Perfection and fulfillment are two of the goals our human nature is tending to achieve not only when it comes to special goals, but also in daily work and routine. We can never totally obtain perfection or fulfillment, because of our frailty and limited resources, but it seems that we are not content with anything less than the realization of this longing. As a matter of fact, this ambitious tendency in our soul only shows that we are creatures of God in whose being the Highest has established a capacity for the always greater and the always more perfect. In the end, our striving for perfection and fulfillment is nothing else than a proof that our origin is God and that He is also our ultimate goal.. “Homo capax Dei”  -- man has the capacity for God. St. Augustine has described our longing for Him in the famous phrase: “Our heart is ever restless until it finds its rest in Thee!”

For our broken nature, perfection is always only a goal to reach, never a possession or a security. In this valley of tears, the fulfillment of a longing will never last and only creates an ever greater desire for more and deeper experiences. Only with the help of God’s Grace, only with the healing of the wound of sin in our being, only with the water of baptism and the actual and habitual graces bestowed on us can we ever hope to live up to the words of the Blessed Lord: “Be perfect, as my Father in Heaven is perfect.” The only lasting fulfillment can come from a life with God, as a child of God and a member of Christ’s mystical and visible Body, Holy Mother Church. Without this supernatural support, our desire for fulfillment will inexorably go astray and we will worship gods that may promise perfection and fulfillment, but only offer pride and ambition. God alone can give what our human soul is created for, God alone can elevate it to its true grandeur, God alone will be able to fill the universal horizon hidden in our soul according to the words of St. Thomas Aquinas: “Anima est quodammodo omnia” -- the soul in a certain sense is everything!”

There is one created being, one extraordinary human that shows the blatant truth of these reflections very clearly to all: Mary, Mother of God, the Immaculate Virgin who was granted a unique bodily assumption into the glory of Heaven. From the first moment of her existence in the womb of her mother Anne, God made her perfect, pure, immaculate, beautiful, and radiant. Preparing her for the wonderful destiny of becoming the vessel of Divine Incarnation, the Eternal One preserved her from original sin from the first moment of her life, and gave her the privilege to be and to stay for ever “full of grace,” immune to the consequences of the old stain of sin soiling humanity, and faithful to her holy nature through all trials of her earthly struggles. All perfect, all graceful, all brilliant from her purity and beauty of soul and body, she is the recreation of God’s Grace, the new Eve, the Mother of the God-man Jesus Christ, and, through Him, with Him and in Him, the co-redemptrix and mediatrix for every one of us and our whole race. She is the beacon of Perfection, bestowed on her for her humility and docility in the Divine plan.

Therefore, and in logical consequence of the gift of supernatural Grace given to her, she is also the first and foremost fulfillment of the destiny of the human race. Because of the perfection she received from above and the total obedience in opening herself to this unique privilege, she could preserve herself immaculate, pure and strong unto the last. What is perfect does not need to change, it will neither waver nor deteriorate, it will not break nor crack in moments of distress and pressure. The Virgin Mother was humble and docile in her submission to the will of God. She did what she was meant to do. She fulfilled her destiny by simply being the handmaid of the Lord. For this reason, the privilege of perfection was never withdrawn and neither her soul nor her body suffered the changes sin has brought into this world. The end drawing near, she entered eternity with the same spiritual and corporal perfection she had once received to become the Mother of God. Her glorious Assumption was the perfect fulfillment of her own immaculate life and, at the same time, a Divine promise of that the eternal fulfillment the will merciful God grant to all those who collaborate with the graces He has left in the generous hands of the Church. The desire for perfection and fulfillment is always in us. The beginning and the end of the existence of the Blessed Virgin Mary reveal that God, who has given us this desire by creation, will accomplish it by Grace. Unlike the Queen of Heaven, we may need forgiveness and purification, but if we are ever renewing our humble faithfulness, we also, like her, one day will receive perfection and fulfillment for ever!

Msgr. R. Michael Schmitz