MOTHER MARY, MOTHER IN A MILLION

Solemnity of the Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mother Mary

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara CSsR

Dearest in Christ Jesus, today’s gospel taken from the gospel of Luke 1:39-56 speaks about two great women- Elizabeth and Mary. They were great women because of their holiness, simplicity and abiding faith in Yahweh the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And because of their virtues God chose them for different vitally important roles in the redemption of humans. They were faithful to God; they were servants of God. Because of their close relationship with God, Elizabeth even in her old age still became the mother of the forerunner of Jesus Christ- John the Baptist; Mary was chosen to be the wonderful mother of the Savior of humanity- Jesus. To be chosen by God so often means one and the same time a crown of joy and cross of sorrow. The painful truth is that God does not choose a person for ease and comfort and selfish joy. God chooses a person for others. God chooses a person in order to use the person. Elizabeth and Mary were chosen to become sorrowful mothers of John the Baptist and Jesus respectively. Their choice was a magnificent blessedness, but there was also sorrow and grief that followed the hatred and the rejection of their sons by the society and the tragic way they died. John the Baptist left home to become a recluse in the wilderness. His message made the leaders uncomfortable; he was eventually arrested, detained in prison, and was beheaded. Jesus too suffered lots of public embarrassment by the leaders; he was scorned, despised, rejected, arrested and crucified like a common criminal. The experiences of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ obviously brought deep sorrows to their mothers (although it is possible Elizabeth died before John the Baptist was beheaded. But the Bible did not say anything about that, so we assume she was still alive when John was killed.) So the blessedness of Elizabeth and Mary is paradoxical because in their magnificent blessedness was attached exceeding sorrow and grief.

 But today’s gospel essentially is about the Blessed Mother Mary. Today, we the Church celebrate the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Now the Sacred Scripture does not say anything explicitly about the Assumption of Mary body and soul into heaven. But from what the Bible says about our Blessed Mother, the Church was able to come to a conclusion that the Mother of Jesus Christ after death was assumed into heaven body and soul. Now, it is important to understand that the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary is a development of the doctrine of Immaculate Conception. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary states that Mary was conceived and born without Original Sin and remained free from all personal sin throughout her entire life. God gave this privilege only to Mary because she was to be the Mother of Jesus.

Mary was born without the stain of Original Sin for the sake of Jesus. She was preserved from sin by God because of Jesus, because she was going to be the Ark of the New Covenant. Within Mary was conceived the New Covenant God was making with humanity. Within Mary was the Son of God, Jesus Christ. The first dwelling place of God cannot be messed up by sin. It is important that the “holy of holies” be spotless in actuality. It is necessarily important that the spotless Lamb of God, the Son of God, the Second Person in the Trinity be enfleshed in a spotless womb. Mary is the Vessel of honor. She is the uncontaminated Vessel that bears the Ark of the New Covenant. So it is absolutely necessary that the Vessel remain uncontaminated, because if the Vessel is contaminated, the Ark will be also. Mary is also the Ark of the New Covenant. The Ark of the Old Covenant contained the following:

The Manna (the symbol of the Jesus’ Body- John 6: 31-34)

The blood of sacrificed victim (symbol of Christ’s Blood that was shed for our sins).

Aaron’s rod (symbol of Christ’s priesthood).

The covenant itself, i.e. the 2 stone tablets (the symbol of Christ as the New Covenant).

Wednesday, August 14, 2013To non-Catholics who argue that the Ark which is Mary is not really relevant, I want to remind them of the power of the Ark of the Old Covenant. First, when the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant after defeating Israel in a battle, they placed it before their god Dagon, the next day, the god Dagon was facing downward before the Ark. After the statue of Dagon was restored to its place by the people, it was again found prostrate the next morning, and this time, it had also been broken. Again the people of the several part of the Philistine’s territory that the Ark was moved to was suddenly afflicted with boils (1 Samuel 4; 1 Samuel 5-6). In 1 Samuel 6:19, 70 men died because they looked inside the Ark (1 Sam. 6: 19); Uzzah died for touching the covenant box (2 Sam. 6:6-7). These show the holiness and the power of the Ark, which is the symbol of Mary the bearer of the New Covenant.

 Because Mary was preserved from every stain of sin, because Mary obeyed completely, because she submitted to the complete will of God, it becomes reasonable to believe that her body which was not stained or corrupted by sin in life, was also not corrupted even in death. The scripture says that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Since she knew no sin, the wages of sin could not come upon her.

 Mary was a woman of honor. She obeyed God till death. Among all those called by God she stands out. Consider Abraham. When he was called by God, he accepted the call, and a son was promised to him. But he felt that God was wasting time, he slept with his maidservant who bore him Ishmael (Gen. 15: 4-6; 16: 1-14). Moses was also called by God to lead God’s people out of Egypt. But at Kadesh he disobeyed the Lord and was not able to enter the Promised Land (Num. 20: 1-13; Deut. 32: 48-52). Miriam was also called but he doubted that God was speaking to and through Moses and she was punished (Num. 12: 1-12). Zachariah was a priest of God in the temple of Jerusalem, yet he doubted the prophecy of the angel who said that his wife Elizabeth will be a mother and he was punished with temporary blindness. David was a man of God, yet he committed the sin of adultery. King Solomon, the son of David was a man of great wisdom, wealth and power. God blessed him with enormous wisdom and wealth, yet his sin of idolatry and unbelievably and indescribable quest for women turned him away from God. What about Job? He was described as a blessed man who lived righteously. Yet, he questioned the wisdom of God when struck with suffering. Judas was an apostle of Jesus. But he was the one that sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Peter was chosen by Jesus. He was the leader of the Apostles. Even after vowing that he would never desert the Lord, he did desert him when Jesus was arrested, so did all the Apostles. They fled in fear. Mary was with Jesus till he expired on the cross.

Today we celebrate the glorious Assumption of our Mother Mary into heaven. Her Assumption also reminds us of our eternal goal. Beloved in Christ, heaven is our target; heaven is our goal; heaven is our home. Today we celebrate a Woman who suffered so much pain, yet she did not give up on God. From the moment Mary said “Yes” to God, from the moment she sang “My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,” (Luke 1:46) she knew sorrows. No wonder we call her “Our Mother of Sorrows.” Today we celebrate the blessedness of a Woman who received the most sorrowful prophecy from Simeon “A sword will pierce through your own soul” (Luke 2: 35), yet she did not give up on God. Her steadfastness and unyielding love, faith and hope in God merited her a glorious assumption into heaven.