Assumed into Heaven, the Blessed Virgin demonstrates how God brings down the mighty from their thrones and raises up the humble.
Newsdesk(19/08/2024 16:09, Gaudium Press) All the grandeur that we contemplate in Mary Most Holy has its origin in Her humility, which is evident in the Gospel passage chosen by the Holy Church for the Solemnity of the Assumption. In the first part, we see above all how St. Elizabeth praises and exalts Her. But let us pay special attention to the words of Mary, that is, to the Magnificat.
Rich and incomparably beautiful, as befits a song born from the lips of the Blessed Virgin, it can well be considered a benchmark in history, dividing it into two phases: what came before, selfishness; and what came after, holiness, the fruit of humility.With Original Sin, pride was introduced into humanity, tainting its development until the moment when, without any shadow of this vice, Mary was born. Her Visitation to St. Elizabeth is an example to us of the concern we need to have for one another, striving to make each of us more than we are.
Mary’s humility earned Her glory
Then Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has looked on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation” (Lk 1:46-50).
God is Goodness and therefore extremely generous, because it is in His nature to be constantly willing to give. The big problem is ourselves, as we often put obstacles in the way of His generosity. In the first verses of the Magnificat, Our Lady shows how the Lord looks at His creatures with love and a desire to bestow His gifts. He loves us so much that, by virtue of this love, He infuses our souls with the Good – which is Himself. This is the principle and root of all perfection and holiness, and not personal effort, as we might be led to believe. By recognizing Her own nothingness, Mary did not hinder this divine action and Her very clear awareness of her contingency meant that God’s creative gaze fell upon Her and worked wonders. Her humility gave Her the merit of being the Mother of God and, being further refined over the course of Her earthly life, made Her worthy of the Assumption into Heaven.
Let’s imagine a great embroiderer who, on receiving a certain white linen fabric as a gift, idealizes an extraordinary needlework. However, if she were given an already printed fabric, she wouldn’t be able to use her skills. It’s the same when God finds emptiness in our souls, because He chooses to create a magnificent ‘embroidery’ in them, as He did with the Virgin Mary.
When we meet people who are full of themselves, we pity them, because we realize that they are preventing God from filling them with His grace. They lack humility; a virtue that is becoming rare in our day and age and should not be confused with a false virtue promoted by egalitarianism, an offshoot of pride, in turn the father of all vices and the deepest cause of so many sentimental and impure deviations. Genuine unpretentiousness exists when there is an availability in relation to God, complete consonance with Him, abandonment into His hands and a desire to fulfil His most holy will. How much does today’s society lack this state of mind!
The promises of the world versus the promises of God
” He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty” (Lk 1:51-53).
In these verses, the canticle of the Magnificat moves on to a second part. In the first, as we have seen, Mary describes the favours received, and in this second She shows the nothingness of the world, in order to highlight how it and the devil, with the appearance of great power, make very different promises from the divine ones. A worldly peace would seem to calm all our illegitimate desires, the fruit of original sin. However, when something is offered to us by God’s adversary, let us be certain that it is precisely what he will steal from us. The devil promises glory, and it is eternal glory that he takes from us; he promises well-being, and it is well-being that he takes from us, because if we sin we will be miserable in this life and then for all eternity, just like him.
The peace offered by God requires struggle. ‘Si vis pacem, para bellum – if you want peace, prepare for war’. Within us, in order to acquire true peace, we need to wage war against our evil inclinations and be heroes! It is then that ‘the strength with his arm’ manifests itself in us, which is omnipotent and brings down the proud, while “He raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. (Ps 113:7-8). At the same time, He fills those who thirst and hunger for justice with gifts and graces, and sends away empty-handed those who think they are full of the goods of the world, i.e. prestige, fortune, science, etc.
God always exceeds our expectations
“He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever” (Lk 1:54-55).
In the last part of Her inspired canticle, Our Lady emphasizes how God – in opposition to the devil, the world and the flesh – gives everything He promises and does so in superabundance. He offers us an extraordinary eternal life, and when we see the reality we will realize that He has given us much more than we were capable of imagining. In the light of the contemplation of Mary’s glory, of Her Assumption, we are invited, with the Magnificat, to have our hearts filled with trust in the Lord who, in His divine prodigality, wants to fill us with good things as long as we don’t put up any obstacles.
A journey of light is open to all
The liturgy of the Solemnity of the Assumption opens great doors for us and a flower-strewn path full of light, as far as eternal salvation is concerned. Faced with the pledge of our resurrection, given to us by the mystery of the Assumption of Mary Most Holy, we should consider each other according to this ideal, as if we were already resurrected, because above the gloom and trials of this life shines the hope of the glorification towards which we are heading.
Let us live seeking the goods above, and let our thoughts follow the path followed by the Virgin Mary. She entered Heaven in body and soul and was exalted; we, in the present hour, since we cannot enter it physically, let us at least do so in desire. Let us turn to the throne of Mary Assumed into Heaven, and in this way we will receive grace upon grace so that we can always be on the path that will lead us to the happy and eternal resurrection, when we will recover our bodies in a glorious state.
Extracted, with Adaptations, from: CLÁ DIAS, João Scognamiglio. New Insights on the Gospels. Città del Vaticano-São Paulo: LEV-Instituto Lumen Sapientiæ, 2013, v. 7, p. 184-199.
Compiled by Roberta MacEwan
