Saturday, August 15, 2020

15 August 2020 - to call her blessed


It was the Holy Spirit who first taught Elizabeth to say, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb." Those words would later be combined with the greeting of Gabriel, "Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you", to form the main part of what we have today in the Hail Mary prayer. We echo words first spoken by an angel and those taught by the Holy Spirit. These aren't words to be feared or of which we should be ashamed. They are meant to be revelations, not just of who Mary as an incidental part of a moment in time, but rather of who she is in the fullness of God's ongoing plans.

And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?


Mary was revealed to be the ark of the New Covenant. Could Elizabeth hear the echoes of David saying, "How can the ark of the Lord come to me?" (see Second Samuel 6:9). Did she realize what the Holy Spirit, who filled her in the moment, was revealing? It's hard to say how much she understood of the situation intellectually. But it was definitely true that her heart was given a supernatural revelation of the meaning of Mary's visit.

For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled.”


Why would it be so important to know that Mary was the new ark? First and foremost, because of what the ark represented, what it contained, the place where the presence of God was most preeminently to be found. The old ark was held sacred for the sake of what it contained, so much so that to touch it was to die. How much more so was Mary to be regarded as holy and set apart, she who herself contained the divine Word made flesh in her own womb. This was meant to be an ongoing truth even after the birth of Jesus. God still had a plan and a purpose for this new ark.

God’s temple in heaven was opened,
and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple.

A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun,
with the moon under her feet,
and on her head a crown of twelve stars.


Given that the image of temple was superseded by the flesh of Christ it shouldn't seem that unusual that the image of ark was also superseded by a person rather than a mere object. Mary was revealed to be this ark, implying a role that was not meant to be merely a historically coincidence, but rather an ongoing reality in the liturgy of heaven. What we celebrate today in the Solemnity of the Assumption is the victorious procession of that ark as it is given its place of pride in the temple of heaven. The ark is the body and soul of Mary, in tact, whole and entire. The corruption of death was not permitted to touch her, for she was protected just as the ark was protected by God from even the accidentally touch of Uzzah.

The queen stands at your right hand, arrayed in gold.

Was this new ark meant to be a mere abstraction, a mere piece in the right place to make heaven fit an earthly mold? No! It is rather that however much the ark was meant to be the place of encounter with God and man on earth even more is Mary revealed to be a place where we can encounter her Son. And we should notice that, while Mary is the place of the encounter, what is revealed through her is always the presence of her Son. We can come to her without fear of missing or diminishing the centrality of Jesus. In fact, if we do come to her that centrality can be more of a reality than would be possible otherwise.

Christ rose and ascended to heaven as the firstfruits, before the rest of his followers, because he was the new Adam. Mary, as the new Eve was also the firstfruits in a special way. Her assumption showed not only the special privilege that she was given as the mother of God, but it revealed the path and the hope for the entire Church.

For just as in Adam all die,
so too in Christ shall all be brought to life,
but each one in proper order:
Christ the firstfruits;
then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ


God did not architect the whole history of salvation to point to this special role for Mary to have us disregard her. He intended to bless us in blessing her.

From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me
and holy is his Name.


Let us not be afraid to call her blessed.

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