The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, challenge us to serve the least with humility, compassion and love.
The reading from the Book of Revelation presents the vision of the Woman and the Dragon.
* [11:15–19] The seventh trumpet proclaims the coming of God’s reign after the victory over diabolical powers; see note on Rev 10:7.
* [12:1–14:20] This central section of Revelation portrays the power of evil, represented by a dragon, in opposition to God and his people. First, the dragon pursues the woman about to give birth, but her son is saved and “caught up to God and his throne” (Rev 12:5). Then Michael and his angels cast the dragon and his angels out of heaven (Rev 12:7–9). After this, the dragon tries to attack the boy indirectly by attacking members of his church (Rev 12:13–17). A beast, symbolizing the Roman empire, then becomes the dragon’s agent, mortally wounded but restored to life and worshiped by all the world (Rev 13:1–10). A second beast arises from the land, symbolizing the antichrist, which leads people astray by its prodigies to idolize the first beast (Rev 13:11–18). This is followed by a vision of the Lamb and his faithful ones, and the proclamation of imminent judgment upon the world in terms of the wine of God’s wrath (Rev 14:1–20). (Revelation, CHAPTER 12 | USCCB, 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 | USCCB, n.d.)
The reading from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians proclaims Christ as the Firstfruits.
* [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. (1 Corinthians, CHAPTER 15 | USCCB, n.d.)
The Gospel of Luke, describes Mary’s Visit to Elizabeth and Mary’s Song of Praise. The Canticle of Mary.
* [1:43] Even before his birth, Jesus is identified in Luke as the Lord.
* [1:45] Blessed are you who believed: Luke portrays Mary as a believer whose faith stands in contrast to the disbelief of Zechariah (Lk 1:20). Mary’s role as believer in the infancy narrative should be seen in connection with the explicit mention of her presence among “those who believed” after the resurrection at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 1:14).
* [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 | USCCB, n.d.)
The reflection of Elvin Cardoso, S.J. was not available at publication time.
Deborah Castellano Lubov reports on the address of Pope Francis on the Assumption: Mary takes us by the hand, inviting us to rejoice.
Mary, he said, 'prophesies,' in anticipating what her Son will say, inasmuch as He will proclaim blessed the poor and humble, and warn the rich and those who base themselves on their own self-sufficiency. He points out that she already understood that it will not be power, success and money that will prevail, but service, humility and love. (Lubov, 2022)
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 reflects on the Assumption.
Friar Jude Winkler relates the understanding that after the Ark of the Covenant disappeared from the Temple in the Exile, it would reappear on the Day of the Lord. In Revelation, the woman clothed in the Sun, represents the Church, on the first level, and Mary, the Blessed Virgin, model and Mother of the Church, on the second level. Friar Jude reminds us that the Magnificat is the hymn of the annuie and Mary’s stay in Ein Karem resonates with the David’s placement of the Ark of the Covenant in Abu Gosh identifying Mary as the New Ark of the Covenant.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, comments that Julian of Norwich uses the idea of “oneing” to describe divine union.
This is not some 21st-century leap of logic. This is not pantheism or mere “New Age” optimism. This is the whole point! Radical union is the recurring experience of the saints and mystics of all traditions. We don’t have to discover or prove it; we only have to retrieve what has been re-discovered—and enjoyed again and again—by those who desire and seek God and love. When we have “discovered” it, we become like Jacob “when he awoke from his sleep” and shouted, “You were here all the time, and I never knew it!” (Genesis 28:16).
As John states in his first Letter, “I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, I am writing to you here because you know it already”! (1 John 2:21; Richard’s emphasis). Like John, I can only convince you of spiritual things because your soul already knows what is true, and that is why I believe and trust Julian’s showings, too. For the mystics, there is only one Knower, and we just participate in that One Spirit. [3] (Rohr, n.d.)
We consider the message of Mary and we join our community with the help of the Spirit to live with service, humility and love.
References
Cardoso, E. (n.d.). Daily Reflection Of Creighton University's Online Ministries. OnlineMinistries. Retrieved August 15, 2024, from https://onlineministries.creighton.edu/
Lubov, D. C. (2022, August 15). Pope on Assumption: Mary takes us by the hand, inviting us to rejoice. Vatican News. Retrieved August 15, 2024, from https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2022-08/pope-francis-angelus-address-on-feast-of-assumption-of-mary.html
Luke, CHAPTER 1 | USCCB. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 15, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/1?39
1 Corinthians, CHAPTER 15 | USCCB. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 15, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/1corinthians/15?20
Psalms, PSALM 45 | USCCB. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 15, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/psalms/45?10
Revelation, CHAPTER 12 | USCCB. (n.d.). USCCB. Retrieved August 15, 2024, from https://bible.usccb.org/bible/revelation/12
Rohr, R. (n.d.). Oneing with God. Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved August 15, 2024, from https://cac.org/daily-meditations/oneing-with-god/
Schwager, D. (n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations – Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved August 15, 2024, from https://www.dailyscripture.net/daily-meditation/?ds_year=2024&date=aug15a
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