ECHOING MARY’S ‘FIAT’ IN OUR OWN LIVES
What a joy it has been to begin serving at Holy Cross since the beginning of July! I am already feeling at home celebrating the sacraments on our 3 campuses, meeting you after masses, and getting around the NE neighborhood. Maybe it's the Polish roots.
The time has been filled with both joyful and sorrowful moments. In the past month, we have had an unusually high number of funerals. These have been bittersweet occasions—we rejoice knowing that our prayers help guide the faithful departed to the Father's heart, while still feeling the pain of their departure.
These recent funerals have led me to reflect on the phenomenon of surrender and exaltation, especially as we celebrated the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary last Friday. Mary's entire life was marked by surrender—from her "yes" at the Annunciation to participating faithfully in Jesus' saving mission of the cross. At each moment of loving surrender, God lifted her higher. Her "fiat" led to becoming the Mother of God. Her surrender at Calvary led to becoming Mother of all Christians. This life of loving surrender culminated in her Assumption into heaven as queen, reigning alongside Christ the King. What profound mystery: that with God, letting go becomes the pathway to being lifted up.
The same pattern echoes in the lives of our departed loved ones. In their final surrender—releasing their hold on this earthly life and receiving Christ's mercy—they are exalted into the arms of the Father, participating in the glorious reign of Christ forever. The very act of giving control to God becomes their pathway to eternal joy and glory. How countercultural this truth is in a world that teaches us to grasp and take, rather than surrender to God and receive!
This pattern enters our daily lives as well. God daily invites us to surrender every part of our day to His will, following Him through trials and triumphs. This often entails a painful letting go of my own plans and desires, a continuing death to self. Yet even we rebel, our surrender to His mercy in the Sacrament of Reconciliation allows Him to lift us back up. The Holy Mass, too, offers us a particular opportunity to practice this surrender. We gather to worship and give God everything that we are, as individuals and as a communion of believers. In return we receive Christ's very Body and Blood. In this amazing exchange of persons – ourselves given to God and God given to us, we are joined with Mary and all the saints who learned that releasing our grip on earthly things opens our hands to receive heavenly gifts. In this moment, we echo Mary's "fiat" and join in the ongoing mystery of surrender that leads to exaltation.
I find it astonishing - When we surrender all things to God, He gradually transforms us, lifting us up to live and love more like Him. For those who are feeling the loss of loved ones in these days, our prayers are with you. For those in other challenging seasons of life, don’t give up! Your surrender to God will bear fruit, today and in the future. Everything we release to God in faith is returned to us transformed; Each act of letting go becomes a step toward exaltation, leading us to eternal communion with God where—having surrendered everything over to Him—we receive everything from Him, where there will be no pains and no goodbyes again.
~Fr. John Rumpza