Meditation on the Feast of the Assumption: The New Ark

This has been a different Feast of the Assumption than normal for me.  About ten days ago I noticed that my mother’s pulse oximeter was reading a resting pulse in the 120’s.  She had not been feeling well for a while, and I was stumped as to why.  My first thought was that there was something wrong with the oximeter.  So I took out the blood pressure machine and measured her pressure, and there too the pulse was wildly high.  I did it a number of times to convince myself that it was true.  Her resting pulse was ranging from 105 to 125, and never slowing down.  I called the pacemaker doctor and made an appointment for weeks out.  He also had me activate a machine that communicates with the pacemaker and then sends the data back to office.  Later that day I received a call from their technician to pull up the appointment to the nearest opportunity.  That nearest opportunity was two days later.

That appointment was last week.  After interrogating the pacemaker, he found that my mother had been in A-Fib for three weeks, and there was no sign of it correcting.  He scheduled an Electrical Cardioversion procedure.  Someone described it to me as if stopping the heart and zapping it back up.  I don’t know if that is quite true, but they do zap the heart with electricity.  That procedure was scheduled and performed today, the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  I thought it quite coincidental that my mother might actually be dead for a second and brought back to life on the bodily assumption of Christ’s mother. 

It all went well.  She came right out and her pulse was a steady 70, and has been since the procedure.  Let us meditate on the Assumption.  First, today’s Gospel reading.

 

 

Mary set out

and traveled to the hill country in haste

to a town of Judah,

where she entered the house of Zechariah

and greeted Elizabeth.

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,

the infant leaped in her womb,

and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,

cried out in a loud voice and said,

“Blessed are you among women,

and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

And how does this happen to me,

that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,

the infant in my womb leaped for joy.

Blessed are you who believed

that what was spoken to you by the Lord

would be fulfilled.”

 

And Mary said:

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;

my spirit rejoices in God my Savior

for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed:

the Almighty has done great things for me

and holy is his Name.

He has mercy on those who fear him

in every generation.

He has shown the strength of his arm,

and has scattered the proud in their conceit.

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,

and has lifted up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things,

and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has come to the help of his servant Israel

for he has remembered his promise of mercy,

the promise he made to our fathers,

to Abraham and his children forever.”

 

Mary remained with her about three months

and then returned to her home.  

~Lk 1:39-56

 

That is one of my favorite passages in Luke.  Dr. Scott Hahn beautifully explains the Biblical basis for the Assumption of Mary. 

 

The Blessed Mother, carrying Jesus in her womb, is the new Ark of the Covenant!

 

Meditation: “And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”

 

For the hymn, let’s go with the lovely “Immaculate Mary.”

 

Let me take this moment to thank God for today’s outcome with my mother’s procedure.  And to thank all my friends who helped pray with me for this outcome.