Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary - Mass During the Day
We see the glory and power of God’s work expressed in apocalyptic themes, in a dragon and stars and angels and birth. The scene is set, as Paul proclaims that Jesus will finish the work he started by putting every other evil authority under his feet. Reading that makes me want to jump up and cheer for the good guys! Mary the virgin-mother-hero has brought God and humanity together in Jesus! It’s the end of the old, sinful order that wounds us all and tricks us into wounding one another.
We yearn for an end to the destructive ways of the human heart. We pray for just laws and healing for the minds and souls of those traumatized. We dream of an authority that has both the power and desire to act decisively and block the many roads to evil. Our God can accomplish all this and more; even death will be destroyed. But how will Jesus carry it out?
Then, we hear Mary’s Magnificat. It’s a prayer that some would call the prayer of the Laity- we praise God’s awesome power, marvel at God’s justice, and celebrate God’s mercy. God is coming to turn the world upside down and inside out. Jesus will indeed destroy all God’s enemies. The Lord will not come and force us all to be good. As a wise person once said, ‘If I have changed my enemy into a brother I love, have I not killed my enemy?’
This is what Mary accomplished with her life on Earth. She brought all humanity, and all Divinity in Jesus, together. Sin had decomposed us into a broken mess, into God’s enemy. God cannot be stained by sin, so we are transformed by Christ. Mary is the first proof of this; without being divine like Christ, she was protected from all sin, and so Adam’s curse of death could not touch her. This is how God works. There will be no Hollywood battles of divine glory; there will be no dramatic chaining of devils and sinful humans. There is something far greater. There is Love. And it changes us. It changes everything; even death.
- Chris Nieport