The Assumption of Mary

Dear Friends,

Monday is the feast of the Assumption of Mary. If you Google images of the Assumption, what comes up are images of a beautiful Mary, most often by herself, being taken up gracefully into heaven.

What follows is a spiritual, meditative, imaginative look at what might have happened and what Mary’s Assumption might mean for us.

One day,
Mary, the Mother of God, died.
        Her friends and
        the disciples of Jesus
        had seen it coming.
        Her heart, which had suffered so much
        during the life of Jesus,
        was slowing down.
        Her energy no longer prevailed.
        Maybe her memory became fuzzy, and
        her hands were marked by arthritis.
        We don’t know.

What we know is this:
one day, Mary, the Mother of God,
did not get up to meet the day.
        Her friends and the disciples of Jesus
        prepared her tomb,
        her body for burial,
        applying precious spices
        and unguents that would enhance
        the fragrance of her body.
        They gathered around her still body,
        and looked upon her face one last time
        before covering it.
        They finished their ministrations.
        They prayed,
        and all withdrew.

But God the Father who chose her to be
Mother of the Word Incarnate, did not withdraw,
nor the Spirit
who had overshadowed Mary,
two other times in her life,
nor did her Son, the Word made flesh, withdraw.
He was there.
Jesus reached out His hands,
marked by the wounds of His Passion,
and scooped up
the fragrant body of
His fragile, aged mother in His arms.
Holding her close as she had held Him
so often in life,
        Jesus bore her
        into eternal life.

Mary, the Mother of God,
hadn’t even known
she was on her way.
Death was already a memory.
Now, she was there.
Now, Mary’s body seemed young and vigorous once more.
Now, she was transformed,
restored to her original beauty.
        “Yes. Let it be so, “
        she had said once.
        “Yes,” she repeated throughout her life.
        And now,
        beyond death,
        her life-song had not changed,
        “Yes. Let it be so.”

Those of us left behind,
Mary’s friends and
the disciples of Jesus,
are wordless in the face of this moment.

And when words are finally restored,
we dare to say:
        Mary, our Mother, our friend
        and disciple of Jesus,
        we honor all you became in life,
        without spending your energy on
        your own becoming.
        You became, through sheer belief, love
        and generosity,
        the Mother of Jesus, the Son of God, and
        our mother, our friend, our companion.

        All that was in you expanded/flowed/flowered into
        forever – an endless day.

It is irrepressible joy to us
that you, Mary, are whole and forever
with God.
We ask that
with you,
as we look ahead
to our own forever,
we may likewise say
on this side of eternity:
        “Yes. Let it be so.”

~Sister Joan Sobala