Mary's Assumption into Heaven and Her Message to Us Women

 Today we celebrate the Assumption of our Blessed Mother Mary.  I share with you one of my meditations on this feast in which I imagine Mary speaking to me, as follows:

I, Mary, truly am blessed among women but not above women.

I am God's handmaid, as are all women.

We've come to do God's will in the plan of salvation, as have all men as well.

And God accepted our surrender, and that of all persons,  to His will and to cooperate in the act of redemption.

And holy is His name!  

The lowly, God has raised up, making  us partners with Him in righting the wrongs done by Adam and Eve, our first parents' desire to do their own will and not submit to God's plan.

God raised us women from our lowly state to a state of dignity and honor:

    I, Mary, a lowly woman, bore Jesus, the Son of God, in my womb.

    I, Mary, a lowly woman, gave birth to God made man.

    I, Mary, a lowly woman, taught Jesus to walk and talk and pray.

    I, Mary, a lowly woman, followed God's Son, and mine, to Calvary.

    I, Mary, a lowly woman, stood beneath the cross, offering support in spite of the risk to my own life.

    And Mary Magdalen, a lowly woman, was the person God chose to proclaim Jesus' resurrection!

We, lowly women, discounted and miscounted in many cultures and by many people, especially in patriarchal religions, are lifted up by Jesus and for Jesus by God the Father and the Holy Spirit!

And holy is His name!

Sowing Bountifully

 In today's first reading, 2 Cor 9: 6-10, St. Paul reminds us that those who sow sparingly will reap sparingly and that those who sow bountifully will reap bountifully. Moreover,  St. Paul emphasizes, it is God who makes "every grace abundant" for us  to sow bountifully, doing the good work that Jesus would do if He were physically here Himself. And He is in us. And so we pray in today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 112: "Blessed the [person] who is gracious and lends to those in need."

Today, whose need for love, compassion, understanding, forgiveness did I meet?  Who needed my smile, my attention, today? Who looked to me, today, for guidance, encouragement?  Was I mindful of the Spirit speaking to me today to sow bountifully and not count the cost?  Or was I so preoccupied with what I wanted to do with my time that I did not notice my neighbor in need?

Recalling God's Goodness to Us

 In today's first reading, Dt 6: 4-13, Moses reminds the people of all the good God has done for them by bringing them out of the land of Egypt, "that place of slavery," and giving them "a land with fine, large cities that you did not build, with houses full of goods of all sorts that you did not garner, with cisterns that you did not dig, with vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant...[T]herefore," Moses says to them, "take care not to forget the Lord," your God!

What is the good that the Lord has done for us? How many of us are surrounded by cities we did not  create, flower and vegetable gardens and fruit trees we did not plant, houses we did not build, lakes and streams and creeks we did not produce and so much more! How many times has God not brought us out of a "place of slavery"--an addiction to jealousy, anger, and/or selfishness; an addiction to food or alcohol or other drugs, an addiction to hoarding material things, an addiction to relationships, to sex, to technological gadgets and on and on and on? 

At the end of his admonition, Moses then asks the people to reverence the Lord, their God; "him shall you serve, and by his name shall you swear."  Who am I, who are you, serving? By whom do you, do I, swear an oath of service?