Mary: A Model of One Who Surrenders to God, her Savior and Lord

 Today we celebrate the Assumption of our Blessed Mother into heaven!  Mary is the Immaculate Conception, that is the one person conceived without sin, the mother of God Incarnate, Jesus, the Son of God man.  Mary, before her birth, was fully redeemed, that is without the wound of sin that we all inherited from our first parents, Adam and Eve.  Mary is the new Eve, as Jesus is the new Adam. In today's second reading, Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 15: 20-27, Paul reminds the Corinthians and us, that "Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through man, the resurrection of the dead came also through man. [And,] just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life...."  Mary was assumed into heaven body and soul.  Her immaculate body was not subject to corruption and did not return to dust, as ours will after we die! 

In the Collect of today's Mass, we pray:  "Almighty ever-living God, who assumed the Immaculate Virgin Mary, the Mother of your Son, body and soul into heavenly glory, grant, we pray, that, always attentive to the things that are above, we may merit to be sharers of her glory."  Mary was always attentive to the things that are above, that is, to carrying out God's will for her, nurturing, caring, supporting her son Jesus, the Incarnate God! She taught Jesus  how to surrender to God's will, as she did, when, at the Annunciation, she said: "Nothing is impossible for God; let it be done to me according to your word." And Scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit overshadowed her and the child that she was to conceive in  her womb was the Son of God, the One of whom it says in today's first reading, Revelation 11: 10ab: "Now have salvation and power come, and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of his Anointed One."

Jesus, like His mother, carried out the will of His Father in all things, even saying in the Garden of Gethsemane: "Not my will but yours be done," as He agonized over His impending death following Judas' betrayal of Him to his enemies.

How attentive are you, am I, to God's will as it reveals itself in the events and the people in our lives?  How aware are we that the Holy Spirit, as in the case of Mary, overshadows us and brings God's gifts to us, making us fruitful and givers of life to others?

Total surrender to the Will of God

Today's readings, Proverbs 21: 1-6, 10-13 and Luke 8:19-21, give us profound teachings about those who surrender totally to the will of God, as did His mother Mary;  those who listen, first of all, to the directions of the Holy Spirit rising from the depth of their beings, and, second of all, to directions coming from outside sources, viewing those from the perspective of Jesus' prayer: "May they all be one, just as, Father, you are in me and I am in you, so that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me" (Jn  17: 21). 

Directions coming from our Source are always about being in love with that which fosters union, promotes well-being, respects the integrity of the other and treats the other as one who is of God, created in the image of God and sent into our lives as God's messenger.  To act out of love requires flexibility of us, not rigid conformity to external commands. "We are not machines programmed to obey God's commands 'according to the letter' of the law" (Word Among Us, September 2012, p. 45).  When we force ourselves into robotic obedience, the soil of our hearts become hardened, rocky, and impervious to grace.  Our heart, then, does not remain, in the words of Proverbs 21: 1, "...a stream...in the hand of the Lord." Consequently,  the Lord, respecting our free will, is not able to direct our hearts wherever the Lord wills (cf Proverbs 21:1).  May our prayer be: Lord, make my heart like "a stream" in your hands that you are able to direct in accord with Your holy will and which You are able to use to build up the kingdom of love, mercy, justice, and peace in a world filled with violence, hatred, and selfish ambitions.