20 SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – SOLEMNITY OF THE ASSUMPTION OF MARY 

 

Today the Church, in her liturgy, presents Mary in her Assumption to Heaven, at the end of her pilgrimage on earth that she began free from original sin. Her whole life was a pilgrimage filled with love toward the God who favored her so much, making her the mother of his Son Jesus

FIRST READING  – Rev. 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab

Ø  John, the autor of the book of Revelation dewcribes here a wonderful scene, the temple of God  opens, the temple of eternity, of all that is good and fills with love those who are in it. 

Ø  When it opens the Arc of the Covenant can be seen, and at the same time the woman, clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head, appears.   

Ø  Mary has been called, many times, the arc of the covenant, because she carried in her womb the author of the covenant. 

Ø  The author John  tells us that the Woman that will appear is not a real woman, but a sign, that is, a symbol of something else. Of what?  

Ø  Now, in the book of Revelation, every time that a woman appears, it is about a city, or a people or a group of personified human beings.  For example, the great Prostitute dressed in purple (17, 1-4) symbolizes the city of Rome (17, 18). The bride coming down from heaven (21, 2) symbolizes the city of Jerusalem (21, 10). The prophetess Jezebel (2, 20) symbolizes a dangerous sect of the city of Thyatira. 

Ø  Thus, the woman clothed with the sun must be also a people. But, what people? The New Israel, the Church.   

Ø  The book of Revelation or Apocalypse was written in times of great suffering in the Little Nascent Christian Community, the new Israel. 

Ø  With this sign of the woman, they were comforted on seeing how God protected her, thus He would do the same with them, the nascent Church.  

Ø  This woman, although persecuted, has given birth to the Messiah with the protection of God. (Rev 12:5-6)

Ø  In the same way, the Christian Community, will give birth to the Messiah, in the world in which they live, proclaiming with their life and their words Jesus, Messiah and Lord.   

Ø  And John can say “Now have salvation and power come, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Anointed,”(Rev 12:10) 

Ø  The Church in her reflection, listening to the voice of the Spirit who teaches her, as Jesus said, has acknowledge in that woman not only the Church but also Mary, the woman of Genesius, whose son will strike at the head of the serpent, the evil one. María is the Young woman of Nazareth, the adolescent to whom the Angel Gabriel greeted as “favored one, full of grace.”(Lk 1:28)  

Ø  But while in the most holy Virgin the Church has already reached that perfection whereby she is without spot or wrinkle, (cf. Eph5: 27) the followers of Christ still strive to increase in holiness by conquering sin.  And so they turn their eyes to Mary who shines forth to the whole community of the elect as the model of virtues. (Lumen Gentium 65,  Documents of the Second Vatican Council)

RESPONSORIAL PSALM   Sal 45:10.11.12.16

  The queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold.
The queen takes her place at your right hand in gold of Ophir.
The queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold.
Hear, O daughter, and see; turn your ear,
    forget your people and your father’s house.
The queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold.
So shall the king desire your beauty;
    for he is your lord.
 The queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold.
They are borne in with gladness and joy;
    they enter the palace of the king.
The queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold.

 

Ø  This psalm describes in a festive environment the wedding or act to take the bride to the house of the bridegroom to live there with him.     

Ø  The Young woman is invited to forget her family home to dedícate her life to the King and she is told that in place of her parents she will have children.     

 

GOSPEL  Lk 1:39-56

 

      Mary goes in haste, as someone who is in a hurry. ¿Why are you in a hurry Mary?  To help Elizabeth who is with child in her old age.   

      Elizabeth’s child leaps in his mother’s womb on hearing Mary’s greeting.  Elizabeth filled with the Holy Spirits greets Mary as the mother of my Lord.   

      And she says something very beautiful about Mary “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.”(Lk 1:45) 

      What are those words? Full of grace… You will conceive and give birth to a son… who will be called son of God….    

      Yes, Mary is blessed, because she has believed without seeing, because she has believed in the light when all that she saw was darkness, difficulties, dangers, of being considered among the people of her town as the girl who became pregnant before her wedding and could be stoned for that.  

      Mary, who is filled of the joy that God has given to her, joy of those who say “yes” to God without seeing or touching,… she  sings a song of praise to God who has looked at her, the God who looks those who are little, oppressed, abandoned by society and does justice to them.  He does also justice to the powerful taking power from them thus, helping them to react and acknowledge what God says to us continually “love one another….”   

      Mary in her song praises her God, the God of Israel who remembers and is faithful to his promises, and these promises are fulfilled in her, although, probably, she did not realize it then.   

      Let us sing to our God who has done and does great things in each one of us. Let us think and remember what are these things that the Lord has made for us and in us, and then, compose our own song of praise, our Magnificat.    

 

SECOND READING  1Cor 15,20-27ª

 

v  Paul says to us, that Christ has been risen from the dead, as the first fruits of all who have fallen asleep. 

v  Death entered the world by a man (Adam) and now the resurrection comes also by one man (Christ.).

v  Christ must reign until God will have put all his(Jesus) enemies under his feet, this is a sign of dominion over others, here is the dominion of his enemies.   

v  What are these enemies? All that hurst and destroys human beings and the rest of the creation of God, being death the last enemy. 

v  Christ has conquered death on the cross, but he must conquer it in each one of us and for this, he needs our cooperation. I believe that this cooperation is to make real in our life, in our relationships, in our society and in our world the words he said in the Last Supper  “Love one another as I have loved you.” 

v  Paul says that when everything will be fulfilled, when there will not be sin nor  death any longer; when we will love one another, then Christ will handed over the power to God, his Father  and our Father, as Jesus said the day of the resurrection “my God and your God; my Father and your Father.  

CLARETIAN CORNER 

          Day of the Assumption of Mary most holy. I gather the young ladies I had admitted as companion with a great devotion and fervor , offering ourselves to God by a vow of crossing the seas and go to any part of the world without diving the group, nor go away from the opinion of our superior in anything. Since I had at that time no other superior than my confessor, we offer the vow to our Lord after the Holy Communion with the intention to ratify it in the afternoon of the same day in the hands or presence  of the most Rev. Dr. Jose Caixal – my confessor and the confessor of the others as well. As we promised in the morning, we did it in the afternoon in the presence of Dr. Caixal and, after we made the vow and offered ourselves to suffer any kind of trial for love of our Lord Jesus Christ, the confessor gave us a talk so fervent  telling us such things that have been very profitable for us in so many tribulations which came to us, as it will be seen (even only as a shadow) in this summary I am writing under obedience.

(Aut.MF 121)

 

O Mary, my Mother and my hope, consolation of my soul and object of my love, consider all the graces for which I have asked you in the past, all of which you have granted me. Shall I find that this ever-flowing stream has only now gone dry? No, no, it has never yet been heard, nor shall it ever be, that anyone who turns devotedly to you has ever yet been turned away. My Lady, you can see that all these things I ask you are for the greater glory of God and you, and for the good of souls. Hence I hope to obtain them and I know I shall obtain them. That you may grant this all the sooner, I do not offer you my merits, for I have none to offer. Rather I shall say that, since you are the Daughter of the Eternal Father, Mother of the Son of God, and Spouse of the Holy Spirit, it is most becoming that you be filled with zeal for the honor of the Blessed Trinity, whose loving image man's soul is--an image, furthermore, that has been washed in the blood of God made man.(Aut. PF. 162).

 

SOURCES

CLARET, ANTONIO MARÍA. Autobiography.

PARIS, MARÍA ANTONIA. Autobiography.

DOCUMENTS OF THE COUNCIL VATICAN II in the web page of the Holy See in “Fundamental Texts.”    

NCCB (National Conference of Catholic Bishops USA).   Daily readings.     

What I have explained about the woman in the Apocalypse has been taken from the web.