Feast of the Assumption of Mary Bilingual Mass/Misa Livestream [CLICK HERE]

Feast of the Assumption of Mary/Asunción de la Bienaventurada Virgen María

Bilingual Mass @ 10am on Saturday, 8-15-20 (available all weekend)

Today, the Church celebrates this Feast of Our Lady, a feast which is dear to the hearts of people throughout the world. Mary, Assumed into heaven, is given to us as a model of generous motherhood and dedicated discipleship. Her Son, Jesus the Lord, invites us today to be open, ready to “go” where the Gospel leads us.

One of the beautiful and charming things about today’s Gospel passage (Luke 1,39-56) is that it is so very ordinary, perhaps even “unspectacular.”  We are often led to remember and admire the spectacular events of our lives, ignoring the importance of the ordinary day-to-day things. The advice and the wisdom of the Church on this Feast is this: it is not wise to take today for granted. We dare not miss the importance of our calling to care for people, to comfort the suffering, and to protect the vulnerable – and to do so each and every day. Today’s Feast is a reminder of all of this. We should not ignore the simple, ordinary things that, in the end, make a person great, noble, or holy. The Assumption of Mary, after all, is the consequence of an ordinary life lived by a mother and a faithful servant of God. For Mary and for us, it will be the ordinary days that determine who we are.

Specifically, in the Gospel today, Mary hears that Elizabeth is pregnant. She leaves behind her own concerns and affairs and asks, “What does my cousin Elizabeth need?” When a visit seems appropriate, Mary acts. She goes in haste to the hill country to visit her cousin. Other than the travel risks involved and the inconvenience, it is apparently no big deal. Yet, what we see here is the pattern of our ordinary days: “asking and acting.” The question “what does someone need?” is followed by an action responding to that need. As simple as this pattern is, the result is often more than we might imagine. Following the pattern of pregnant Mary, we not only take ourselves to others, but we also carry Christ who is in us to everyone we serve.

The glory of Mary, assumed bodily into heaven, is simply a preview or foretaste of our glory. Her risen body is with the risen body of Christ in a new creation. So, it shall be for us who have lived every blessed and ordinary day “asking and acting.”

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