The news about trillion $ gov’t spending reminds me of a story about a guy walking on a Florida beach. He stumbled upon an oil lamp. A genie appeared and said he would grant him one wish. The man replied, “I want to live forever.” The genie said, “I can't give eternal life.” “Okay," the man responded, "I want Congress to balance the budget and eliminate the debt before I die.” “You shrewd fellow,” smiled the genie. “That will take an eternity!”
Today we celebrate the feast of the Assumption. Mary, the mother of God, “having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.” Yes, we believe Mary is already experiencing, like Jesus, a transformed, glorious, heavenly life.
The Word of God first takes us to the Book of Revelation, the final book in the New Testament. We ponder the awesome struggle between good and evil in apocalyptic images: fires and earthquakes, thunder and lightning. The author wants to assure his fellow persecuted Christians that good will ultimately triumph. Here a woman in dazzling light appears, who births a child, the Messiah, who ushers in salvation, the kingdom of God.
The author challenges us to live in hope despite the hardship we may endure now.
Paul in his letter to the Christian community in Corinth proclaims that Jesus is risen, alive and in our midst, and that through Jesus we too will live forever. Paul describes so eloquently elsewhere in this same letter: “no eye has seen or ear heard or heart conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.”
Paul challenges us to remember we have an ultimate purpose: eternal life with God and one another.
In the Gospel, the author describes Mary visiting her cousin Elizabeth who also is expecting a child, John. And Mary sings that beautiful song, the Magnificat: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord…For God has looked with favor on me.”
We pray that God will always look with favor upon us and our loved ones?
Mary is truly the model of discipleship for all Christians. God mysteriously asked Mary to believe that she would bear an extraordinary child. The author says Mary “was quite perplexed” by this. God revealed very little to Mary: God simply asked for trust. God promised to be with her always. And Mary simply responded: let it happen to me as you say.
These words were like the words in the Lord's Prayer: "Thy will be done." That's what discipleship is all about. We can easily say "let it be" when things go our way. Problems arise when what is happening is not what we want.
So, Mary’s “yes” was remarkable. She could have said “no.” When Gabriel announced, “You will conceive,” she was stunned, asking: “How can that be?”
Yet Mary trusted God completely. Not because she saw how life would unfold, but because she trusted in God’s mighty word. That is why her act of faith was remarkable: “Let it happen to me as you say!” She felt completely one with her God. And Mary’s great act of faith brought forth within herself the word made flesh in Jesus: our Lord to whom we owe ultimate allegiance; our Savior who gifts his divine life to us.
My good friends: A scene very much like that takes place in our own lives. On the stage, so to speak, are a divine person, Jesus Christ, the Church or community of believers, and you and I.
Through this community, God reveals what we must believe to bring forth Jesus Christ into our own lives. Yes, there is one all-good and compassionate God upon whom we are absolutely dependent. Our lives have ultimate meaning. God became enfleshed in Jesus and is alive by the power of the Spirit. Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, is in our midst, especially wherever we gather in his name.
God asks us to believe. And our answer? In virtue of the God-given gift of faith, we proclaim: “I believe!”
Our yes, like the yes of Mary, is remarkable. Because, we could say no like the rich young man in the Gospel who walked away from Jesus. We have nothing to lose except everything— God himself.
Our yes is remarkable, secondly, because like Mary’s it is a total yes: “I believe" in the essentials of our Christian faith that we proclaim in the Nicene Creed. We believe because the message is God’s message.
And like Mary, we will be perplexed many times as we go through our own human development. Yet the ongoing call to discipleship demands a ceaseless faith: God will work wonders in us, as He did in Mary. And in faith we will be able to proclaim, "the Lord who is mighty has done great things through me."
May Mary, the model of discipleship, whose assumption we celebrate today, inspire us to live our own lives in the very presence of God.
