Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
On August 15 (Thursday) we celebrate the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Assumption is the oldest feast day of Our Lady, we don't know how it first came to be celebrated. As evidenced by the writings of many early Church fathers, Christians have believed for more than a millennium that the Blessed Virgin was assumed into heaven.
Venerable Pope Pius XII confirmed this belief about the Virgin Mary as the perennial teaching of the Church when he defined it formally as a dogma of Catholic faith in 1950, “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.” “Assumption” is different than “Ascension” because one is passive (i.e. one is assumed) and the other is active (i.e. one ascends). It is by the power of God Mary was assumed.
Is it Biblical? Along with the Scriptures, the Catholic Church holds Tradition, literally, “the handing on” as also Sacred and Spirit-inspired.
The doctrine of Mary’s Assumption is based on what is called a theological conclusion because of other references about her in the Scriptures. For example, at the Annunciation the Angel Gabriel declared Mary to be “full of Grace” and “God’s highly favored daughter.” (Lk 1:28) Mary conceived Jesus, the Son of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit as a consequence of accepting God’s plan for her. Further, when Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth, who herself was pregnant with John the Baptist, she addressed Mary with the words, “Who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk 1:42) All these biblical statements led the Church to conclude that because of her role as Mother of the Messiah, Mary would be preserved from corruption of the body.
Although the bodily assumption of Mary is not explicitly recorded in Scripture, Catholic Tradition identifies her with the “woman clothed with the sun” who is described in the 12th chapter of the Book of Revelation.
The feast days of the Church are not just the commemoration of historical events; they do not look only to the past. They look to the present and to the future and give us an insight into our own relationship with God. The Assumption looks to eternity and gives us hope that we, too, will follow Our Lady when our life is ended.
Fr. John Samuel
