Mary is an example for us to lean into trust and receive what is ours from the hands of God
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
We are going to die.
In the month of November, we especially remember the dead in our prayers. But we need to remember that we, too, are going to die. How can “remembering our death” help us to live more deeply as disciples?
This week we read Romans 14, where St. Paul gives us a beautiful place to root our reflections: “None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself. For if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord; so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For this is why Christ died and came to life, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.”
It’s powerful and consoling to see this point of continuity: Jesus lived, died and rose again, so that the hand that we hold in our living can be the same hand that holds us in our dying. If we train ourselves to focus on that hand, we can have more peace.
In Luke 16, Jesus asks with respect to wealth: “If you are not trustworthy with what belongs to another, who will give you what is yours?” A lot of things in the spiritual life fall into place if we really ponder that last line: “Who will give you what is yours?”
Think about it: in the Garden of Eden, the devil tempted Adam and Eve to reach out and take what God was already going to give them. God always wanted them to be like God. But that gift could only be received, not taken. By trying to seize it, they lost what could have been theirs.
Then, in the temptation in the desert, the devil tried the same trick: He offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. But those kingdoms already belonged to Jesus! He knew He didn’t have to reach out and seize them; He would receive them from the Father’s hand. By waiting on the Father’s timing, He received what was properly His.
We live in the tension of that fall and that victory. Sometimes we try to reach out and grasp what can only be received — and in the grasping, deprive ourselves of what is ours. Sometimes we lean into trust and receive what is ours from the hands of God.
Mary’s “dormition” is one of the great icons of this truth. At the end of her earthly life, Mary’s passing to the next life was as simple as falling asleep. One last time, she placed her whole self — body and soul — into the hands of the Father. But, of course, she could do that so graciously because she had lived her whole life that way as well.
That’s where Mary can be our model. Placing our whole self — body and soul — into the hands of God is the inescapable reality of death. But that inescapable reality at the end of our life is also a daily invitation throughout our life. God invites us to live into the distinction between grasping and receiving each day.
That’s what it can mean to “remember our death” in our daily living. What if we spent the month of November working on remembering our dying and letting ourselves fall into the hands of God each day?
