CYCLE B ORDINARY TIME FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION

He has looked down with favor on his lowly servant . . . and has lifted up the lowly.

As of August 14, the World Health Organization has tallied over 205 million Covid infections
of which 4.3 million led to death. In the Philippines, our very own Department of Health, has
counted 1.73 million Covid positive cases of which over 30,000 have ended in death. We are in
the midst of a health crisis. And worse, this crisis has led to other crises. The many strict
community quarantines imposed both nationally and locally, have restricted both mobility and
economic activity. While the lockdowns may have slowed down the spread of the Covid virus,
they have also resulted in significant adverse effects on the psycho-emotional, social, and
economic well-being of our people.
And when sickness and death, loss of jobs and businesses, restricted socialization and
education of our children, threats of job and food security, and other challenges beset us, we
sometimes look to the heavens in the midst of our pain, begging for help, longing for mercy, and
yet we feel that no one is listening to us. And moments like this sap all our energy and eat into
our souls, often resulting to a weakening of our conviction that the Lord is present and at work in
our lives. We may even go as far as giving up on the hope that things will be better soon or to
even doubt the possibility of eternal life beyond death.
But there are moments, as in today’s feast, when we cry out, with great conviction, for the
kind of reassurance and comfort that today’s feast day brings, for in contrast to our moments of
despair, Mary’s Assumption helps lift our minds and hearts above all the gloom that surround us.
Today’s celebration reminds us of our final homecoming by assuring us that there is
another dimension to our existence and that death does not have the final say in our lives.
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Today’s gospel allows us a peek into the life of Mary. We get a glimpse of her as a young
woman full of joy, hope and happiness, setting out in haste over the hill country to visit her
cousin Elizabeth. Both women had great news to share with each other. Although well advanced
in years, Elizabeth was soon to give birth to John the Baptist while Mary herself was carrying the
Savior of the world in her womb. Thus, their conversation was an outpouring of joy and hope.
Mary experienced happy times, an example of which is today’s gospel event, but she was not
spared of the trials of a mother bringing up her child. There was nothing great perhaps about the
home of this faithful mother, for after all, they lived in a small unknown village. Mary was
perhaps a good wife to Joseph, a carpenter. She also knew the boring routine of ordinary house
work and was open to the uncertainties that tomorrow would bring. The sword of sorrow
promised by Simeon at the presentation of the infant Jesus in the temple, continually cut through
her heart and made its presence felt from time to time. In other words, just like us ordinary
human beings, there were many things in life that Mary did not understand, a lot of life events
that she perhaps found painful and difficult to accept (How can this be . . . ?). And yet, through
all the unknowing that lay before her, Mary never took back the ‘Yes’ she gave to the Lord
at the Annunciation. From that moment on to the foot of the cross and up until her very
last breath, Mary remained focused on Jesus and kept Jesus always at the center of her
existence, through thick and thin.
 All human lives must end, and so must Mary’s. But the gospels do not record the details of
Mary’s death. Having completed her earthly pilgrimage, tradition tells us that she was assumed,
body and soul, into heavenly glory. It was the crowning grace of Mary’s friendship with God.
And Mary’s Assumption reinforces hope in our own future because she points forward to
our final homecoming. What has happened to her we hope will happen to us, where she has
gone we hope to follow.

So what does the Feast of Mary’s Assumption teach us? In her Magnificat, Mary sings that
God “has looked down with favor on his lowly servant . . . and has lifted up the lowly” As her
words come true in her own life on the Assumption when her lowly human existence was lifted
up to the heavens, let us not forget that these words came true as well in the daily life of Mary.
Like any human being, Mary had to struggle with the lowliness of human life. How often do
disabilities of our own bodies, either because of age, sickness, disease, disability, injury, bad
self-image, a bad habit, a weakness, a favorite sin, etc. get in the way of our relationship with
God. And in all such moments, Mary allowed the Lord to look down on her with favor and to lift
her up from her lowliness. All this perhaps are meant to be a consolation to us as we go through
the daily struggle with our own lowliness. At the Assumption of Mary to Heaven, God raised
Mary to high places to assure us that he longs to do the same to us through the maternal
mediation of Mary. The more we reverence Mary lifted up to her high place with God, the less
we become anxious and worry about the weaknesses and deficiencies of our own lowly bodily
existence on earth.
Today’s feast reminds us of the Lord’s invitation to be like Mary in today’s gospel: to bear
Jesus in our bodies, to bear the hope that Jesus brings to our world as we struggle with the
lowliness of our lives. It is an invitation to, like Mary, to immaculately bear Jesus within us, that
is to be filled with nothing but Jesus, to be totally centered on Jesus. And this is made possible
by the Lord who constantly looks down on our lowliness and who continually desires to lift us
up—body and soul, our entire being— so that we can totally share in His Glory forever.

“The mystery of the Assumption gloriously proclaims that God wants us—and that he wants all
of us!” – Peter John Cameron, OP