7-Aug-2013 Dear Friend, Today, we celebrate the feast of the Assumption –Mary freed from death, gloriously taken to Heaven. To be a child of God is to live in freedom and grant others freedom as well. Mary was one who took God seriously and respected His choice of her and freely chose His plan as her own. Mary’s assumption reminds us that we are heaven-bound even if at times we feel our bondages. Have a joyful weekend celebrating Mary’s freedom in response to God and our own!! Fr. Jude Sunday Reflections - Feast of the Assumption: “Mary, Our Model and Pride, Assumed into Heaven!” 15-Aug-2013 Readings: Rev. 11: 19; 12: 1-6, 10 1 Cor. 15: 20-27 Luke 1: 39-56 The first reading from the Book of the Apocalypse speaks of the glory and majesty of God revealed through signs and wonders. The language is metaphorical and symbolic speaking to the heart rather than to the intellect. ‘A great sign appears in the heavens – a woman adorned with the sun, standing on the moon, with a crown with twelve stars adorning it’. Mary is deserving of all honour and praise but when she gives birth to her son, it is He who becomes the centre of attention. She flees from the desert and from the evil one to protect her son. God himself protects her and she is taken straight to God to her throne in heaven. Mary points to true freedom and to Christ her Son the source of all freedom. Let in from the back door! Once upon a time the Lord God went out on patrol of heaven just to make sure that it was still a city that worked. Every thing was fine, the hedges trimmed, the grass cut, the fountains clean, the gold and silver and ivory polished, the mall neat (Of course they have a mall in heaven. Where else would they put the teenagers!) He stopped to listen to the angels choirs sing and they were in great form. Then on one of the side streets he encountered people who had no business being in heaven at all. Some of them should have been serving a long sentence in purgatory, others would not get out until the day before the Last Judgement, still others would make it to heaven only on very special appeal. So he went out to complain to St. Peter: “You’ve let me down again,” he said “and you yourself with the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” “I have not.” said St. Peter. “Well, how did they get in?” “I didn’t let them in.” “Who did?” “You won’t like it.” “I have a right to know how they got in.” “Well, I turned them down and didn’t they go around to the back door and didn’t your mother let them in!” -Theologically, this story is of course nonsense. But as a story it reflects Mary’s role as reflecting the maternal love of God. Andrew Greeley Today’s gospel has two sections. They were differently composed and are different in character. The first section narrates the visit of Mary to the house of her cousin Elizabeth, whom she has come to visit and to serve during her pregnancy. The latter part is Mary’s personal prayer –The Magnificat- made on the special occasion of her meeting with Elizabeth, but it is also a universal prayer, one of the best loved prayers of the Church down the centuries. Mary’s importance is not limited to giving us hope about the after life; she gives every Christian hope in the growing struggle of daily life. In today’s gospel Luke portrays her as the one who glorifies God because “the almighty has done great things for me.” She is a woman of the people whose song delights in God’s choice of her, whose spirit soars because God has not overlooked this lowly handmaid. But she is also a dangerous woman because she is the one who voices the subversive hope of the poor and little ones. “He has pulled down princes from their thrones and exalted the lowly.” For many poor people, the song of Mary expresses their own hope in the liberating power of God. For them Mary is not alive in the statues and pictures but in the real powerful change that can be brought about in the world when God’s preferences and God’s choices are taken seriously. She is the little one, the lowly servant made great by the choice of God. Mary’s assumption reminds us that we are all heaven-bound and that God is our final destination. It is precisely in doing God’s will on earth will we reach our heavenly home. We have a mother in Heaven Marjorie’s teenage son, Jimmy, suddenly ran away from home one night just with the clothes he wore. Reports to the police drew a blank. Friends and acquaintances had no news whatsoever. As days grew into weeks, Marjorie’s fear grew worse. Just before Easter she went out shopping with her two younger children. Even as she moved from one store to another, one nagging thought occupied her mind –Where was Jimmy? Suddenly she heard the church bells ring. It was Good Friday. She decided to go to the church with the secret hope that her prayer would not only bring her some solace, but also the return of her son, Jimmy. As she knelt down to pray, her gaze suddenly fell on the Blessed Virgin Mary where she stood at the foot of the Cross, as her Son languished in his dying moments. Suddenly she felt very close to Mary, and she describes that grace-filled moment: “My heart broke for her, that courageous little peasant woman whose agony was so much more greater than mine. But as I wept for her, it was as if my own soul was healed…. As if God had spoken to me clearly, quietly saying, “Trust Me… I will give you strength… Trust Me.” At that moment, Marjorie admits, a deep peace descended upon her. It was as if Mary was saying: “Marjorie, as a mother myself, I do understand the anguish of your troubled heart at losing a son. Rest assured he is safe and will return to you soon. Trust me!” Months later, Jimmy returned home, like the Prodigal Son, safe and sound. As she relives that memorable experience, Marjorie remembers two things: first, that she turned to God in prayer and with hope; and second, that she actually felt Mary raise her hope and reassure her that her son would return as indeed he did. James Valladares in ‘Your Words, O Lord, Are Spirit, and They are Life’ Mother’s Day Some time ago Maryknoll magazine carried an article by Victor Schmeinsky, a South American Missionary. He said that he had learned a lot about Mary from South American mothers. First he cited mothers who were forced to flee their native country because of political persecution. They taught him how Mary felt when she was forced to flee to Egypt, with Jesus and Joseph, to escape the political persecution of Herod. Secondly, he cited those mothers whose sons were arrested as political prisoners and were never again heard from. They taught him how Mary felt when Jesus disappeared for three days when he was 12. They taught him about the terror that filled Mary’s heart as she and Joseph searched for Jesus. Not all South American mothers however, were as fortunate as Mary. Many of them never found their sons. Some continue to search. Others have given up the search and now carry signs in public squares to protest a government that abducts people just because they hold different political views. Third, the missionary cites those mothers who held in their arms the dead bodies of sons who were killed by government hit squads. They taught him how Mary felt when she held in her arms the dead body of her own son. –Today’s feast celebrates the fact of Mary’s presence in heaven, body and soul, as a reward for her own suffering on earth. We sometimes forget how much Mary suffered in her lifetime. It assures us that people, if they accept their suffering as Mary did, they too will receive the reward of heaven. Mark Link in ‘Sunday Homilies’ Mother of the afflicted There is an old Chinese tale about a woman whose only son died. In her grief, she went to a holy man and said, “What prayers, what magical incantations do you have to bring my son back to life?” Instead of sending her away or reasoning with her, he said to her, “Fetch me a mustard seed from a home that has never known sorrow. We will use it to drive the sorrow out of your life.” The woman went off at once in search of that magical mustard seed. She came first to a splendid mansion, knocked at the door, and said, “I am looking for a home that has never known sorrow. Is this such a place? It is very important to me.” They told her, “You’ve certainly come to the wrong place,” and began to describe all the tragic things that recently had befallen them. The woman said to herself, “Who is better able to help these poor, unfortunate people than I, who have had misfortune of my own?” She stayed to comfort them, then went on in search of a home that had never known sorrow. But wherever she turned, in hovels and in other places, she found one tale after another of sadness and misfortune. She became so involved in ministering to other people’s grief that ultimately she forgot about her quest for the magical mustard seed, never realizing that it had, in fact, driven the sorrow out of her life. Brian Cavanaugh in ‘The Sower’s Seeds’ The Monument to love The Taj Mahal has been described as a ‘love song in marble.’ Completed in 1645, the magnificent marble mausoleum was built by Shah Jahan, India’s Mogul emperor, in memory of his favourite wife, Princess Arjemand. Shah Jahan loved her deeply, calling her his ‘Taj Mahal’, meaning ‘The Pearl of the Palace.” But Princess Arjemand died giving birth to their fourteenth child and the emperor was inconsolable. So he summoned a great architect from Persia to build the Taj Mahal, telling him that it must be ‘the one perfect thing in the world.’ Seventeen years were needed to build this enchanting edifice of gleaming white marble embroidered with flashing jewels. It is an enduring monument to love that still inspires tourists, artists and writers from all over the world. - This beautiful love story gives us some idea of how much God must have loved Mary, the mother of Jesus. Today’s feast of her assumption into heaven is proof of this. By raising her from the dead and taking her into heaven –body and soul –God demonstrated his undying love for Mary. Like Shah Jahan, God could not bear the death of his beloved. However, God could do what no Indian emperor could do – raise his beloved from the dead and restore her to life even more beautiful than before. Moreover, God didn’t have to build a Taj Mahal to memorialize Mary. Her glorified body is itself a magnificent temple of the Holy Spirit. Albert Cylwicki in ‘His Word Resounds’ May Mary’s Assumption help us to rise above everything that keeps us away from God! Fr. Jude Botelho [email protected]
PS. The stories, incidents and anecdotes used in the reflections have been collected over the years from books as well as from sources over the net and from e-mails received. Every effort is made to acknowledge authors whenever possible. If you send in stories or illustrations I would be grateful if you could quote the source as well so that they can be acknowledged if used in these reflections. These reflections are also available on my Web site www.NetForLife.net Thank you.
