Gospel Reading: Lk 1:39-56
MARY set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 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, “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 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. He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, and has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel, for he has remembered his promise of mercy, the promise he made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children forever.”
Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.
Reflection: THE ALMIGHTY HAS DONE GREAT THINGS FOR ME
At the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel greets Mary as kecharitomene, “highly favored one” or “full of grace.” The young woman of Nazareth does not claim this honor as her own merit; instead, everything comes from God who has looked with favor on her, his lowly handmaid.
The Assumption is closely bound to this kecharitomene. By her Immaculate Conception, Mary was spared from original sin, and as a result she was not subject to the corruption of the grave. Pope Pius XII, in his Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus published on Nov. 1 1950, declared as a divinely revealed dogma “that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”
In her pilgrimage on earth, Mary cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope, and burning charity in the work of the Savior. She was faithful to God from the consent that she gave at the Annunciation and that she sustained without wavering beneath the cross. Taken to heaven, she exercises her maternal care for the brothers and sisters of her Son. The Church looks at the Blessed Mother as its model in its exercise of these virtues.
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SOURCE: “365 Days with the Lord 2017” ST. PAULS Philippines, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 895-9701; Fax 895-7328; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.
