A REFLECTION FOR THE 10TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
The last years of our Lady’s life are shrouded in mystery. We know that the Apostle St. John took care of her and that she lived for a time in the city of Ephesus on the west coast of modern-day Turkey. And we know that when her lifespan came to its natural end, she was taken up body and soul into heaven, there to be crowned Queen by her divine Son.
As we know, the end of our life here on earth signals merely the beginning of our eternity. Our Blessed Lady is already in heaven, enjoying that everlasting bliss that is union with God. This happiness does not prevent her from continuing to love us, her children, who continue to send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears. She shows her love in many ways, one of which is by protecting us from the snares of the devil, whose head she never ceases to crush beneath her heel.
The great war between Good and Evil began when Lucifer learned that God would become man, born of a virgin. It continues today and will not end until the end of time itself. Who will be the victor of this most terrible of conflicts? That same Blessed Virgin revealed the answer to the three children of Fatima on July 13, 1917: “If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.”
It is not ours to know how or when this will take place, but we have been given the assurance from our Blessed Lady herself that her Immaculate Heart will eventually triumph over the forces of evil that beset this world. For this reason, Pope Pius XII designated August 22nd, Octave Day of our Lady’s Assumption into heaven, as the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. For a full week we celebrate our Lady’s triumph over sin and death by the privilege of her Assumption, and to crown this octave of grace, we will celebrate on this coming Thursday the absolute victory over the devil that is yet to come.
By praying the Rosary we join our prayers to hers in accomplishing this final victory. It is fitting that it should be the Mother of God who is set to achieve this triumph. Since her own Immaculate Conception in the womb of St. Anne, she has been the living witness of her final conquest over evil. Exempt from Eve’s stain of original sin, Mary is placed before us as the perfection to which we are all called, but to which she alone was chosen to achieve. She is our reminder of what we could have been, had it not been for the sin of our first parents. She is our example of what we should strive towards, the light towards which we should steer our souls, like ships in a storm, the safe haven to which we all aspire.
When we hope for salvation, her promise that her Immaculate Heart will triumph is what helps us persevere in that hope, propelling us forward to our eternal goal. “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.”
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