The Assumption
The doctrine of the Assumption says that at the end of her life on
earth Mary was assumed, body and soul, into heaven, just as Enoch,
Elijah, and perhaps others had been before her. It’s also necessary to
keep in mind what the Assumption is not. Some people think Catholics
believe Mary "ascended" into heaven. That’s not correct. Christ, by His
own power,
ascended into heaven. Mary was
assumed or
taken up into
heaven by God. She didn’t do it under her own power.
The Church has never formally defined whether she died or not, and
the integrity of the doctrine of the Assumption would not be impaired if
she did not in fact die, but the almost universal consensus is that she
did die. Pope Pius XII, in
Munificentissimus Deus (1950),
defined that Mary, "after the completion of her earthly life" (note the
silence regarding her death), "was assumed body and soul into the glory
of heaven."
The possibility of a bodily assumption before the Second Coming is
suggested by Matthew 27:52–53: "[T]he tombs also were opened, and many
bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out
of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and
appeared to many." Did all these Old Testament saints die and have to be
buried all over again? There is no record of that, but it is recorded
by early Church writers that they were assumed into heaven, or at least
into that temporary state of rest and happiness often called "paradise,"
where the righteous people from the Old Testament era waited until
Christ’s resurrection (cf. Luke 16:22, 23:43; Heb. 11:1–40; 1 Pet. 4:6),
after which they were brought into the eternal bliss of heaven.
No Remains
There is also what might be called the negative historical proof for
Mary’s Assumption. It is easy to document that, from the first,
Christians gave homage to saints, including many about whom we now know
little or nothing. Cities vied for the title of the last resting place
of the most famous saints. Rome, for example, houses the tombs of Peter
and Paul, Peter’s tomb being under the high altar of St. Peter’s
Basilica in Rome. In the early Christian centuries relics of saints were
zealously guarded and highly prized. The bones of those martyred in the
Coliseum, for instance, were quickly gathered up and preserved—there
are many accounts of this in the biographies of those who gave their
lives for the faith.
It is agreed upon that Mary ended her life in Jerusalem, or perhaps
in Ephesus. However, neither those cities nor any other claimed her
remains, though there are claims about possessing her (temporary) tomb.
And why did no city claim the bones of Mary? Apparently because there
weren’t any bones to claim, and people knew it. Here was Mary, certainly
the most privileged of all the saints, certainly the most saintly, but
we have no record of her bodily remains being venerated anywhere.
Complement to the Immaculate Conception
Over the centuries, the Fathers and the Doctors of the Church spoke
often about the fittingness of the privilege of Mary’s Assumption. The
speculative grounds considered include Mary’s freedom from sin, her
Motherhood of God, her perpetual virginity, and—the key—her union with
the salvific work of Christ.
The dogma is especially fitting when one examines the honor that was
given to the ark of the covenant. It contained the manna (bread from
heaven), stone tablets of the ten commandments (the word of God), and
the staff of Aaron (a symbol of Israel’s high priesthood). Because of
its contents, it was made of incorruptible wood, and Psalm 132:8 said,
"Arise, O Lord, and go to thy resting place, thou and the ark of thy
might." If this vessel was given such honor, how much more should Mary
be kept from corruption, since she is the new ark—who carried the real
bread from heaven, the Word of God, and the high priest of the New
Covenant, Jesus Christ.
Some argue that the new ark is not Mary, but the body of Jesus. Even
if this were the case, it is worth noting that 1 Chronicles 15:14
records that the persons who bore the ark were to be sanctified. There
would be no sense in sanctifying men who carried a box, and not
sanctifying the womb who carried God himself! After all, wisdom will not
dwell "in a body under debt of sin" (Wis. 1:4 NAB).
But there is more than just fittingness. After all, if Mary is
immaculately conceived, then it would follow that she would not suffer
the corruption in the grave, which is a consequence of sin [Gen. 3:17,
19].
Mary’s Cooperation
Mary freely and actively cooperated in a unique way with God’s plan
of salvation (Luke 1:38; Gal. 4:4). Like any mother, she was never
separated from the suffering of her Son (Luke 2:35), and Scripture
promises that those who share in the sufferings of Christ will share in
his glory (Rom. 8:17). Since she suffered a unique interior martyrdom,
it is appropriate that Jesus would honor her with a unique glory.
All Christians believe that one day we will all be raised in a
glorious form and then caught up and rendered immaculate to be with
Jesus forever (1 Thess. 4:17; Rev. 21:27). As the first person to say
"yes" to the good news of Jesus (Luke 1:38), Mary is in a sense the
prototypical Christian, and received early the blessings we will all one
day be given.
NIHIL OBSTAT: I have concluded that the materials
presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.
Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004
IMPRIMATUR: In accord with 1983 CIC 827
permission to publish this work is hereby granted.
+Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004
(source: http://www.catholic.com/tracts/immaculate-conception-and-assumption)
