them weeping bitterly.
But Our Lord told him to rise, and when he did, Our Lord asked him, “Why are you weeping so?”
“I am weeping because I see all the other orders here but no sign of my own.”
And the Lord said to him, “Do you want to see your Order?” and he answered, “Yes, Lord.”
Then Our Lord, putting his hand upon the shoulders of the Blessed Virgin, said to Blessed Dominic, “I have entrusted your Order to my Mother.” Then he asked him again, “Do you still wish to see your Order?” and again he answered “Yes, Lord.”
Then the Blessed Virgin opened the cape which covered her and spread it out before Blessed Dominic, to whom it seemed vast enough to cover the entire heaven and, under it, he saw a large multitude of the brethren. Then prostrating himself, Blessed Dominic gave thanks to God and to Blessed Mary His Mother. After that the vision disappeared and he returned to himself just as the bell rang for Matins.
Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop, 1842-1909
Australian Religious Sister, foundress of the Sisters of Saint Joseph.
An excerpt from a letter written to her mother, Flora: from May 14th 1867, shortly after the founding of her new Congregation.
Oh, I have long been sick and weary of the world and its cares, of its false pleasures and delights. Still, I could not wish to leave it as long as I thought God willed my stay in it. I have such an earnest longing for the Order of Saint Joseph and know well how hard it will be to get it established here, but everything God blesses will prosper, and surely His blessing attends this holy Order; none other is so fitted for the wants of this Colony… think, dear Mamma, of the work that is to be done, and how few there are to do it, and thank God for permitting a child of yours to be one, the least worthy, of the workers. If our work be so pleasing to Him, will He not console and bless you, dear Mamma, for having first lead me to love Him?
From Mary MacKillop and Flora (2004), edited by Sheila McCreanor.
Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve You as You deserve;
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labor and not to ask for reward,
save that of knowing that I do Your Will.
Please pray for our Jesuit Pope!
Almighty Lord and God, let the gracious intercession of Our Lady of Mount Carmel help us.
Under her protection, may we come to the mountain of God, Christ the Lord,
Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel, pray for us!
Saint Thérèse, pray for us!
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