By the power of His Cross and Resurrection, Christ bestowed in advance on Mary of Nazareth the grace of the immaculate conception. From Her immaculate flesh was born the immaculate flesh of the Son of God. He was to be the Lamb of sacrifice, without blemish or stain, to take the sins of the world away and to become the immaculate Host, the immaculate Eucharist.

From Her mortal body, Mary gave Christ a mortal body at His conception, but she later received His immortal Body in the Eucharist, as she met with the Twelve after the Ascension and broke bread with them in the Upper Room. As She had given him mortal flesh so that He could die in the body for us, He gave to Her His immortal flesh in the Eucharist and raised Her in an immortal body for Himself. Her Immaculate state was prepared for the Assumption through the Eucharist, through the power of Her Son’s death and Resurrection which is present and active in the Eucharist. So, by the same sacrificial love by which He created Her immaculate, He also raised Her from death and assumed Her into heaven.

Said differently, the Son of God became mortal and “became sin” (2 Cor 5:21) so that She could become immaculate, full of grace and immortal. Her assumption is Her share in His resurrection and ascension which was prepared by Her participation in the sacrifice of the Cross, that is, of the Mass, that is, of the Eucharist.

And what has been given to Mary is only the beginning of what Christ will give to all who believe in Him, not only with their lips, but with their hearts and their lives. If we truly believe in this way, the worthy reception of the Eucharist could be said to “inseminate” us with the life of the resurrection so that, even though we die, yet shall we be raised and assumed, ourselves finally made immaculate in heart and soul and body. The Assumption of Mary is the great sign that redeemed humanity and redeemed creation will be caught up into God. It is proof that heaven is not just for God, but also for us. It is proof that eternal death in the body and the soul is only for those who will choose it to their own confusion. By assuming the Woman, Mary, to be with Himself, the Man, Jesus, we know that the tragedy of Adam and Eve has been reversed and swallowed up in the epic victory of life over death, of love over sin. The fruit of the Tree of Life, that is, of the Cross, which is the Eucharist, has been and is being scattered across the earth. The children of Adam and Eve have become the children of God and of Mary.

As with Christ and with His Mother, this sublime mystery of grace can only become our own personal destiny through obedience to the will of God, that is, to the Truth. Obedience is perceived as odious to our fallen mind and will, no matter how enlightened we may think they are. It is seen to deprive me of many things I like or prefer: I will lose so much, I may think! But how much more will we lose by disobedience! What greater and lasting riches I will lose if I prefer the will of self or of another to the will of God! Someone might say: I will take my chances and do my own thing. But chance has nothing to do with it. To say that is foolish, folly in the bible meaning rejection of God’s will. We will not be assumed into heaven on our own terms, or on those of the world, but only on God’s. Even for Christ and for Mary, final victory and fulfilment of their lives was based on obedience to the Father: not on their perception or edition of the Father’s will, but on its true reality. Not my will, but Thine be done. Let it be done to me according to your word. God’s will for the human being, both body and soul, frees us from our illusions and frees us for the fascinating adventure of the fulness of redemption in body and soul. It frees us from chance and from confusion. It frees us to be truly free.

The Assumption is the endgame of obedience to God. It is the reversal of the expulsion from Paradise caused by original sin. Karl Marx opined that the perfection of humanity would be achieved by humanity itself through a process of revolutions across the horizontal axis of history. Mary of Nazareth has debunked that theory and any other which thinks that we humans can become supermen or superwomen by ourselves. Redemption and human perfection are a gift from on high received only by the obedient. God alone is our perfection. We become like God not by trying to dethrone Him but by letting Him place us with Himself on His own throne of glory. So, we can lay aside sin, illusion, chance and deceptive theories and instead resolve firmly to walk the liberating path of obedience to God. Then, we will discover along with Christ, Mary and all the saints that, in doing so, not even the sky will be our limit.