The Assumption represents the victory of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the recognition of the holiness of her life. She is presented to us as a model of conduct and our intercessor.
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin tells us that she has been taken to heaven in body and soul. The Holy Trinity has crowned her as queen and mistress of all creation.
Entering into heavenly glory, she has not abandoned us, but continues to exercise her maternal office for all, and can even take care of us even more.
The Assumption, then, reminds us that in heaven we have, whole, in body and soul, a mother. Thus, the picture before our eyes is splendid: it is that of a mother’s heart that is loving us in heaven. The heart of the mother who loves us most!
In sharp contrast to this wonderful, heavenly reality is a world in which conflicts between men abound: ingratitude, lack of correspondence, lack of love, lack of respect, injustice, shouting, insults, tripping, envy, hatred, mockery, blows, wars, small and large faults, etc.
When we encounter setbacks like these in our lives, which stick like thorns in our hearts, we can be tempted to react in a very different way than the Blessed Immaculate would have done, not with her love.
If someone has very unjustly harmed us, perhaps by hurting us a lot, or perhaps by doing so with great determination to annoy us, etc., it may seem reasonable to us to adopt certain attitudes that are not very constructive. We can even convince ourselves that we are full of reasons for being able to act in this way.
How many marriages, and how many beautiful realities, have been broken by responses of this kind! How many wonderful things could have been saved by responding with a caress or a smile, even if the other person had not earned it! Isn’t it true that sometimes a little tenderness or kindness works wonders, or even miracles? Why is it so easy to forget that you catch more flies with a drop of honey than with a barrel of vinegar?
How the attitude of the blessed Mother of God is so different from what our inclinations push us to, and given the movement currently imprinted on this world, her attitude is now especially luminous, a true and immense novelty, an authentic revolution in the best sense of the word, a discovery of a new world.
We are all children of Mary. And, whatever a child of hers does – even one who utters the most horrible blasphemies against her divine son and against her, or the worst murderer in the world – she is ready to welcome him with motherly affection, and always has her arms open with the hope of being able to hold them close to him. Our wickedness is answered with her goodness; our lack of love, with her love and her kisses; the putrid wounds of our sins, with the mercy that disinfects, heals and bandages the wounds. She is always on the side of sowing goodness, joy, luminosity, goodness, love, etc. To put it in one word: she is always the welcoming mother who is only full of kindness and love.
A literary work by the priest Jacinto Verdaguer can help us understand this mother’s heart. It goes like this: a boyfriend, who was madly in love with his girlfriend, asked her what she wanted him to give her. She replied: give me your mother’s heart. He was very saddened. But, because of the love he had for his girl, he ripped out his mother’s heart with a dagger. He put it in a backpack and went to his girl to give it to her. But, on the way, he tripped on a stone, and the boy and the backpack fell to the ground. From inside this bag nothing else was heard but this: my little son, you have hurt yourself! It was the heart of the mother, who only cared about the well-being of her son, the son who had murdered her, and had taken out her heart.
Because when we find ourselves with the matter, with all the stains that we carry on our backs, we find it so good, it makes it easier for us to change, to recover joy, illusion, hope, the positive impulse to move forward. In fact, there is no greater force than love.
Ultimately, her totally maternal heart, in contrast to ours, gives us something to think about, and gives us a lot to think about, and invites us to examine our ways of acting, to correct them, and to be more like her. The Blessed Virgin Mary, model of all mankind, and especially of women, is a great treasure, let us learn from her, let us imitate her. There is no star like her! Today, especially, she has much to tell us. Do you want to – by the hand of the one who was the dawn that gave way to the Sun – sow luminosity, joy, goodness and love in this world? A new world, and much more beautiful, is possible! You are the times!
