The great benefits of Our Lady’s Assumption

Once every year, on the 15th of August, we the Roman Catholic Church unashamedly observe in great celebrity style that Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ, was taken up into heaven body and soul after her life on earth was ended. This isn’t at all the same as Jesus who ascended into heaven after he died, but it was Mary’s greatest reward for her faithfulness to God in and through her life. Mary didn’t have the kind of divine power that Jesus himself had, so wasn’t able to rise on her own to her heavenly life. But we are all invited to contemplate on how much Mary was loved by God, and was assumed into heaven, not on her own power and might, but because she was so very loved by God. Mary’s heavenly reward is something that we as God’s beloved children can also look forward to if we place our love for God in as high a priority in life as Mary our model and mother.

What does loving Mary so much do to us in life? Firstly, this amplifies the level of love that all of us can have towards God. In my life as someone who has great devotion to Our Lady, I am given the ability to have great hope in Mary as my great intercessor who herself went through much suffering in life without giving up on God. We all go through much suffering, whether we are wholesome and holy or sit mired in sin. Especially if we are living a life that is so constantly filled with sin and the self, our lives can have a great experience of suffering.

What suffering does to a soul can be ruinous, and this is where it is truly beneficial to live with great closeness to Mary who loves those who love God. Certainly, loving Mary just so that we can overcome life’s suffering can be deemed something purely utilitarian. But if we begin to love Mary as our blessed mother, seeing her undying devotion towards God’s will can always help us to purify our love for our heavenly Father. It can always help us to purify our love for our creator God who makes everything that is good and beautiful in the universe.

I am taking a strong stand in the fact that our love for Mary, when it is purified, can also purify our love for Mary and for God, because ever since the middle of May this year, I was accidentally struck by a driver whilst out doing a morning exercise before the morning Mass began. The accident left me with a brain hemorrhage requiring two parts of my frontal lobes of my skull to be removed as it was internally bleeding.

The present time for me is one that has a tremendous amount of suffering in a physical human way. Sometimes, the blood doesn’t course through my body sending adequate blood to my heart, especially after having seated in a chair for a long time, or having lain in bed for a rest, without my activation of my hands so as to send blood pumping into my heart. Once before I knew the connection, I got up from my bed rest and was making my way from the bedroom to the living room of my mother’s house where I am currently resting, and my feet experienced a weakening and I landed on my left shoulder. As a result, I am much more cautious about how I get up from not having walked by making sure that I have either a cane or a walking frame to support my body weight should I get the low blood pressure that could affect my walking. Though it does seem extreme, I am constantly aware of the need to turn to Mary in prayer and trust, seeking her maternal guidance for my current recovery from the head injury.

Of course, this isn’t the only reason we should rely on Mary’s intercessory help in life. There are countless of other ways in which our human body enters into suffering and we could always use her maternal help before our life on this earth ends.

Pains and suffering in life are easily misunderstood, and without faith, many can end up thinking that they are unnecessary in life, and one could wish that there should be no suffering when one is living this life. This is a major temptation when one isn’t living one’s spiritual life looking at Jesus and Mary as our models to follow.