by Netty Johnson, SSND
Throughout my life I have known loss through death; death of family members, friends, Sisters from my religious community, patients at the hospital, and people I have worked with in various parishes. All of these experiences have helped to teach me the many faces of death and grief. Each time, I find myself wondering what each of those people have experienced in their dying and what they have been welcomed to in the process.
On August 15th, Catholics around the world celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven. We celebrate Mary, her life of faithful love and service to God, and her journey to heaven. I find myself considering what that was like for Mary. I consider her life, what we know of it, and how she lived her call from God. In the message she received from the Angel Gabriel, she was told she would be with child through the Holy Spirit. She wonders. She questions. She responds, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done unto me as your word says.” (Luke 1:38)
Again and again, that faithfulness, trust, and love is repeated in her life. A child is born in a stable, lost in a temple, cherished in her heart. In living her son’s mission, she tells the servants at Cana to “do whatever he tells you”. And she was there at the foot of the cross.
So little is said of her dying yet we celebrate her being taken up, body and soul, into the heavenly place of God. My imagination creates an image…standing with arms outstretched, filled with love, trust, and peace, Mary walks, maybe flies into that eternal glory, beauty, gracious calm, and love of God for eternity.
I rejoice, Alleluia.