Thursday, August 13, 2015

Reflection for August 15, Saturday, Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Luke 1:39-56

Gospel: Luke 1:39-56
Mary set out and travelled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”

And Mary said:

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, and has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children forever.” Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.
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Reflection:
Today is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This doctrine was dogmatically and infallibly defined by Pope Pius XII on November 1 1950.

The Blessed Mother, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory. Her acceptance into the glory of Heaven is a symbol of the promise made by Jesus to all enduring Christians that we too will be received into paradise.

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is only one of the many rightful honors that we bestow upon her. We hold her in great esteem because amongst many women of her time she was chosen by God to be the mother of Jesus. Why Mary amongst the many women of her time? It was her humility, docility and the readiness to subordinate her will to the will of God.  

She knew that she was chosen but she did not boast about it. The Blessed Mother choose to proclaim the greatness of the Lord instead of her own greatness. She chose share the blessing of God by visiting her cousin Elizabeth who was also pregnant during that time. And she did not leave her cousin until she gave birth.

Like The Blessed Mother, may we also learn to be humble, to comfort others to do big and little acts of kindness and to be selfless.

We may not know this but there are also at this very moment people who are longing for our physical presence. Or longing to simply hear something from us so that they will know that we still care.

It will not cost us much if we would give them a call or a text to simply say hello or how are you? Perhaps we can send them private message via facebook, twitter and instagram? Let us take advantage of the many modes of modern and internet based communication to let others know that we care for them.

Would you be willing to do it? – Marino J. Dasmarinas   

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