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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