Assumption Is for Real

A Meditation as a Preparation for the Solemnity of the Assumption of the B.V.M.
August 15, 2011

The disposition of many today, inside and outside the Church, is that the life we know, live and experience in the here and now is real, another life in the great beyond is too nebulous and we do not know, live or see it. This disposition we can name the dictatorship of secularism. The power of this mind set deeply defines fundamental Gospel values and principles as know, lived and experienced in a day to day living in this very secularized society. It is precisely this mind set that needs the challenge of the rightly defined Gospel as offered by the Magisterium of the Church that helps followers of Jesus Christ to keep before our eyes "the higher things" which define or set our human sights beyond what is seen and keeps us in the confident hope of things to be.

Reported apparitions, especially those accepted by the Church as true, give force to our faith that Mary cares for us as a committed Mother, one who knows us and wants to assist our journey in life to a glorious end. It is not simply these visits of Mary and of others that assures us of the truth that Jesus rose from the dead to place before us the truth that all shall rise and be taken into the intimacy of the triune God. Mary's intimacy with God gives us the assurance of being at one with God here and now but to the degree we accept Jesus as the Son of the Living God and live by His commandments

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him." Judas, not the Iscariot, said to him, "Master, (then) what happened that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?"

Jesus answered and said to him, "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me. "I have told you this while I am with you.[John 14:15 - 25]

Who, but Mary, lived fully the commands of God, thus it is she who knew, and lived most fully the experience of intimacy with God and was taken by her Son Jesus to be at the right hand of Him who is at the Right hand of the Father. Mary, who was conceived without sin in view of the death of her Son Jesus, saved from spiritual corruption, was rightly saved from the corruption of the Body by the death of her own Son, the protection of her wholeness was the foretaste for all who believe in Jesus and the rising from the dead of all who live by His word. First from the death of sin and in then in the final analysis from the corruption of death - immorality is the destiny of all who believe and live that belief by faithfulness. It is not success we are to seek it is faithfulness to Jesus and to His way of life, this mind set defines us as truly Gospel, living the dynamic love of the Divine Trinity Who make their dwelling place in all who keep the word of the Christ. This is really living in the here and now and in Eternity.