THE WORD BECAME FLESH

Monday of 20^th Week in Ordinary time, 2022

Rev 11:19a, 12:1-6a, 10ab

Ps 45

1Cor 15:20-27

Luke 1:39-56

Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary

Visitation

We have all experienced, to some degree, the value of visiting others or being visited by them. We can probably think of times when we went on a journey to visit friends or family members. Such visits generally do us good. We come away the better for having made the visit. We might also be able to remember occasions when friends, neighbours, family paid us a visit and, again, we experienced it as a blessing.

In today’s gospel reading we hear the story of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth. Luke describes a visit that left both the visitor and the one visited greatly blessed. As a result of Mary’s visit Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and because of the way Mary’s visit was received by Elizabeth, Mary herself was filled with the spirit of prayer and praise, the Holy Spirit. Luke describes a visit that was truly life-giving for both women. Elizabeth addresses Mary as ‘the mother of my Lord’. She recognized that in welcoming Mary she was welcoming the Lord whom Mary was carrying. Elizabeth was aware that the Lord was visiting her through Mary, and so she declared Mary blessed. That is why we too honour Mary. We recognize that it was through her that the Lord visited us. Later on in Luke’s gospel the crowds come to say of the adult Jesus, ‘God has visited his people’. The really significant visitation is God’s visiting us in the person of Jesus, and it was through Mary that this visitation came about. It was through this woman of Nazareth that the Lord visited his people and having visited us remains with us until the end of time. The first reading today speaks of the woman who brought into the world the son who was to rule all nations. We honour Mary because she was the gate through whom the Lord came to us. That is why, as she sings in her Magnificat, all generations have called her blessed. Because she is the gate through whom the Lord first came to us, Mary has a unique relationship with the Lord. It is because of that special relationship with the Lord that she shares uniquely in his risen and glorious life. That is what we celebrate today on this feast of the Assumption. We celebrate Mary’s complete sharing in her Son’s triumph over death. In the words of Paul, in today’s second reading, she has been brought to life in Christ because she belongs to him in a special way.

What Mary has become, we hope to be. The great things that God has done for Mary is a pointer to the great things that God wants to do for all of us. She is, therefore, a sign of hope for us on ‘our pilgrim way’, as today’s Preface puts it. Mary’s life also indicates how we are to travel that pilgrim way. Like her, we are called to be channels of the Lord’s visitation to others. As Mary brought the Lord to Elizabeth, and to all of us, we are called to bring the Lord to each other, so that those who meet us might come to say, ‘The Lord has visited his people’. This is the best way to honour Mary and how she would want to be honoured. If we honour Mary in this way, we can be assured that, at the end of our pilgrim journey, the Lord will honour us as he honoured her. He will do the same great things for us that he has done for her.  Like her, we too will come to share fully in Christ’s risen life.

+Remain blessed