The feast of the Assumption is a day of joy. God has won. Love has won. It has won life. Love has shown that it is stronger than death, that God possesses the true strength and that his strength is goodness and love. Mary was taken up body and soul into heaven: There is even room in God for the body. Heaven is no longer a very remote sphere unknown to us.
We have a Mother in heaven. And the Mother of God, the Mother of the Son of God, is our Mother. He himself has said so. He made her our Mother when he said to the disciple and to all of us: "Behold, your Mother!" We have a Mother in heaven. Heaven is open, heaven has a heart....
Mary is taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven, and with God and in God she is Queen of heaven and earth. And is she really so remote from us?
The contrary is true. Precisely because she is with God and in God, she is very close to each one of us. While she lived on this earth she could only be close to a few people. Being in God, who is close to us, actually, "within" all of us, Mary shares in this closeness of God. Being in God and with God, she is close to each one of us, knows our hearts, can hear our prayers, can help us with her motherly kindness and has been given to us, as the Lord said, precisely as a "mother" to whom we can turn at every moment.
She always listens to us, she is always close to us, and being Mother of the Son, participates in the power of the Son and in his goodness. We can always entrust the whole of our lives to this Mother, who is not far from any one of us.
On this feast day, let us thank the Lord for the gift of the Mother, and let us pray to Mary to help us find the right path every day. Amen.
~Pope Benedict XVI, August 2005
Dearest Mary, Mother of Our Lord, we rejoice that you now share the fullness of God's life and glory in heaven. We rejoice, too, that you are our mother, always so very close to us, always aiding us with your motherly kindness, always leading us to your Beloved Son. You are the bright Gate of Heaven, our happy and everlasting home. As we travel through this valley of tears, help us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and to be vibrant witnesses of His glorious resurrection. Hail Mary, radiant splendor of God and beautiful among all women, your praises we sing! Amen! Alleluia!
Thanks for this entry.
ReplyDeleteI also found an interesting article about the Dormition/Assumption providing a broad perspective on the feast’s history and the various ways it is observed. Worth checking it out: http://dstp.cba.pl/?p=2399.