THE ALMIGHTY HAS DONE GREAT THINGS FOR ME
Blessed are you who are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled. (Luke 1:42)
Today we celebrate the assumption of Mary into the fulness of life in God – body and soul into heaven at the end of her life. In our love for you, Mary, we call to mind your privileges and they are indeed beautiful and great. But you speak of these privileges only in terms of God and his greatness. You knew so well that you, like us all, are his lowly servant and that your greatness lies in the trust you have in the Almighty and his merciful love.
Your holiness was in your ‘yes’ to God and his plan for your life. You are like us in your humanity and the ‘ordinary, obscure and laborious’ days that made up the fabric of your life. And, like us, the Holy Spirit beckoned you to enter each day, each light or dark-filled moment of that day, with a faith that yielded itself to the Presence of the Almighty at the center of each encounter or situation.
Your ‘yes’ to God at the Annunciation spilled forth in the dailiness of cleaning, washing clothes, preparing meals for your little family. A life like every other person. You loved Joseph and Jesus with all your heart. You sought to bring care and comfort to Joseph and Jesus in the little ways that a poor life made available. What you sang at the Annunciation, you sang at every moment of your life, in joy and pain, in fatigue and the daily struggle to live in love. Your ‘Yes, let it be done!’ cleared the path for God to work freely in you. In the end, it was all God and that was enough for you. In fact, it was your joy.
So today, Mary, what we celebrate is the blessedness of the one who believed that what was spoken to her by the Lord would and has been fulfilled. The fruit of your yes is Jesus, the Son of God. The fruit of your yes is culminated in the Father’s almighty hand carrying you gently into the heart of the Trinity. Your greatness is not your privileges alone. Your greatness is that this little slip of a girl opened the door of her being to God and never closed it. Yes, Mary, the Almighty has done great things for you and holy is his name.