Assumption 2023
When you want to go to the top of the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth, unless you feel ready for hundreds of steps, you take a lift. In only a few seconds you reach another level from where you can see the world from an unusual position and in a new perspective.
Well, if I may say so, this must be more or less the way many of us imagine Mary’s Assumption into heaven. We have in mind a sort of angelic lift (as we have seen in old paintings) and Mary being gently lifted up to a higher degree of reality and proximity with God. The movement unfolds swiftly and smoothly, like the smooth elevation by a very modern and comfortable lift.
I like this image of Mary stepping into the divine world effortlessly, gently, and smoothly. She does not feel ponderous nor drawn downwards to the earth. Rather she belongs to heaven, and she longs with all her heart for the place where Her Son dwells. She desires it with her whole being: her body as well as her soul. We have just heard her singing the Magnificat in the Gospel. Her song expresses the upwards direction of her soul: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour… for… he has exalted those of low degree”. God’s mercy exalts and lifts those up who, like Mary, fully consent to their “low estate” – the lowly and little ones, the poor and the humble ones.
Mary’s soul is perfectly attuned to the Father’s uplifting mercy. From her Immaculate Conception, she has been shaped by God’s mercy which introduced her progressively into the fullness of God’s love. We know – I hope – the lightness of a loving soul and how it shines out in the whole body. Those who love do not look at you: they embrace you with their eyes. Those who love do not speak: they sing. Those who love do not walk: they run and they jump. Similarly, Mary ascends to heaven in her soul and in her body. She is totally possessed by the power of divine love. Her lift is the Holy Spirit of love who unites her with her Son and presents her to the Father.
We can feel authorised today to rest for a while in the uplifting vision of Mary’s light, joyful and humbly victorious entry into the world of the Trinity.
This is all about her, of course: her holiness; her humility; her faith; her unique proximity with God; her human and feminine flesh magnified by God’s grace and introduced into the full light of God’s glory. We see her as the Woman in the Sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars. We contemplate her body and her soul taken into the glory of the risen Christ her son.
This is also about us; about all of us, for we are invited, like Mary and with the aid of Mary, to direct our life and our whole being – soul and body – towards heaven. “The body is… for the Lord, says St Paul, and the Lord for the body”. God, he continues, “raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power” (1 Cor 6:13-14). Mary’s light entry into heaven is the image of what, God willing, will happen to us. We, too, will set aside for good all that makes us heavy and burdensome, in our souls as well as in our bodies, and we shall be given by God’s mercy to enter fully into the kingdom of love. Already by our baptism we belong there. Heaven is our homeland and today’s feast invites us to think of it, to long for it, and to act in heavenly manner, that is to say, lovingly.
This is also about you, women, who are our dear sisters and mothers. One of you is honoured by God, exalted to the highest degree of glory, and introduced into the most intimate life of God. One of you is the greatest of all saints and, as the tradition has it, the Queen of Heaven. She seems to invite you to emulate her movement heavenwards, that is to say to embrace the human and earthly realities in a way that directs them towards God, making them less ponderous, lighter, more joyful and open to the highest hopes by God’s inexhaustible mercy.
From the summit of Mary’s exaltation, we are all given today to see our world from a higher level, in a light which gives it beauty and meaning. And this gives us hope: a victorious hope; a joyful hope; a singing and running and jumping hope. For with Mary, we see our creation with the loving eyes of God and it is very beautiful.