The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite us to ponder the life of Mary as we contemplate how the love of Christ and the guidance of the Spirit lead us to fullness of life.
The reading from the Book of Revelation is the vision of the Woman and the Dragon.
* [12:1–6] The woman adorned with the sun, the moon, and the stars (images taken from Gn 37:9–10) symbolizes God’s people in the Old and the New Testament. The Israel of old gave birth to the Messiah (Rev 12:5) and then became the new Israel, the church, which suffers persecution by the dragon (Rev 12:6, 13–17); cf. Is 50:1; 66:7; Jer 50:12. This corresponds to a widespread myth throughout the ancient world that a goddess pregnant with a savior was pursued by a horrible monster; by miraculous intervention, she bore a son who then killed the monster. (Revelation, CHAPTER 12, n.d.)
Psalm 45 is an ode for a Royal Wedding.
* [Psalm 45] A song for the Davidic king’s marriage to a foreign princess from Tyre in Phoenicia. The court poet sings (Ps 45:2, 18) of God’s choice of the king (Ps 45:3, 8), of his role in establishing divine rule (Ps 45:4–8), and of his splendor as he waits for his bride (Ps 45:9–10). The woman is to forget her own house when she becomes wife to the king (Ps 45:11–13). Her majestic beauty today is a sign of the future prosperity of the royal house (Ps 45:14–17). The Psalm was retained in the collection when there was no reigning king, and came to be applied to the king who was to come, the messiah. (Psalms, PSALM 45, n.d.)
The reading from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians praises Christ as the First fruits.
* [15:20–28] After a triumphant assertion of the reality of Christ’s resurrection (1 Cor 15:20a), Paul explains its positive implications and consequences. As a soteriological event of both human (1 Cor 15:20–23) and cosmic (1 Cor 15:24–28) dimensions, Jesus’ resurrection logically and necessarily involves ours as well.
* [15:20] The firstfruits: the portion of the harvest offered in thanksgiving to God implies the consecration of the entire harvest to come. Christ’s resurrection is not an end in itself; its finality lies in the whole harvest, ourselves. (1 Corinthians, CHAPTER 15, n.d.)
In the Gospel of Luke, Mary Visits Elizabeth and voices a Song of Praise.
* [1:46–55] Although Mary is praised for being the mother of the Lord and because of her belief, she reacts as the servant in a psalm of praise, the Magnificat. Because there is no specific connection of the canticle to the context of Mary’s pregnancy and her visit to Elizabeth, the Magnificat (with the possible exception of v. 48) may have been a Jewish Christian hymn that Luke found appropriate at this point in his story. Even if not composed by Luke, it fits in well with themes found elsewhere in Luke: joy and exultation in the Lord; the lowly being singled out for God’s favor; the reversal of human fortunes; the fulfillment of Old Testament promises. The loose connection between the hymn and the context is further seen in the fact that a few Old Latin manuscripts identify the speaker of the hymn as Elizabeth, even though the overwhelming textual evidence makes Mary the speaker. (Luke, CHAPTER 1, n.d.)
The Daily Reflection Of Creighton University's Online Ministries was not available at publication time today.
Don Schwager quotes “Christ the fruit of the faithful,” by Ambrose of Milan (339-397 A.D).
"You see that Mary did not doubt but believed and therefore obtained the fruit of faith. 'Blessed ... are you who have believed.' But you also are blessed who have heard and believed. For a soul that has believed has both conceived and bears the Word of God and declares his works. Let the soul of Mary be in each of you, so that it magnifies the Lord. Let the spirit of Mary be in each of you, so that it rejoices in God (Luke 1:46-47). She is the one mother of Christ according to the flesh, yet Christ is the Fruit of all according to faith. Every soul receives the Word of God, provided that, undefiled and unstained by vices, it guards its purity with inviolate modesty. (excerpt from EXPOSITION OF THE GOSPEL OF LUKE 2.26) (Schwager, n.d.)
The Word Among Us Meditation on 1 Corinthians 15:20-27 comments that death has been defeated. It’s over. Done. Destroyed. We still experience the end of our earthly existence, but it’s not like the snuffing out of a candle. It’s more like “falling asleep” and waking up in the loving embrace of the Lord (see 1 Corinthians 15:6). Mary’s assumption shows us that Jesus will keep the promise he made at the Last Supper: “I will . . . take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be” (John 14:3).
Today, as you join the Church in honoring Mary, try to imagine what heaven will be like. Let any fear of death fall away as you picture yourself joining her, the angels and saints, and your own loved ones. Try to capture a sense of the beauty, the awe, and the love that will envelop you when you finally see the Lord face-to-face. Forever.
“All praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, for your victory over the power of death itself!” (Meditation on 1 Corinthians 15:20-27, n.d.)
Friar Jude Winkler connects the passage from Revelation to the burial of the Ark of the Covenant on Mt Nemo and the divine birth of a saviour as a Jewish expectation. In Luke’s Gospel, John the Baptist gives witness to Christ and the Magnificat resonates with the song of Hanna as the anawim, the broken ones, are raised high. Friar Jude reminds us of the connection of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth in the hill country where David placed the Ark of the Covenant.
James Hanvey SJ, a Senior Research Fellow in Theology at Campion Hall, University of Oxford, contemplates Botticini’s ‘The Assumption of the Virgin’
and finds that it not only captures the complex mystery of the Assumption, but also illuminates the truth contained within this great feast.
Though painted nearly five hundred years before Pius XII defined the doctrine of the Assumption (1950), Botticini’s painting contains all the major aspects that the definition was to recognise.[i] The painting, like the doctrine, was not without its controversy. While devotion to Mary seems to be so natural and central to the Catholic understanding and experience of the Christian faith, to many protestant Christians and others it is at least unnecessary and at worst a sign of how far parts of the Church have strayed from biblical faith. Yet this dispute is not new. Controversies over how the Church thinks about Mary and expresses those thoughts date back to the recognition of her ancient title, Theotokos (‘God Bearer’ or ‘Mother of God’), at the Council of Ephesus (431).
Mary is not alone in presenting a challenge to theology. The Church still struggles to express an adequate theology of the Holy Spirit, yet there can be no doubt about the Spirit’s presence in the life of Christ and in the lives of all believers. To different degrees the same could be said of all the central doctrines of Christian faith, not least the Trinity. Our theological articulation of the significance of Mary and her role within the Church and the lives of Christians always seems to follow our devotional practice. This should not really surprise us: often the truth of faith does not first come in a concept or a thought but in an experience, an insight or encounter, and this produces its own form of language, symbol and gesture. It’s the difference between trying to map the moves of a ballet on paper and seeing it executed on stage. Imagine music if we only had the score and no sound. (Hanvey, 2019)
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that when we are inside of great love and great suffering, we have a much stronger possibility of surrendering our ego controls and opening ourselves to the whole field of life. In great suffering, things happen against our will—which is what makes it suffering. Over time, we can learn to give up our defended state, because we seemingly have no choice. The situation is what it is, although we will invariably cycle through stages of denial, anger, bargaining, resignation, and (hopefully) acceptance. The suffering might feel wrong, terminal, absurd, unjust, impossible, physically painful, or merely beyond our comfort zone. Can you see why we must have a proper attitude toward suffering? So many things, every day, leave us out of control—even if it is just a long stoplight. Remember, however, that if we do not transform our pain, we will surely transmit it to those around us and even to the next generation.
Struggling with one’s own shadow self, facing interior conflicts and moral failures, undergoing rejection and abandonment, daily humiliations, or any form of limitation: all are gateways into deeper consciousness and the flowering of the soul. These experiences give us a privileged window into the naked now, the present moment, because impossible contradictions are staring us in the face. Much-needed healing, forgiving what is, and “weeping over” and accepting one’s interior poverty and contradictions are often necessary experiences that invite a person into the contemplative mind. (Paul does this in a memorable way from the depths of Romans 7:14–15 to the heights of his mystical poetry in Romans 8.) (Rohr, n.d.)
As we journey in life, we are grateful for examples of trust and surrender in love and suffering that assist us in living in Jesus Way.
References
Hanvey, J. (2019, August 13). Reflections on the Assumption. Thinking Faith. Retrieved August 15, 2022, from https://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/reflections-assumption
Luke, CHAPTER 1. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 15, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/1?39
Meditation on 1 Corinthians 15:20-27. (n.d.). The Word Among Us: Homepage. Retrieved August 15, 2022, from https://wau.org/meditations/2022/08/15/468897/
1 Corinthians, CHAPTER 15. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 15, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/15?20
Psalms, PSALM 45. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 15, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/45?10
Revelation, CHAPTER 12. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 15, 2022, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/revelation/12
Rohr, R. (n.d.). Daily Meditations — Center for Action and Contemplation. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved August 15, 2022, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/opening-a-doorway-2022-08-15/
Schwager, D. (n.d.). My Spirit Rejoices in God My Savior. Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved August 15, 2022, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2022&date=aug15a
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