Because the Sisters of Loretto were without a chaplain on the feast of the Assumption, I was able to go there and have Eucharist and give the homily so here it is:
+BLESSED ARE YOU AMONG WOMEN Assumption at Loretto 2017
This feast of the Assumption has a way of expanding our horizons, allowing us to see the bigger picture, the divine plan for our world. Our gospel presents us with Mary’s magnifying the Lord, rejoicing in God her Savior. All generations will call her blessed for God has done great things for her. Mary symbolizes the Church, symbolizes each of us gathered here as we, like her, open our eyes through faith to see how God is doing great things for each of us.
Just a few weeks ago you had a service for Cecily, one of your dear sisters. Her own life as a committed religious and poet had a way of ever opening horizons for you and all who had come to know her. As the beautiful homily by JoAnn Gates reminded us, Cecily saw the life of Jesus and that of all his disciples as one filled with promise. JoAnn played with the title of Cecily’s book: Mostly For Promise. Mary’s whole life, like that of Cecily was the realization of God’s promise to her and us all. Even now, body and soul, Mary enjoys a fullness of a life with God and is inviting us into it.
Mary had no more than conceived the long awaited Messiah in her womb when she traveled in haste to the hill country, to a town of Judah where her cousin Elizabeth lived. What had happened to her, she may have already suspected, would not be well taken by the man to whom she was engaged, perhaps already aware the he was thinking of divorcing her quietly. A visit to her cousin Elizabeth would give her the understanding and support she may have greatly needed.
What happens when they encounter one another is a wonderful confirmation of what had taken place within her through the working of the Holy Spirit. The child in Elizabeth’s womb leaps for joy and she cries out “blessed are you among women” because of her faith. Mary’s response is a summary of the whole gospel long before her son began his public ministry and proclaimed the great Sermon on the Mount. Mary, from deep within her heart, knew already what God was about to accomplish through her Son’s life, death and resurrection.
God had done great things through her, for God’s mercy is from age to age on those who fear him. God scatters the proud in their conceit, casts down the mighty from their thrones and lifts up the lowly. God fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty. God is ever ready to help us in our need, remembering his mercy. We see in Mary, if I may dare say, the first proclaimer of the word, the person who radiates the goodness of God in a way that is full of grace.
Living with this fullness of grace was no easy task as we know well from what Mary was to encounter as she accompanied her Son. Your own life is dedicated to her as one who stands at the foot of the cross. Like we heard from the Book of Revelation, she knew what it was like to be in labor, to wail aloud in the pain of giving birth. The Church does well to use this metaphor for Mary’s life and its own as Christ is brought forth in our world today. It is but a reflection of what has taken place in our own lives as we have learned to die to self so as to live to God.
What a blessing it is to have before us always this woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She is always there beckoning us into this fullness of life she now enjoys. Mary sums up the whole of our Christian lives and shows us just what it is to live Mostly for Promise. It is our faith too that allows this to unfold for God is ever ready to accomplish great things in those who believe.
What is about to take place here at this altar is the fulfillment of what happened in Mary’s womb. As Jesus was formed in her womb through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, so it is by the coming down of the same Holy Spirit upon these gifts of bread and wine, they become her Son’s Body and Blood. As we live the mystery we celebrate, the Divine Life comes to maturity in each of us, giving living witness to all with whom we live. Amen
Rev. 11:19a; 12:1-6a, 10ab; 1 Cor15:20-27; Lk 1:39-56