Luke 1:39-56
39 Mary didn't waste a minute. She got up and
travelled to a town in Judah in the hill country, 40 straight to Zachariah's
house, and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby
in her womb leaped. She was filled with the Holy Spirit, 42 and sang out
exuberantly, You're so blessed among women, and the babe in your womb, also
blessed! 43 And why am I so blessed that the mother of my Lord visits me? 44 The
moment the sound of your greeting entered my ears, The babe in my womb skipped
like a lamb for sheer joy. 45 Blessed woman, who believed what God said,
believed every word would come true!
46 And Mary said, I'm bursting with God-news; 47
I'm dancing the song of my Saviour God. 48 God took one good look at me, and
look what happened, I'm the most fortunate woman on earth! What God has done
for me will never be forgotten, 49 the God whose very name is holy, set apart
from all others. 50 His mercy flows in wave after wave on all those who are in
awe before him. 51 He bared his arm and showed his strength, scattered the
bluffing braggarts. 52 He knocked tyrants off their high horses, pulled victims
out of the mud. 53 The starving poor sat down to a banquet; the callous rich
were left out in the cold. 54 He embraced his chosen child, Israel; he
remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high. 55 It's exactly what he
promised, beginning with Abraham and right up to now. 56 Mary stayed with
Elizabeth for three months and then went back to her own home.
Food for thought!
You're so blessed among women!
These words of Elizabeth contain the meaning of
today's feast. Very few people rejoice at others' success; very few celebrate
others' achievements; very few see and say any good about others. Instead,
people envy each other; gossip about each other. But not so Elizabeth. She's
openly celebrating Mary success, You're so blessed among all of women, she
confesses.
Like Elizabeth, we celebrate today Mary's success,
blessings and achievement. We openly say, You're so blessed Mary! Your
achievement is unique and outstanding. We are saying today, that what Mary got
is unique among all of humanity. Today, we acknowledge Mary, not just as Mother
of God, this Elizabeth did; we acknowledge Mary as assumed, as taken body and
soul to heaven. Where do we get all this? Why do we say so?
The First Reading of today has a clue for us. (Rev
12:1.5) "A great Sign appeared in Heaven: a Woman dressed all in sunlight,
standing on the moon, and crowned with Twelve Stars.... 5 The Woman gave birth
to a Son who will shepherd all nations with an iron rod." According to
this passage, there appeared in heaven, not a copse of a woman, but a living
woman, dressed, standing and crowned. This is the first statement we make
today. We are saying, that in heaven there's is a living woman.
Who's this woman? Again, according to the reading,
the woman seen in heaven "gave birth to a Son who will shepherd all
nations." Who's this great Son, if not Jesus? And who's the mother of
Jesus, if not Mary? So, the nameless woman, who was seen in heaven, is Mary.
This is what we publicly acknowledge and confess and celebrate on the 15 of
August, like Elizabeth did long ago when she acknowledged and confessed
publicly that Mary as mother of God, "why am I so blessed that the mother
of my Lord visits me?" She said.
Today, we remind ourselves that in heaven, there's
at least two human bodies we know of, one of a man Jesus and the other of the
woman Mary. In heaven there's is a masculine and a feminine bodies. If on
Ascension day we celebrate the assumption of a man, on the Assumption we
celebrate the Ascension of a woman. That's why today's feast completes
salvation of mankind. Both man and woman are saved. This is what is meant by
these words, "His mercy flows in wave after wave on all those who are in
awe before him."
All means all, both men and women. If anything,
today we affirm the equality of sexes, the equality of man and woman. Today's
feast is a balancing feast; we are equal. God has no favourites among sexes.
God saves and loves all those who revere him, regardless of their sex or their
generation. In God's economy, what counts is fear of God, faith in God,
reverence to God; this is the only currency in use in God's economy.
We shouldn't envy Mary, or anybody whom God has
blessed. We should instead celebrate, because God blesses everybody, at
different moments, of course. We only have to wait our turn, as the Second
Reading so beautifully reminded us, 1Co 15:20-26
20 But the truth is that Christ has been raised up,
the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries. 21
There is a nice symmetry in this: Death initially came by a man, and
resurrection from death came by a man. 22 Everybody dies in Adam; everybody
comes alive in Christ. 23 But we have to wait our turn: Christ is first, then
those with him at his Coming, 24 the grand consummation when, after crushing
the opposition, he hands over his kingdom to God the Father. 25 He won't let up
until the last enemy is down-- 26 and the very last enemy is death!
Wait for you turn. In the meantime, celebrate
others' success and achievement.
No comments:
Post a Comment