If you want to know where you’re headed, look at where your Mother has gone.

Mary is the first fully redeemed human being to share in the fullness of the glory of her Son’s Resurrection. As a matter of our faith, we believe that her body didn’t see corruption. And that’s because her life was already so united to Christ that death couldn’t hold her, death couldn’t take its full effect on her. That fact stems from her fiat, her “yes” at the Annunciation to standing at the foot of the Cross. Throughout it all, our Blessed Mother stayed close to Jesus. And where He went, she followed.

In the Book of Revelation, we hear about a woman “clothed with the sun.” That’s not just something poetic, it’s not just a beautiful line in a story; instead, it’s a portrait of a soul that is so filled with the presence of God that she reflects His light entirely. That’s Mary, that’s Momma. In religious art, Mary is often depicted as the moon that reflects the light of the sun. That’s exactly what this is pointing to. And that reality is supposed to be ours as well.

We are also supposed to be clothed with the sun, so transformed by the light of Christ that His light emanates from us in everything that we do. If we strive for that, then the reality that Mary enjoys now is not beyond our reach. But Mary’s holiness isn’t just the result of her being especially favored by God; it’s not about privilege. Mary’s holiness has its roots in her willingness to surrender, in her receptivity to being an instrument for God to utilize to bring salvation to the world, and in her desire to love Him with all her heart.

So, if we look at the Assumption through that lens, we see that this feast is about a promise: if we strive to live as Mary lived, saying “yes” to God in the ordinary and extraordinary moments of our lives, letting God’s grace shape everything we do, then we too will share fully in Christ’s victory over sin and death.

Today is not only about rejoicing that Mary is in Heaven; today is about responding to the invitation to fix our eyes there, to walk the same road that Mary walked, and to allow her to teach us how to stay close to her Son until we, too, are lifted into His presence forever. And when we wonder where our journey ends, we simply need to look to where our Mother has gone and willingly choose to follow her to her Son.

Image: Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Croatia. Wikimedia Commons. Used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license