If a small child hurts his finger he runs to Mommy crying. All Mommy has to do is to kiss his finger and all is well again. Children know that their mother loves them and has made a great many sacrifices for them.
It is the same way we look on Mary our heavenly mother. She is the mother of us all. We look on her as our mother who loves us, who watches over us to protect us. She is the mother to whom we can tell every joy and every sorrow.
We remember Jesus’ words as he was dying on the cross; he said to Mary, ‘Woman behold your son’, and to John he said, ‘Son, behold your mother’. We have always regarded this tender incident as being symbolic for us: as Jesus was dying on the cross gave us his mother to be our mother as well.
The reason for our great joy today as we celebrate Mary’s Falling Asleep and Assumption into heaven is because we are celebrating a great privilege given to our heavenly mother.
Mary’s greatness lies in the fact that she was humble before God and surrendered herself to God. Her words to the angel at the Annunciation are words that we need to meditate on and practice a great deal, ‘Let it be done to me according to your word’.
Surrendering herself to God did not mean a perpetual, spiritual honeymoon. Rather it meant joy and sadness, work and pain, and all the while greater and greater giving of herself to Him. We can see evidence for this in the Gospels: at the presentation of Jesus in the temple, Simeon told her that her soul would be pierced with sorrow. When Jesus was twelve years old the family had a misunderstanding over why Jesus got lost for three days. Mary once again learned more about surrendering to God as Jesus told her that he had to be about his Father’s business. Mary surrendered herself so much to God, that God filled her with his presence just as God fills us when we surrender ourselves. Mary’s being ‘full of grace’ did not make her supernatural but the best example of what it means to be human – the finest example of what we will one day be in heaven.
A way for us to surrender ourselves to God and be filled with the presence of God like Mary is to pray the Rosary daily. It is a most beautiful prayer, a prayer that can bring us and keep us closer to God. When we pray the Rosary we are not just saying prayers. Saying the prayers calms us down so that we can tune in to God and our blessed Mother. While we say the prayers our minds are meditating on the great events in the life of Jesus. When we are in desperation and we don’t know how to pray, it is a good prayer and is a most beautiful way to keep in contact with our heavenly mother. When we do so we can unite ourselves with Mary in expressing her sentiments:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior because he has looked upon his lowly handmaid.“