Sunday’s Solemnity, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, crowns the series of liturgical celebrations in which we are called to contemplate the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the history of salvation.
Indeed, the Immaculate Conception, the Annunciation, the Holy Mother of God, and the Assumption, are the fundamental, interconnected milestones with which the Church exalts and praises the glorious destiny of the Mother of God, but in which we can also read our history – and destiny.
The mystery of Mary’s conception recalls the first page of the human event, pointing out to us that in the divine plan of creation humanity was to have had the purity and beauty of the Virgin Immaculate. This plan, jeopardized but not destroyed by sin- through the Incarnation of the Son of God, proclaimed and brought into being in Mary – was recomposed and restored to the free acceptance, in faith and with trust, by the human being.
In Mary’s Assumption we contemplate what we ourselves were created to attain in the following of Christ and in obedience to his word at the end of our earthly journey.
The last stage of the Mary’s earthly pilgrimage invites us to look at the manner in which she journeyed on toward the goal of the glorious eternity.
And lastly, the Assumption reminds us that Mary’s life, like that of every Christian, is a journey of following – following Jesus – a journey that has a very precise destination, a future already marked out: the definitive victory over sin and death and full communion with God.
Our life on earth is a path that unfolds in the tension of the battle between the dragon and the woman (First Reading); between good and evil.
Mary’s “yes” was the gate through which God was able to enter into the world, to become man. Thus, Mary participates in a real and profound way in the mystery of the Incarnation, which is the mystery of our salvation.
The whole of life is an ascent; the whole of life is meditation. Meditate on God’s word to us!
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Yvonne Gill
Director of Adult Formation