Celebrate every success, even if it is not yours!

Luke 1:39-56 Celebrate every success, even if it is not yours!

Luke 1:39-56 Celebrate every success, even if it is not yours!
39 Mary 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; destroy each other. But not so Elizabeth. She's openly celebrating Mary's 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 Jesus, 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, in Rev. 12:1.5, 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 was 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, 1Cor. 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.