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Our Lady of the Assumption, Our Lady of Remembrance

           

            On August 15, we celebrate the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. The dogma of the Assumption tells us that Mary shares the condition of the resurrected, which is that of Jesus since Easter. Like Jesus, Mary loses nothing of her humanity but her humanity is blossomed in a new life; this life is no longer limited by the constraints of space and time that are those of our earthly condition. Freed from the constraints of place and time, the life of the resurrected allows Mary to be present to her children from every place and every time. She remains their contemporary. She can sometimes show them her presence visibly: we know stories of apparitions; these are the fruit of Mary's privilege, which we celebrate on August 15.

           

            In writing for the members of Ascending Life on this Marian feast, I think of two verses from the Gospel of St. Luke. At the time of Jesus' birth and the shepherds' visit to the manger, and then when Jesus, at the age of 12, was lost and found in the Temple of Jerusalem: "But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2:19); "Mary treasured all these things in her heart" (Luke 2:51).

           

            In all likelihood, Saint Luke collected Mary's memories. Thanks to them, he was able to report to us the events concerning the birth and childhood of Jesus.

           

            We, too, keep in our hearts many events, many memories. What is good and fruitful in these memories helps us to live and constitutes a foundation of wisdom. In the apostolic exhortation Christus vivit  (Christ is alive), Pope Francis tells us the importance of this wisdom: to the youngest it allows to have a rooting. Young people need these roots to guide their lives and to resist manipulators who try to trap them. " if someone tells young people to ignore their history, to reject the experiences of their elders, to look down on the past and to look forward to a future that he holds out, doesn’t it then become easy to draw them along so that they only do what he tells them?" (Christus vivit 181).

           

            "The Wealth of Years" was the theme of the Rome Congress in January 2020. LAI participated and shares the work. The congress recalled the importance of making available to young people "the spiritual and human wealth that has been passed down through the generations." Otherwise, they risk being "empty, uprooted, suspicious of everything," the Pope says, by ideologies that will make them slaves (Christus vivit 183, 184).

           

            Intergenerational relationships are therefore desirable but not always easy to establish! Let us ask Mary, who kept and meditated so much in her heart, to foster the acceptance by the young of the wisdom of the elders, their history of humanity and faith. May the Holy Spirit that rested on her make us inventive and make us find ways to make the youngest benefit from the "wealth of the years."

Father François Maupu