Reflections from the Heart – August 15, 2021

Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
by Fr. Ivan Olmo

“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb… Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” Some of the words used to define or describe life are very interesting and worth exploring like being, existence, transcendence, eternal.  Words that can only have true meaning or purpose in context or in relation to God. Our “being”, meaning who we are and who we were created to be, comes directly from God, only from God. He and he alone has the power to give life, to create such beauty and give such purpose and meaning to life. “Being” then, in its most basic and concrete form, is simply being God’s precious and special creation. His beloved child, like Mary. Our existence, meaning the fact that we are human beings, real people and not robots, simply means to exist in God’s thoughts, to be in his presence, to exist in his heart. Existence came to be through God’s amazing grace and his eternal love seeking to share love outside his awesomeness. Our existence was not required, needed, or helpful in any way because God is infinitely perfect and perfectly complete in every way. We add nothing to God or to his greatness. Love simply caused our existence and calls us to simply love always. To love from deep within without placing any conditions. To love always by reaching out to another. Our transcendence, meaning the state of being or existence above and beyond the limits of the material or mortal experience, can only be explained through that which is divine. Life beyond the lived experience is to experience the beatific vision, to enjoy perpetual peace, to rejoice in the presence of the Almighty forever. Who else can transcend time and space, limits and conditions, life and existence other than God who is forever? God alone is eternal, infinite, endless, everlasting. God offers life to us through Jesus, the Eternal Word of God, who transcended death through the Victory of the Cross, who existed before the dawn of time and who took the form of our lowly human existence to restore life within us. Jesus graciously reminds us that life, meaning true life, can only exist through him, with him and in him. That unless we believe in the One God sent into our being to save us and transcended our death into eternal life; unless we receive him in Word and Sacrament into our limited existence, we simply cannot have life with in us.