A reflection on this Sunday’s Mass by Sr Kym Harris osb

A reflection on this Sunday’s Mass by Sr Kym Harris osb and downloaded from http://www.prayasyoucan.com.au

God doesn’t think like we do.
The Assumption (just up there ^) by Francesco Botticini, an 15th century altarpiece painted for a Florentine church, shows two levels of ‘reality’. On the lower level, in a vast landscape, the disciples gather round a stone tomb, sturdily rectangular. Where the body of Mary should be there is an abundance of flowers. The disciples either stare into this tomb, empty of a body, or discuss with each other their mystification. But above them within a luminous circular dome (and remember at this time the circle represented completion in art) a vast throng circle around Jesus, Lord of Heaven and Earth, as he greets his mother, Mary, coming into heaven. Three circles make up this exultant crowd. Angels, saints and putti (baby angels) surround Jesus and Mary. If one looks closely one can see that these choirs are about to break into a lively, joyful and stylised Renaissance dance. In heaven there is no time, so, to Botticini, there is no incongruity that at Mary’s Assumption, the saints down through the ages would be there. In his mind’s eye, we too could be there – we have yet to break our confinement to our bodies and finally come to our destiny in the fullness of God’s life and love. This is where we are meant to be. God’s destiny for us is to join these choirs in their lively joyful dance celebrating the mercies shown to Mary and to all the saints. Mary’s life, in a real sense, has been defined by this moment (for Heaven is but a moment so full we never come to the end of it). When we read today’s Gospel, we hear in the Magnificant, a woman who not only recognises God’s presence in the history of her people but one who looks to God’s mercy reaching through the generations for all ages to come, ‘for ever’. As we celebrate this Feast, we should also celebrate this mystery of our own lives within the reality of eternity and our destiny to be enfolded in God’s love.