Mary’s Assumption
By: Joe Moreaux
Today is the Blessed Solemnity of Our Lady's Assumption into Heaven! A holy day of obligation for all Christians.
Protestants blaspheme Our Lady by denying this sacred event and privilege granted to the Blessed Mother. This is also connected to their blasphemy of denying her Immaculate Conception.
They will say they want explicit proof found in Scripture alone, since their foundational heresy consists in Sola Scriptura, invented by mere men in the 16th century. Since they begin by denying the teachings of Our Lord and the Apostles, this leads them to denying the truths concerning the Blessed Virgin.
Interestingly, in Acts 15:1-11, we see St. Peter make a binding declaration without any reference to Sacred Scripture or even Sacred Tradition. This demonstrates the authority invested by Our Lord to His Church in her leadership.
The dogma of Pope Pius XII ought to suffice in this regard. However, since the Protestants embrace pride and heresy over humble submission to the pillar of truth, they end up lost in a spiral of error.
May Christians make reparation for all heretics who promote lies concerning Our Queen and Our Mother, and also for all the lukewarm who do not celebrate her Feast Days.
Mary's Assumption is a beautiful foreshadowing for all believers who will one day have glorified bodies in Heaven.
The dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary states that she was taken up body and soul into Heaven at the end of her earthly life. Assumption is different from the word Ascension. Our Lord ascended by His own power due to His very nature as God. Mary, on the other hand, was assumed by the grace of God, meaning He took her to Heaven.
Theologically, bodily death and corruption are the consequence of the Fall of Adam and Eve. "For you are dust, and to dust you shall return," Genesis 3:19. If one was absent of Original and actual sin, then there would be no need for bodily death. "Nor wilt Thou give thy holy one to see corruption," Psalm 15:10. This is one reason why the early Church gave Our Lady the title of the New Eve, since her condition was seen through the lens of being pre-Fall.
There is no explicit reference to the historical event of Mary's Assumption in Sacred Scripture. One reason for this may be that it had not yet happened while the New Testament was being composed. For example, when St. Paul is writing his letters to the churches, if Mary is still alive, then he would not mention her being assumed into Heaven. As well, the Gospels served the purpose of focusing solely on the life, death, and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, not on events which followed afterwards.
We know that God is not opposed to assuming holy creatures into Heaven. "Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven," 2 Kings 2:11. "By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God had taken him," Hebrews 11:5.
Mary is proclaimed Kecharitomene, the Fully Graced One, by St. Gabriel the Archangel in Luke 1:28. "Hail, Full of Grace, the Lord is with thee." This term in Greek indicates her sinlessness, as she was saved preemptively by God in a unique way due to her special role as it relates to Our Lord. The Church dogmatically declared her as immaculately conceived, and so she did not have any trace of Original or actual sin. Since she was without the stain of sin, it makes sense that she would be assumed body and soul.
Another reason possibly for Mary being assumed into Heaven body and soul is so she could return to Earth body and soul, at God's command to bring messages pertaining to the world and salvation, pleading with mankind to repent of its sins and to prepare for chastisements. She has done this at Quito, Ecuador; Guadalupe, Mexico; La Salette, France; Lourdes, France; Fatima, Portugal; etc.
Mary is also the Ark of New Covenant. As the original ark contained the tablets of the Commandments, the staff of Aaron, and the manna from Heaven, Mary's womb contained the fulfillment of all these with Our Lord: He is the Lawgiver of the New Covenant, the Word made flesh; the Good Shepherd and the High Priest; the Bread of Life in the Eucharist. Mary then is the prototype of the Ark fulfilled. This is important in relation to her Assumption.
In Apocalypse 11:19, St. John sees a vision of the Ark: "And the temple of God was opened in heaven: and the ark of his testament was seen in his temple, and there were lightnings, and voices, and an earthquake, and great hail." In the next verse, 12:1, he sees the Woman: And a great sign appeared in heaven: "A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars." So when he sees the ark, he is seeing the Woman, who is the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Woman prophecied in Genesis 3:15, and whom is titled by Our Lord in John 2:4 and 19:26. St. John sees her bodily in Heaven, noting her head and feet.
Early Church Fathers also spoke of her Assumption as well, among them St. Epiphanius, St. Juvenal, St. Andrew of Crete, St. John Damascene, St. Modestus, St. Gregory of Tours, etc. St. Epiphanius, 4th century, noted: "How will holy Mary not possess the kingdom of heaven with her flesh, since she... remained stainless?," and, "her holy body... dwells among those who enjoy the repose of the blessed." St. Juvenal, also 4th century, noted that her tomb was empty.
There are no bone relics of Mary, since she was assumed into Heaven. Primitive liturgies show a feast day for the Dormition of Mary which developed into the Feast of the Assumption by the 8th century. His Holiness Pope Pius XII officially dogmatized the Assumption in 1950, thus it is a Dogma bound in Heaven that we must believe as Christians. He solemnly proclaimed that the “Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-Virgin Mary, having completed the course of Her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory."
