Mary is the embodiment of what it means to continually say “yes.” And this feast day shows us what is possible for all of us when we can continually say “yes” to God.
Right before Mary goes to visit Elizabeth, she had this remarkable moment with the angel Gabriel at the Annunciation. It's her first ‘yes.’ And notice that Mary does not stop and just sit in that. She could have. But instead, she looks out to see where she can have an impact, where she can be of service to someone else. She doesn't wait for Elizabeth to come to see her. She goes and travels to be hospitable, to be caring, to be in community with Elizabeth. And so, we have that great scene where they meet, John leaps in the womb, and Mary and Elizabeth are filled with joy. And then Mary goes into this beautiful song of praise. And I have to think that that song held her throughout her journey, her life journey. Reminding her that: ‘yes, even though this beautiful gift has been given to me, it's not going to be easy. But I know who I am, and I know that God knows who I am.’
My sisters and brothers, we look in the world today and we see… What do we see? We could dwell in the uncertainty and confusion and pain and strife and the negative. Or we can take our ‘yeses’ to what God is calling us to do and go into the marketplace of the world - whether that's the marketplace of our homes, the marketplace in our communities, the marketplace in a global situation - and be that good news. We can go and do those visits. We can go and be hospitable and caring and loving.
In essence, we can be the woman who is the Ark of the Covenant, the New Covenant, that we carry Christ within us. And as we carry Christ, we bring Christ in what we say and what we do and how we live and how we be.
Let's keep saying “yes.” So that at the end of our journey, we too are assumed. We too are brought close to the One who has always held us close. Amen.
--Danielle Harrison
Today is the Solemnity of the
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary!
Image source: Salvator Dalí, The Madonna of Port Lligat (1949), about which the artist said: “Modern physics has revealed to us increasingly the dematerialization which exists in all nature and that is the reason why the material body of my Madonna does not exist and why in place of a torso you find a tabernacle 'filled with Heaven.'” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Madonna_of_Port_Lligat#/media/File:The_Madonna_of_Port_Lligat.jpg
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