Reflecting on the Word

By Dr. Karla J. Bellinger

Summer in the northern hemisphere feels like a funny time of  year to think about the dying. The created world overflows with  vigor. Tomatoes are ripe. Corn is in full ear. Yet here in vibrant mid August, the Church asks us to ponder Mary’s assumption, to probe  and ponder the end of earthly life. 

I remember one August when my son first saw a dead snake on  a dirt road. It was lying still. It didn’t move. His four-year-old eyes  brimmed with tears as he asked, “Is it gone? Is it lost?” 

We wonder, too. What happens after death? Will we be gone? Will  we be lost? 

What happened to Mary? Did she die and her resurrected body  was taken into heaven, like the Son of God? Was she swept into a  chariot without dying, like Elijah? Theologians don’t agree about  what her “assumption” looked like. Yet the Theotokos didn’t become  a floating spirit, just as Jesus’ resurrected body didn’t become a  ghost. The woman created as Mary of Nazareth, body and soul, was  taken into heaven. She is not lost. She is alive.

The Good News of this feast is that those who die are not lost.  What makes you, you; what makes me, me—that will not fade away.  Matter matters. Though we don’t know how it works, we will have  the same completion that the Virgin Mary has: we, body and soul,  will not be lost. 

Our grand finale is to be with God. You and I will stand before the  power of the Most High and be overshadowed with glory. Together  with the angels and the saints, we will overflow with intoxicating  happiness within the tenderness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  This is our confidence: ultimately, we will be home. We will not be  lost. We will be found. 

Consider/Discuss 

Everlasting life—is this just a nice idea? Is heaven just a delusion for simple  and backward people? Some would distrust anything that cannot be detected  by our five senses. Many, even other Christians, scoff at today’s feast. Heaven  is real; we believe that and yet we do not believe. What difference would it  make to our lives if we regain a robust sense of a blessed eternity? It is beyond our imagining that all of the universe, all matter, will one day be  drawn into God. St. Paul says that all creation groans while awaiting the final  deliverance from death. The feast of the Assumption gives us a foretaste of  that redemption. What does it mean for your human dignity and mine, that  all created matter will one day be drawn to God? 

Living and Praying with the Word 

God of the Universe, you give us tastes of heaven on earth. Yet we  have no idea of the abundance that you have in store for us. Your  face shines upon us even now. One day your light will radiate upon  us in everlasting brilliance. On this August day, plant deep within us  an enthusiastic vision of the immensity and promise of your glory.  Holy One Most High, let your exhilaration radiate from within us  so strongly that we cannot hold it in. Mary, Mother of God, pray for  us on this day, your day.

Living the Word logo

Copyright © 2021, 2020, 2019, 2012, 2011, 2010 World Library Publications, a div. of GIA Publications, Inc. www.giamusic.com
All rights reserved. Used by permission.