Simple Thoughts on the Rosary: Glorious Mysteries: The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin
An ancient legend says that all the Apostles who were then alive were present at her death and burial. All except Thomas. Thomas had refused to believe in the Resurrection till he should have the utmost evidence of sense. Arriving among the Apostles three days after the entombment of our Lady, he expressed the very characteristic desire to see for himself where they had laid the sacred body. They opened the sepulchre and found it empty. But spotless lilies were blooming where the body of Mary Immaculate had been laid. Must not the cry of praise have come to the lips of all: “Thou wilt not suffer Thy holy one to see corruption” (Ps. 15).
“She is not here, she is arisen; behold the place where we laid her!”
III.—“And on the third day she laid away the garments she wore, and put on her glorious apparel. And glittering in royal robes... she stood before the king where he sat on his royal throne.”—Esther xv.
There was mingled joy and sorrow in the hearts of the disciples as they turned away from the deathbed of Mary—motherless.
But beyond the veil, what unclouded joy! What bliss through the length and breadth of heaven. What exultation amid the angelic host. What preparations for receiving as their Queen the lowliest of the earth. See them trooping forth in myriads to meet her—Angels and Archangels, Dominations, and Principalities, and Powers, all the Heavenly army. In their midst, the Son of Man, the Son of Mary, His Sacred Heart beating quick with loving expectation as He speeds on His way. Thronging round Him a special escort, Joseph, and Joachim, and Anna, and Eve, and Adam. Our father Abraham, and Moses, and David, and Judith, and Esther.
Hear the Angels and their human brethren inciting each other to the praises of God:
“O ye Angels of the Lord, bless the Lord, praise and exalt Him above all for ever” (Dan. 3).
“O ye sons of men, bless the Lord, praise and exalt Him above all for ever” (Id.).
“Bless the Lord, all ye His Angels... bless the Lord, all ye His hosts” (Ps. 103).
“O ye holy and humble of heart, bless the Lord, praise and exalt Him above all for ever” (Dan. 3).
Hush! Who is this that cometh up from the desert, Gabriel by her side? Comes with the swiftness of light; comes with the humility of the creature, with the eagerness of a mother, with the majesty of a queen? Oh see her as she falls at His feet; as she adores Him; as she offers herself to Him: “Ecce ancilla: Behold the handmaid of the Lord!” See how He raises her and folds her to His Heart. Watch with ecstasy that meeting of the Mother and the Son, the pledge of so many blessed meetings beyond the grave, the reunion that glorifies earth’s sweet ties and re-knits them for eternity!
“There was silence in Heaven as it were for half an hour” (Apoc. 8). There is silence all around as the Son folds His Immaculate Mother in an embrace which has to compensate her for pain such as He alone has understood, such as He alone can reward. How she slakes her soul’s thirst at the Fount of living water! How she gazes on His glory—and is satisfied!
See Him presenting her to the homage of His Heavenly Court, Queen of Angels and Archangels, Patriarchs and Prophets, Apostles and Martyrs, Confessors and Virgins, Queen of all Saints. Hear as it resounds through space that “Ave!” in the Heavens: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee! Thou art the glory of Jerusalem; thou art the joy of Israel, thou art the honour of our people!” And Mary says: “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.”
Watch her passing through the Eternal Gates. See the lowliness with which she presents herself before the Throne of the Ever Blessed Trinity. Behold her welcome there. The Eternal Father receives back unsullied from this sinful earth the first and fairest of His creatures. Receives it back, not unsullied only, but in the fulness of perfect beauty; the only soul that returns to His hands with His design respecting it realised with faultless perfection; every gift and grace utilised to the utmost, to His greater glory. See the tenderness with which He blesses this His well-beloved Daughter. Behold the filial reverence with which the Eternal Son welcomes into His Kingdom His Mother who is to sit for ever at His right hand. The ineffable complacency and love with which the Eternal Spirit broods over His Immaculate Spouse.
“Let us be glad and rejoice and give glory to Him” (Apoc. 19). O Ever Blessed Trinity, herein is our joy, that Thou art pleased to joy in Mary. We give Thee thanks for the great glory Thou dost receive, and through eternity shalt receive from this perfect work of Thy hands. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
IV.—Thou shalt be called My pleasure in her.—Isaias lxi.
Hail to thee, Maid of Nazareth! alone In thy pure beauty. Thou shalt call thine own The co-eternal Son. Bowed low her head, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord,” she said, “His Will be done!”
Mother of Sorrows! on the Tree accursed Must hang the tender Child thy bosom nursed, A living death thy lot. “Yea, even so, Blest be the Father’s pleasure. In my woe His Will be done!”
Lo! He ascendeth in triumphant state, Leaving thee, Blessed Mother, desolate.
“Glory to Him on high and endless praise, Justified in themselves are all His ways, His Will be done!”
“Hearken, O Daughter, and incline thine ear, Past is the winter’s frost, the flowers appear, Arise, make haste, and come!” She heard, she sped Whither He called. Still, as His handmaid, said: “Thy Will be done!”
“Life in His Will.”! Peace in the “Fiat” here, That binds us to our God mid trial and tear; There in the Home above, the “Fiat” still, The joyous revelling in our Father’s Will As it is done in Heaven.
1Pg. 29.
V.—It is good for me te adhere to my God.—Ps. lxxii.
See the room where, surrounded by the Apostles and the holy women, her companions, the Mother of God awaits the moment of death.
Every eye is fixed reverently upon her. She has been their teacher, their counsellor, their comforter, their refuge, since the Ascension of her Divine Son. And now the hour has come for her last lesson in this life.
What is that lesson? One that it behoves every creature to learn, from the lowliest to the most exalted; the lesson life is given us to learn; the lesson that renders every death of His saints precious in the sight of God: “It is good for me to adhere to my God.”
It is good for me to realise that of myself I am nothing, that my duty, my utility, my safety, my happiness, my glory, consist in my dependence on my Creator—“Ecce ancilla, behold the handmaid of the Lord!”
It is good for me to listen for His secret voice in my heart and conscience; to hearken and incline my ear to every word that proceeds from His mouth: “Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth: Ecce ancilla!”
It is good for me to know by a most intimate conviction that all my good consists in adhering to His Will; in accepting with filial confidence every disposition of His Providence as regards myself or others: “Yea, Father, for so hath it seemed good in Thy sight” (Matth. 11). “Ecce ancilla!”