Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

 On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII had defined in his Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus— to be a dogma of faith: “We pronounce, declare and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma that the immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul to heavenly glory.”

The pope proclaimed this dogma only after a broad consultation of bishops, theologians and laity. There were few dissenting voices. What the pope solemnly declared was already a common belief in the Catholic Church.

You see, there’s a close relationship between the mystery of the Holy Eucharist and the mystery of the Mother of God which sheds light on her Assumption into heaven.

“The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” Our Lord, the bread of life, is the eternal Word made flesh. “The Word became flesh,” St. John tells us right at the beginning of his Gospel.

 This greatest of mysteries, by far the most staggering and momentous miracle that has ever occurred, the single greatest thing that God has ever done — the eternal, infinite, pure Spirit that is the Divine Nature joining to himself our frail, fragile bodily nature, our DNA and chromosomes, our cells and fluids, tissues and organs and systems — this mystery of mysteries, that we call the Incarnation, took place within Mary’s body.

Not only within her body, but from her body. Like every other unborn child, Jesus’ flesh was knit together in his mother’s womb from substance taken from Mary’s own body. The flesh that hung on the cross for our salvation, the flesh and blood given to us to eat and drink in the Eucharist, took substance within and from the body of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

“She gave milk to our bread,” says St. Augustine. “That which we consecrate is the Body born from the Virgin,” says St. Ambrose in a passage quoted by St. Thomas Aquinas.

Scripture does not give an account of Mary’s Assumption into heaven. Nevertheless, Revelation 12 speaks of a woman who is caught up in the battle between good and evil. Many see this woman as God’s people. Since Mary best embodies the people of both Old and New Testaments, her Assumption can be seen as an exemplification of the woman’s victory.

Furthermore, in 1 Corinthians 15:20, Paul speaks of Christ’s resurrection as the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

Since Mary is closely associated with all the mysteries of Jesus’ life, it is not surprising that the Holy Spirit has led the Church to believe in Mary’s share in his glorification. So close was she to Jesus on earth, she must be with him body and soul in heaven.

The bottom line is that Mary, and Mary alone, is wholly united with her Son in an absolutely unique way, extending to every aspect of his life and his mission. It’s the reason for her Immaculate Conception, her perpetual virginity, and her Assumption into heaven. The Lord has done great things for her, and we join with all prior Christian generations in calling her “blessed.”

And yet Mary’s unique privileges are meant not to exclude us, but to beckon to us, to invite us. Mary reigns in heaven not only as our Queen, but as our mother and as our model — the model disciple. We are invited not only to venerate her, but to imitate her in the hope of coming to share in some measure in the gifts she has in the highest degree.

None of us were conceived without sin. But all of us who were baptized were washed clean of original sin and hope to share the sinlessness of Mary and all the saints in heaven.

None of us will be assumed bodily into heaven at the end of our earthly life. But all of us share the hope of participating, body and soul, with Mary and Jesus in the eternal joys of the new heavens and the new earth, after the general resurrection and the Last Judgment.

None of us have shared in the kind of union with Jesus that a mother has with her child. But we are invited, here today, and in every Mass, to a union with Christ that defies comprehension. “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him,” and “I will raise him up on the last day.” Amen.

Credits: Dominus Est,

National Catholic Register

Image: “The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary” by Mariano Salvador Maella (1739-1819)