This is a short meditation on how “blessed … among women” our Blessed Mother really is. No one could ever compare with her because she was to be the mother of Jesus. This intimate connection is expressed every time we MSC invoke her as “Our Lady of the Sacred Heart.”
Mary is blessed in two outstanding ways. Pope Paul VI reminded us when he wrote about her Immaculate Conception and her Assumption into Heaven.
(1) Immaculate Conception – When Mary was conceived in her mother’s womb, before she was born, she was free from all stain of sin, in order to be like her Son Jesus. The Pope says that was “in ANTICIPATION” of the fact that Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem. The point is: to be like her Son, her immaculate conception was “in anticipation of” Jesus’ FIRST COMING into the world when he was born.
(2) Pope Paul VI also talked about her Assumption into Heaven. When she was assumed body and soul, that was “in anticipation” of his SECOND COMING, when he will come again in glory at the end of the world.
As we celebrate Mary’s ASSUMPTION, we recall the priest’s words at Mass: after the Our Father, the priest proclaims, “As we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ.” The solemnity is mainly about Jesus. Hopefully, that is the meaning that is implied when we celebrate on August 15.
Also, when we pray the “Hail Mary,” we might think of her two outstanding blessings.
That’s terrific that Mary is the mother of Jesus.
So . . .what’s the point?
The point is that she is our mother too.
She loves her Son; she also loves us, her children.
She is always at our side . . . “now and at the hour of our death.”
Fr. Bernard Jakubco, MSC