The
feast of the Assumption that we celebrate today means very simply
that Our Lady is in heaven. The teaching itself says: ‘At the end
of her earthly life, the Immaculate Mother of God, ever Virgin, was
taken to Heaven body and soul in heavenly glory.’ It doesn’t
say how it happened or when it happened, but just that it did happen
and that Mary is now in heaven, in body and soul. It is a way of
saying that because of the extraordinary position that Mary was
given, by being the Mother of Jesus, she shared in his sufferings and
she also shared in his resurrection and so was taken up to heaven at
the end of her life.
In
many countries there is still a strong devotion to Our Lady. We have
always found great consolation in Our Lady and still do. Mary is
completely a human being and very much sympathizes with us in our
struggles, because she has been through the same struggles. She has
appeared in many different places in the world and always to guide us
back to the right path.
When
the angel Gabriel came and told Mary that God was asking her to
become the Mother of Jesus, the first words of the angel were: ‘Mary,
do not be afraid, you have won God’s favour.’ The few lines that
the angel said to Mary, might be summed up in a different way. You
can imagine that the Lord was saying something quite startling to Our
Lady: ‘Mary do not be afraid... God is asking you to put aside all
your plans for the future and do his will instead. Do you accept?’
In a way, this is what the angel was saying to her, but he started it
off with ‘Mary do not be afraid.’ ‘God knows what he is doing.’
No
doubt all of us have had various ideas as to what we hoped our lives
might involve; different plans and indeed often very good plans. I
believe that one of the greatest challenges facing anyone who tries
to be faithful to God, as most of us do, is when God dramatically
changes what we thought He was going to do. God asks us, ‘Will
you leave aside all your plans for serving me, and take on my ones
instead?’ The thing is we probably weren’t even aware that we had
our own plans, until He asked us to give them up, by making our lives
take all kinds of unexpected turns. And then what did actually happen
may have turned out to be quite disappointing. ‘I had hoped it
would be much more.’ Think of the words of the two disciples on the
road to Emmaus after the resurrection when Jesus suddenly joined them
walking along the road. They talk about what had happened and add,
‘Our own hope had been that he would be the one to set Israel free’
(Luke 24.21). ‘We are so disappointed.’ What must Our Lady have
been thinking when she watched Jesus take his last breath and then
bury him? What about all the promises of the prophets and the angel?
Now he was dead.
The
plans we had may have been really excellent ones. I have no doubt
that Our Lady probably had really beautiful plans as to how she would
serve the Lord. But the Lord may ask us at some stage, ‘Will you
follow my plans for you?’ ‘Are you prepared to give up
this brilliant work that you are doing at the moment, because I have
a different one?’ ‘Are you prepared to accept this disappointment
in your family, or your marriage?’ I think that this can be a key
moment in anyone’s life. Two things can happen from it. We can
accept it in faith and go with it, thereby opening the door to allow
Jesus to transform us, or we can fight it and resent the fact that
‘it all went wrong for us’, which may lead us to become bitter.
If
we really remain open to accept what God asks, to the many twists and
turns that God takes us through, He will bring the greatest
good out of us, because He will transform us through these things.
This is really the only thing that is important, that we allow God to
transform us. God’s purpose for us is so that He can fill us
completely with himself, unite us to himself at a far deeper level
than we may have ever imagined and then use us a hundred times more
effectively in the world, but God asks for our openness.
To
sum up: If we are open to following God, to trying to do his will, He
may continually ask us to take different directions, often having to
let go of plans or ideas that we thought were very good. The more
open we are, the more quickly the Lord can transform us within. So if
you do find yourself thinking sometimes, ‘Everything seems to have
gone wrong. I never managed to do this or that,’ remember that if
you just stay open and allow the Lord to guide you, then not only
have your plans not been wasted, but in fact you have allowed the
Lord to do far more in you than you might have imagined.
‘I
am the handmaid of the Lord said, Mary. Let what you have said be
done.’
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