When the Archangel Gabriel approached the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem, he drew attention to something about Mary that even she likely did not know: that she was – and is – full of grace, and she alone of all creation. And this mystery of her “grace-fullness” was from the moment of her being conceived immaculately – free from the stain of sin – in the womb of her mother. This gift of Mary’s sinlessness was a unique act on the part of God, in which he applied the anticipated fruits of His Son’s Passion ahead of His being conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary; we call this special grace a “prevenient grace”, because it was a grace that “came before” the coming of Jesus in the Incarnation. Nonetheless, it was an anticipated result of Christ’s Sacrifice, which alone was sufficient to win the salvation of the world, Mary included. Because she is Full of Grace from the very beginning of her life, Mary remained ever-virgin, and, at the end of her life, was spared the horrors of corruption resulting from the separation of the soul from the body, which is the final wage of sin. Instead, being free from sin and thus free from its wages, this Lady was taken body and soul into Heaven to sit at the right hand of her Son in glory, to be with Him Whom her soul loves and intercede on our behalf. In this mystery of her life, coupled with her being crowned Queen of Heaven and Earth, the greeting of Gabriel achieves its full flower: being full of grace, she is now full of glory, forever.
This is the feast we celebrate this week, on August 15th, and it is a Holy Day of Obligation for Catholics to attend Mass, under pain of sin. The reason we celebrate this feast is because the Assumption of the Blessed Mother into Heaven, paired with her Queenship we celebrate on its octave day (August 22nd), is the celebration of the power of God’s grace reaching full stature in the Virgin Mary. Sometimes these feasts can seem distant or unapproachable; sometimes we celebrate them without considering what they mean; sometimes we don’t realize that these feasts have incredible import for our own lives. But the Assumption means something incredibly important for each of us, because in this feast God also reveals to each of us what He desires to accomplish in our own lives. Something that stuck with me from my final months of seminary formation was a statement my professor of Mariology (“The Study of Mary”) made during one of our classes. Speaking of the dignity and grace of the Blessed Mother, he told the class: “What Christ is by nature, Mary has become by grace.” There’s a lot going on in that short sentence, but it communicates a profound truth of our faith well. The ultimate reason for the Incarnation, after the glorification of the Father through the obedience of the Son, was so that God could save us from our sins and transform us into His image, making us sharers in the divine nature. We profess this every time we celebrate the Mass, when the priest mixes the small amount of water with the wine and prays: “By the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, Who humbled Himself to share in our humanity.” The whole Christian life is summarized in that prayer, because the Christian life is nothing more than becoming sharers in the identity of Christ, becoming more and more like Him in all things, a feat He accomplishes through the activity of grace in our lives. We are called to become full of grace.
Mary is the first creature to realize this dignity and this call in her own life, and she stands now before us for all eternity as the “promise fulfilled” of what God can do in a soul that says “yes” to His power. Mary became full of grace because God found in her one who was always “yes”; though we are all guilty in our own lives of many “no’s” to God’s grace, nonetheless Mary has already achieved on behalf of humanity the fullness of God’s plan, and as one who has already entered into the joy of that plan she never ceases beckoning us to follow her where she has already gone, and she ceaselessly intercedes for us to that end. This is why her name is so powerful, so terrifying to the devil, because he could not do to her what he has done to every other human being to ever live (save for Christ): he struck at her heal, but she crushed his head, and now she reigns forever in Heaven. By God’s grace and through Mary’s intercession, through a life of prayer, conversion, and the practice of the faith, even though we still wander in this valley of tears, the more we can learn, like Mary, to say “yes” to God in all things, even the most difficult, God’s grace will one day reach full stature in us. What Christ is by nature, Mary has become by grace; and what she is by grace, we are likewise called to become, so that we can one day join our King and Queen in the glory of Heaven forever. May God bless you in the week ahead and may Mother Mary lead you more deeply into the Sacred and Merciful Heart of Jesus. I remain,
Affectionately Yours in Christ,
Fr. Hess
