MARY, OUR MOTHER

Mateo Cerezo
Assumption of Mary
Oil on canvas, 237 x 169 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Meditation 77

HER GLORIOUS ASSUMPTION

1. The Immaculate Conception and the Assumption.
These two mysteries are closely linked together. The Church underlines both by keeping them as feasts of obligation even after having suppressed other feasts of Our Lady. The Immaculate Conception and the Assumption mark the beginning and the end of Mary's life on earth. These two extremes are so linked together that one comes to be like the reason of the other. If Mary is immaculate She cannot remain in the sepulcher; She must necessarily rise to Heaven. Mary's Immaculate Conception is a privilege. It is an exception to that general rule which we all have to follow. That is why it might be said that Mary rather than dying merely shed off mortality. Even in Her conception She was never a slave of sin and therefore She was immaculate. She would never be the slave of death and therefore She was taken body and soul into heaven. The Assumption of Our Heavenly Mother is the necessary compliment of Her Immaculate Conception.


[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]