In our Marist tradition we are very familiar with expressions like having a vocation by virtue of a gracious choice or doing the work of Mary. Probably we have never stopped to ask ourselves what exactly we mean by them.
Are we are supposed to take them literally or as a sort of figure of speech? Does it make sense to say that Mary is actually doing something using our small congregation? Is my Marist vocation something to do with Mary's intentions in a literal sense?
Father Colin and the first Marists were convinced that the answer to these questions is " yes ". This is something for us to ponder if we wish to embrace wholeheartedly our Marist identity.
There is no teaching of the faith more fundamental than the resurrection, and the doctrine of the assumption of Mary body and soul into heaven says nothing more nor less than that Mary shares the resurrected glory of her Son. This means that Mary is not living the sort of ghostly half-life the psalmists attribute to the dead in the Old Testament.
The resurrected life is not less of a life than our earthly existence. It is to be more fully human. Of course, the full reality of resurrected life is unimaginable for us - eye has not seen nor ear heard what God has prepared for those who love him. But we do know from the New Testament that resurrected life is a marvellously transformed human, bodily existence.
The resurrected Christ still bears the marks of the passion on his body, and he does what no ghost can do, eating and drinking with his disciples. In the transfigured life of resurrected glory Mary is in fact not less active, less conscious, less human than we are, but more active, more conscious, and more human, as she fulfils her unique role within the communion of saints. This is the background to talking about “a gracious choice” or “the work of Mary”.
Kevin Duffy, SM
