Victory

August 15: Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Revelation 11:19; 12:1-6, 10; Psalm 45:10, 11, 12, 16; 1 Corinthians 15:20-27; Luke 1:39-56

Thoughts to help us surrender to Jesus expressing himself through us in ministry.

“Blessed are you who believed.” Luke 1:45

Is the Church “wailing in pain as she labors to give birth”? Has she “fled into the desert”? Or does she “stand at God’s right hand as queen, arrayed in gold”?

How about “All of the above”?

Though “in Adam all die, in Christ all shall all be brought to life.” Jesus, in his resurrection, was “the firstfruits; then, at his coming, all who belong to Christ” will rise, “when he hands over the Kingdom to his Father.”

It’s a process. We suffer from the past, minister in the present, and believe in the future. In our “labor to give birth” we frequently have to “flee into the desert” to draw strength from prayer. Then we look to Mary, “preview and promise of the Church in her perfection” (Prefaces of Immaculate Conception and Assumption) already “standing at God’s right hand as queen, arrayed in gold.”

Mary’s body, taken into heaven, is the sign that where Jesus has gone, we will follow (John 13:36). What began with Mary’s surrender of her human body—“Be it done to me according to your word”—is revealed in the preservation of her human body from corruption: the sign that in life and death the Church that cooperates and co-suffers with Christ also co-triumphs with Christ. In his weak, human Church Jesus conquers sin and all its ruinous consequences, including death.

“Blessed are they who believe.”

PRAY: “Mary, be my encouragement.”

PRACTICE: Remember Mary’s Assumption and believe.