Today, the universal Church celebrates the Assumption of the Virgin Mary into heaven, body and soul.Mary had shown her obedience to the Lord right from the start when she surrendered herself to God's message through the angel Gabriel. "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord" -Luke 1:38. She had thus allowed God's plan of salvation to work through her and she had never wavered from that plan despite enduring the terrible pain of watching her only Son suffering on the cross. It is thus only fitting, that God should not allow the body which bore his only begotten Son to be touched by decay. Secondly, it is right that Mary who had already, before everyone else, received the salvation of Christ in a special way through her having been Immaculately conceived without the stain of Original Sin, be the first to experience the resurrection of the body after Christ and be raised to heaven where she sits as Queen, interceding to her Son for the world.
This glory done by God to the Blessed Virgin Mary also shows us the plan which God has for our own human nature, for God also destines us for the glory of heaven. What should we do in return? We should imitated Mary in her purity and single-minded devotion to the Lord, knowing that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. Like Mary, let us say to the Lord, "Be it done unto me according to your word."
Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus et benedictus fructus ventris tui Iesus. Sancta Maria mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae.
