INSPIRED BY MARY

"Nag mula sa lupa, magbabalik sa lupa..." This is the opening lyrics of Rico J's song famously played during funeral masses and burial processions. The lyrics bring us face to face with the reality of our mortality and the futility of our efforts to invest in any worldly riches. Everything in this visible world will return to dust in time. One would always return to its origin; plants and animals decay to be part once again of the earth from which they originated and which sustained them through their growth. In physics, what goes up from below must go down from above. That is part of natural law and the cycle of life.

Blessed are we Christians and Catholics, for we believe that we do not solely come from the ground. When we were fashioned and molded by the hands of God out of the earth, He breathed in us life. The breath that came from God gave us life. Our life, therefore, originates from God, and consequently, through the cycle of life, we are to return to God. Our brother Thomas Aquinas taught about this in his theology when he took this movement of man from God and to God as the structure of his theology (Summa Theologiae). All things come from God (exitus) and, in different ways, return to him (reditus). That makes our entire life a journey going back home. And so, at the end of our life, our souls shall return to the Lord from whom it originated. At the end of time, our bodies will be reunited with our souls - that is the resurrection of the dead (cf. 1 COR 15:20-27). What can we hold on as evidence for this reality (of the resurrection of the dead) promised to us?

The solemn assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Body and Soul to heaven stands as a proof of man's return to God in the end. This teaching of our faith, declared by Pope Pius XII on November 1, 1950, states that Mary… when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory. Her assumption is a singular participation in her Son's Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians (CCC 966). Though resurrection proper should take place at the end of time for us, in the case of Mary, she benefited in advance to the graces her Son procured through His Paschal mystery; as in her Immaculate Conception and glorious Assumption. That unique privilege enabled Mary to be a sign in the sky, the morning star that may guide our journey back home. In the book of Revelation (11:19A; 12:1-6A, 10AB), John described a great sign that 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. Mary is that great sign. Wouldn't it be easier for us to go to a place with a guide? Wouldn’t it be easier for us to be obedient children of God if we have a model to follow? Mary's life and journey back home to the Father is the star in the sky that is our guide.   

The magnificent life journey of Mary started with the "yes" she gave to the Lord. From then on, Mary's life was never the same again. The Lord had done wondrous things in her life, which culminated by God's act of bringing her, body and soul, to heaven (cf. Lk 1:39-56). Truly, Mary is now home with God. She is back to whom she came from. Will you tread the same path Mary trod? Will you desire too to be back home to the Father's house or simply be satisfied here on earth? That journey back starts with a "yes," and along our way we have Mary as our guide and inspiration in going home.

THE ANNUNCIATION EVENT

The Annunciation event signaled the beginning of the fulfillment of God’s promise of salvation to man, and the establishment of an everlasting kingdom:  Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom, there will be no end (Luke 1:31-33). It mirrored the faithfulness of God to His promise to man (Gen. 3:15), despite man’s unfaithfulness to Him.

The cycle of establishment and breaking of a covenant in the Old Testament can be seen as a period of pronouncement of God’s great plan of salvation and a stage of preparation towards its completion in the New.

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption. As proof that you are children, God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father! So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God (Galatians 4: 4-7).

The beginning of the fulfillment of the promise of salvation took place in a conversation between God’s messenger and a simple woman; in the Annunciation event. God chose a woman to be an instrument to the recreation of the world. Hail favored one! The Lord is with you (Lk 1:28).  And the woman chose God’s will to be hers. Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your Word (Lk 1:38). Mary’s YES to the will of God ushered-in the realization of the will of the Father to save man.

The Annunciation event shows the great possibility of man’s participation and cooperation to the will of God and to the work of salvation. Despite man’s brokenness, through his will, and God’s grace and mercy, he can contribute to the overall realization of the Father’s will here on earth as it is in heaven. This would only be possible if man would be opened to the will of the Father, through the promptings of the Holy Spirit, made manifest through the life and teachings of the Son.

The story of man’s salvation, from Adam to Jesus, continues. And the Annunciation event between God’s messenger and the Blessed Virgin Mary serves as a model on how man can cooperate to the grace and mercy of God, and participate to His salvific work for man.

Mary’s YES to the Father’s will opened the gate of heaven for man for the fulfillment of promised salvation. Man, therefore, can guide his fellow man in the path to salvation by being open to the will of the Father. All these through the help of His grace and mercy to man. 

Be not afraid! Mary the Star of New Evangelization shines brightly along the path to heaven as model and guide.