IN ASSUMPTIONE BEATAE MARIAE VIRGINIS
15 AUGUST 2015
Burgos Cathedral, photograph by Fr. Lawrence Lew, OP
SPES NOSTRA VERE EST IN EA
Our hope is indeed in the one whose body, free from sin and so full of grace, was today assumed by the bond of divine love between the Son and His Mother, into His embrace forever. And she is our hope because this too is the destiny to which we are all called as adopted sons of God through Jesus Christ, whose love for the woman who bore Him in her womb is that same love with which He gave His life on the Cross, in order that we should not taste the pains of eternal death, but live in the light of His love for all eternity.
She is our hope because she has shown us that the unapproachable light of God is unapproachable only because He approaches us and not we Him. He approaches us, and if we allow Him, consumes us in our Fiat to become one in His light; one in His love. For if we have truly possessed God’s love, which is to give of it entirely, then we shall in the end be united with it, for it is all that we have desired, all that we are. Just as Mary desired nothing for herself and yet received the fullness of God in her very flesh, so she becomes our hope that despite our many sins, we may seek to humble ourselves and say ‘yes’ to the gift of God’s love, and in so doing, attain a perfect union with that love, which makes us soar to the heights of the heavens.
We can but poorly imitate the virtue and selfless love of our Virgin Mother, and entrust the rest to her Son, who embraces us wholly in His love: each failing repented as much as each success rejoiced in; and who heals, makes whole and incorruptible this mortal flesh, fashioned by His hand and in His image; created out of love, redeemed in love, and destined for love, where our whole being will sing His praise with the glory of His Saints of whom the Blessed Virgin is sovereign Queen and Mother.