Psalm 16 sings, You will not allow the one you love to see the pit; you will reveal the path of life to me, give me unbounded joy in your presence. Those whom God loves, the psalm promises, will be raised up above the thousand daily deaths that come into every life. When we raise our hearts and souls to God, the things that drag us down will lose their grip on us. When we refuse to become imprisoned by things and status and ambition and self and greed, our souls are set free and our bodies are unburdened. Life becomes livable again. Enough becomes enough. God becomes God again.
But where can we possibly go to find someone whose life is not tethered to the earth to the point of death? What proof do we have that anyone can rise above what we want to what we can become? The answer surely is Mary of the Assumption whose love of God lifted her far above the goals and gains of those who had never really seen the Christ for what he was, because their mind’s eye was taken up totally with what they were themselves.
Mary of the Assumption teaches us to keep our eyes on the things of heaven; to free ourselves from the fetters of anything lesser; to develop a vision outside of ourselves; and to allow ourselves to be lifted up beyond the petty and the transient to the eternal and the unalloyed. Mary of the Assumption is a sign of what we can become if we are willing to let go of what we have planned for ourselves.
Image source: Antonio da Correggio, Assumption of the Virgin (1536-1530), Cathedral of Parma. To see details (and an analysis) of this remarkable fresco, visit: https://smarthistory.org/correggio-assumption-of-the-virgin/
Image source 2: St. Mary of the Assumption, San Francisco, https://www.pinterest.com/pin/295759900499889996/
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