“My soul proclaims the greatness of the
Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for he has looked with favor on his
lowly servant. From this day all
generations will call me blessed: the Almighty has done great things for me and
holy is his Name” (Luke
1:46-49).
I have the tendency
to look at my life and my accomplishments and to pat myself on the back for
what a great job I’ve done! Like many other
Americans I validate my life by pointing to achievements. This validation leads to self-affirmation and
often to boastfulness and pride.
And this
tendency isn’t bad as far as it goes. But
it doesn’t go far enough. Influenced by
American secularism and individualism, I often tend to view my existence as
independent from God. My tendency is to ignore God’s role and to see myself as
a self-actualizing individual and to put myself -- not God -- at the center of
the universe. And then I become
self-inflated -- and sadly am tempted to denigrate those I deem less
successful.
Influenced
by an ever more dominant secular culture, I’m tempted to ignore God’s role in
my life. I ignore the God who knits me together in my mother’s womb, who gives
me my talents, who sustains me in existence, and who showers me with the Holy
Spirit enabling me to actualize these talents (Psalm 139).
But then I
look at Mary, the Mother of Jesus. This
is Mary whom God blessed above all other human beings -- whom God chose to be
at the center of salvation history and who was faithful to Jesus from Bethlehem
to Calvary.
This is Mary
who realized that the source of her blessings was the Almighty and not herself
and whose blessings made her not proud but humble and grateful.
On this
Feast of the Assumption of Mary, I pray for Mary’s intercession that I may
become more acutely aware of the source of all my blessings and may join her in
her humility, praise and gratitude to our God: “The
Almighty has done great things for me and holy is his Name.”
I need Mary!
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