According to Benedict XVI, our first parents tried to pull themselves from God, unlike Mary who proclaimed God's greatness. This was at the core of original sin. “They feared that if God were too great, he would take something away from their life. They thought that they could set God aside to make room for themselves.” But Mary created room for God in her life and heart. The magnificat mirrors the entire personality of Mary. “Mary wanted God to be great in the world, great in her life and present among us all. She was not afraid that God might be a "rival" in our life, that with his greatness he might encroach on our freedom, our vital space. She knew that if God is great, we too are great. Our life is not oppressed but raised and expanded: it is precisely then that it becomes great in the splendour of God.”
Whatever that is sown in God increases and multiplies. That is why Jesus described the Kingdom of God as mustard seed sown in littleness but which grows to greatness (Mt 13:31-32). Unless we died with Christ we remain our little and weak selves that cannot save. If we die with him, then we reign with him (Rm 6:8; 2Tim 2:11). Mary sowed her life in God. She lived in hope of the fulfilment of God's promises (Lk 1:45). She contemplated God's mysteries because there is space for God in her heart (Lk 2:51). Through her words, ‘let it be done to me according to your words', Mary opened up herself to contain God in her womb. So we call her the New Ark of the Covenant, the first Tabernacle. And the Almighty lifted up His lowly handmaid.
In us there is room for God. Through faith we open the doors of our lives to God so that God can be the power that gives our existence path and life. If God becomes great in us, we lose nothing, instead our lives become rich and great.
On the other hand, there is space for man in God. This is the message of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven. That was why God tried to reconcile man after the fall, and He announced the defeat Satan through this woman (Gen 3:15). So from the first moment of her existence, Mary enjoyed this singular privilege of Immaculate Conception, and she committed her life to God in virginity. Thus she was free from sin and its burden—death and decay. Her escape from Satan, the ancient dragon, was total and complete. Assumption can be likened to the wings that was given to her to escape the fierce dragon that opened its mouth to swallow her (Rev 12:1-6).
Being assumed in God, she was raised to greatness and shares more intimately in the life of the Trinity. Thus she is closer to us and her universal motherhood shines out. Her motherhood transverses time and space. “All generations shall call me blessed” implies that what God has done through Mary cannot be relegated to the past. Her blessedness illumines every generation and culture. Assumption of Mary is, therefore, a consequence of the singular privilege she enjoyed. It is an affirmation that all generations will call her blessed, and she, in turn, can bless all generations.
This great solemnity enlivens our hope that heaven can contain us. God awaits us. Heaven is our destination. The human life, body and soul, is endowed with a dignity beyond itself. If we model our life after Mary, being open to God, the joy of the Assumption of Mary equally awaits us. Let us open our life, family, works, society to God. There is room for us in heaven (Jn 14:2). “Only if God is great is humankind also great. With Mary, we must begin to understand that this is so. We must not drift away from God but make God present; we must ensure that he is great in our lives. Thus, we too will become divine; all the splendour of the divine dignity will then be ours. Let us apply this to our own lives.”
According to Benedict XVI, the modern generation wants to put God outside its space, thinking that without God we will be free to do whatever we want. “But when God disappears, men and women do not become greater; indeed, they lose the divine dignity, their faces lose God's splendour. In the end, they turn out to be merely products of a blind evolution and, as such, can be used and abused. This is precisely what the experience of our epoch has confirmed for us.” The same applies our expression of our cultures.
Our collective ways of life must be open to God. This is how our ways of expression can be life-giving and sustainable. If not, we remain locked up in our individual cultures, with a localized horizon. Only if we embrace God with our culture can we appreciate the diversity of cultures. Then we can overcome the tribalism, and animosity towards people of other cultures. Like Mary, if we embrace God totally, even with our cultures, He will increase us.
Fr Jude Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R.
Church of Assumption, Asokoro,
Abuja.
16/08/2018
Reflection given at the parish Marian retreat in preparation for the Parish feast day and cultural day celebrations coming up on Sunday August 19th, 2018.
