ME
NU

OMELIE / Omelie EN

15 ago 2020
15/08/2020 – The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

15/08/2020 – The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Reading 1 REV 11,19a; 12,1-6a.10ab Psalm 44/45 Reading 2 1COR 15,20-26 Gospel  LK 1,39-56

 

The queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold”! This words of today’s Psalm are listened to as a prophecy of the mystery we are celebrating. Who might be the queen who is at God's right hand? We cannot doubt it: she is the one who is defined in the gospel as “blessed” and declared “Blessed among women” and “the mother of my Lord”. Our joy for this feast is taking part in God's joy for His creature, welcomed today in the glory of the heavens. This joy is the occasion for us to look at Mary’s life to draw consolation from it, strength and happiness to keep up with our journey in the world.

The words with which Mary praises God in front of her relative Elizabeth are telling us that she was not living out of the world. Her heart was fixed on God, in whom she was finding joy and peace, but she knew she was living in a world where sin produces sufferings and more sufferings. She praises the God, enjoys Him, enjoys His way of working, that is a Father’s way. Mary sees a God who is focused on the little ones, on whoever is hidden, whoever is busy loving Him! She also sees Him as strong and great, stronger and greater than those men who make small and poor people suffer. She knows that the proud, the powerful, the rich, they who use God’s gifts for themselves spreading suffering around them, do not enjoy God's favours and they will be lowered and they will cry.

Mary is on this God's right hand side: she is at His right hand to enjoy and dispense His mercy! God's mercy is not only to change the oppressed people's destiny, but also cure the pride out of the proud's heart so they will not end up lost, take away from the rich richness, which in their hands is too great a temptation, lower the seats of the powerful, so they will not give in to the temptation to think of themselves as God, or even better than Him. God loves everyone, therefore wants and has to put proud, powerful and rich people in the condition of being saved from what is tempting and ruining them. Mary knows in which world she lives, she is realistic. She knows God's goodness and mercy, and she makes a tool of herself being ready at His will.

This openness of hers is the readiness to share with the Son of God the suffering of the cross, which in turn is shared by her with the Church, which is also sieged by evil forces, or more precisely, by the Devil.

The first reading, with apocalyptic images fit for a prophetic vision, is showing us the situation of the Church in a time of persecution, as it has been, as it is nowadays, as it is always going to be. Mary, the first of the Church, is the first to suffer, already with Jesus and then with the apostles, from the hatred of the world against her. But she is also the first to be encircled by the glory of her Son: today together with all the Church we proclaim her blessed, and with God Himself, who honours those who serve Jesus, we honour her giving her the title of queen who sits on the King’s right hand side, her Son, blessed century after century! Together with the Saints from all times we believe that God has rewarded her for her faithfulness and has taken her up in His glory, so to be part of the risen Jesus' glory.

We cannot describe this mystery with the right words, and our every sentence might be misunderstood; taking this risk we say that “Mary has been taken to heaven body and soul”. Her entire person is in the light, all her history is a story of grace, her whole being has pleased God.

We love Mary, declaring in this way a side of our love for Jesus and the Father. We look at her as an example of faithfulness, of discretion and wisdom, of commitment and openness, of fortitude in suffering because of the love for the Lord and of humility of life looking for obscurity and modesty.

 

Mary, mother of Jesus, obtain for us from the Father to be able to follow your example and not to let ourselves be taken by the temptations of the world around us which wants to separate us from Jesus, your Son! Obtain for us to be able to love your Son as you loved Him, in order to offer Him generously to our brethren! Mary, queen of our heart!