Early on, those who followed Jesus would have had a great respect for Mary simply because she is His mother. Just as we would have affection for our friends’ mothers, we can imagine that the first disciples of Jesus would have loved Mary because Jesus did.
As time went on, however, it became clear to these disciples that there were more reasons to love Mary. They came to realize that she was a great woman in her own right.
First of all, they would have seen her as the model of discipleship. At every event of Jesus’ life, Mary is by His side. From His birth to His death on the cross, she follows her son. The disciples would have seen in Mary a faithful follower of Jesus, willing to be with Him no matter what the circumstances.
Secondly, they would have seen her as a model of prayer. We see this conviction particularly in the gospel of Saint Luke. Mary is the one who ponders the mystery of her Son’s life. At every significant moment, she is at prayer. Even after the resurrection, she joins the disciples in the upper room to await the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Finally, the early disciples of Jesus would have come to consider Mary to be their mother as well. Saint John tells us in his gospel that Mary was given to us by Jesus on the cross to be our mother. We can imagine that just as she comforted and cared for her son, so Mary would have comforted and cared for the disciples after He ascended to heaven. We can also imagine that she never failed to share her wisdom and insight into the mystery of Christ with them.
Therefore, Mary was more than simply the mother of Jesus. For the first Christians, she was a woman of prayer, a disciple and a mother for all believers. Her greatness came not only from the fact that she offered her body to bring the Messiah into the world but that she was the first to believe in the good news. As Saint Augustine put it, before she conceived Jesus in her womb, Mary had already conceived Him in her heart. She is the blessed one who “believed that what was spoken to [her] by the Lord would be fulfilled.”
It is in this way that we can understand the meaning of today’s feast. Because Mary was faithful in bearing the Christ child in her womb, because she never failed to offer her body to accomplish the Heavenly Father’s saving will, God rewarded her by raising her body and soul into the glory of Paradise. God would not allow the body of the woman who carried His Son to suffer decay. He would not allow the body from which the Son of God took His flesh to be discarded in a grave. Rather, He gave her a share in Jesus’ resurrection and ascension into glory.
In Heaven, Mary continues to serve as an inspiration for us. She teaches us how to pray and gives us an example of what it means to be faithful to Jesus. Constantly in the presence of her Son, she offers prayers for us, bringing our needs to the throne of God. While we certainly can go straight to Jesus with our petitions, there is an extra power that our prayer receives when Mary carries them for us to her Son. In a sense, she translates our prayer into words that will be pleasing to Jesus. She removes from it whatever may be selfish or foolish. In her wisdom, she sees through our words to the real need of our heart and offers them to her Son on our behalf. And we can be assured that Jesus will not say “no” to his beloved mother.
So we gather here today to rejoice that we have a mother in Heaven who is watching over us and praying for us. That should give us great confidence as we approach Jesus with our needs and the needs of those we love. It also gives us great hope that, just as Mary was raised to the glory of heaven, so we too await the day when we will enter the glory of God’s Kingdom.
Mary has gone ahead of us and we hope to follow close behind by following her example of prayer and faithfulness to Jesus, her Son.
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