August 15, The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Mary, model of education
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 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.” And Mary said: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior. For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness; behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is from age to age to those who fear him. He has shown might with his arm, dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart. He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones but lifted up the lowly. The hungry he has filled with good things; the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped Israel his servant, remembering his mercy, according to his promise to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” Lk 1,41-55
How many times we have pondered this page from the Magnificat, which is the source of our faith! The incarnation of God in Jesus of Nazareth, the gospel, the church and this morning prayer were born from the “Yes” of Mary who has accepted to be an instrument of the theological marriage between heaven and earth, from which Jesus was born. Mary was not limited to be mother of the Son of God, but she had a key role in his formation and, consequently, on the formulation of the gospel and of the doctrine of the church. We realize it just reading the Magnificat, in which, in embryo, we find all the founding principles of the gospel, which Mary has certainly passed on to Jesus during the years of his education in the home of Nazareth. We find there the faith in God, in his omnipotence and in his mercy; we find the subversion of the values of the wealth and of the poverty; we find the humility as a precondition to the acceptance of the call, we find the connection of the future church to the story of Abraham, we find the seeds of the Providence and of the social justice. These are the same principles which form the basis of the teachings of Jesus. But the fundamental teaching which Mary has transferred to Jesus was the complete willingness to accept the project of the Father on him. These seeds of truth, which Jesus in the future will grow in the prayer and which will constitute the essence of the gospel, are all already included in the Magnificat. The transmission of the faith and of the christian values to the children is a commitment which is of priority also for us as parents. The parents do not know the plan of the life for the children, but they can help the children to recognize it and to live it in a christian way.