Living intensely body and soul

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

August 15, 2017

Vigil: 1 Chron 15,3-16,2; 1 Cor 15,54-57; Lk 11,27-28
Day: Rev 11,19-12,10; 1 Cor 15,20-27; Lk 1,39-56.

I thank God for the countless gadgets which have made my life easier and much more comfortable. I do not usually have a very good sense of direction, but now I can rely on GoogleMaps to help me figure my way around. Thanks to Facebook and WhatsApp, I can keep in touch with my friends whenever I want. I have also noticed that I am much more aware of the suffering of others through the wider availability of news, though images of people suffering, constantly appearing on our screens. [I also use this blog to practice my homilies before preaching them and to rewrite them here after preaching them if I feel I did not manage to get the message across.] Well, in a few words, technology has helped me a great deal, and I am truly grateful for this.

However I have also noticed something else: that the same gadgets sometimes have led me to cut corners and perhaps they have even made me a bit lazier. Nowadays I no longer make any effort to try and orient myself in my surroundings, I just rely blindly in GoogleMaps. The ready availability of my friends on social media makes my relationship with them a bit different than were I to make an effort to meet them in person, with all that meeting them in person would bring with it. I also found out that it is much easier for me to read, comment, click and share about what is going on in distant places than to look into the eyes of my needy and marginalised brothers and sisters sitting right next to me who need my presence, my smile, my words of encouragement, perhaps a shoulder to cry on.

What I am getting at is that despite living a culture where a lot of importance seems to be given to what is physical and tangible, we might actually be avoiding that physical effort, that tangible contact. In other words we are forgetting that we are body and soul. We want to overcome our body because it limits us and is a burden. All too often our body means aches and pains, toil and fatigue, time and energy. And we want to overcome all this.

It might be true that in the Church perhaps for far too long we might have been influenced by a distorted understanding of Augustine's [Manichean] insights that our soul is of supreme importance and body is secondary or perhaps to be avoided altogether. Today's feast, however, of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, who was assumed body and soul into heaven, is a powerful reminder that we are both body and soul and that we are to celebrate this reality. We truly live the Gospel when we live it in our bodies and not only in our minds or hearts. We express our love for each other not only by our thoughts - that would be easy enough - but with our bodies. Here is where the challenge lies: in loving others in concrete and physical ways, perhaps sometimes even laying down my own rights for others.

The Virgin Mary herself loved Jesus in a concrete way, by carrying him in her womb, which is symbolised in the First Reading by the Ark, which indicated the presence of the Lord, and repeated over again in the Gospel. Her yes to do so made Mary blessed indeed. Blessing is always a two way street: we bless God for the blessings that we have received, in turn, from God. I like the various translations of the word blessed: for example, in Latin, bene-dicta, well-spoken-of, or in French, bien-heureux, most joyous, most happy! Therefore this feast is truly reason for our rejoicing for Mary's "yes" to God but also for setting the example for all of us.

I remember watching a brief documentary about a small artisan workshop somewhere in the outskirts of Vienna, where they produce fine violins. The master creates the prototype violin, using his best skills and materials in order to produce a one which produces the optimal sound and pitch. His apprentices copy his violin with the skills that they have learnt from him and using materials at hand. This image always struck me as a good image for us to appreciate further today's feast.

Like the master artisan and his violin, Jesus has given us his Mother to show us how we ought to live and what our ultimate destiny is, while we try and imitate Mary, our Model Disciple that we too may live a life worthy to be called "blessed". One way of doing this is to live in the fullest sense the fact that we are body and soul, and to celebrate this truth. In the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in body and soul we realise that Jesus does not redeem only our soul, but also our body, with the difficulties we face because of the limitations of our body, whatever they may be.

Therefore, the blessed Virgin Mary glorified in heaven in body and soul is truly a "sure sign of solace and hope for us, the People of God during our sojourn here on earth." So that, as we continue in our daily lives, we may not shun the limitations of our body, but rather live more intensely and more courageously the challenges that come our way to love others in concrete and tangible ways.