What Is the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary?
Monday, August 15, 2022, is the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Here are some thoughts on this holy day from Father Edward Hathaway, the Basilica’s Rector:
Monday, August 15, is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Our Basilica, dedicated to Mary, celebrates her solemn feasts with particular joy.
Dating back as early as the fifth century, the Assumption is one of the oldest holy days in the Church. It recalls both the happy departure of Our Lady from this earthly life and the lifting of her body into heaven. It provides a foretaste of our own bodily resurrection at the end of time. 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.
On Nov. 1,1950, Pope Pius XII declared that it is a dogma of the Church “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.” The Assumption is a truth of salvation history that requires our belief and assent. In doing so, we imitate Christ in honoring His mother.
To help Catholics understand more about the Assumption, here are some helpful, inspiring and informative passages:
“Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.” The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son’s Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians: In giving birth you kept your virginity; in your Dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life. You conceived the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death. – The Catechism of the Catholic Church (#966):
“It was fitting that she, who had kept her virginity in childbirth, should keep her own body free from all corruption even after death. It was fitting that she, who had carried the Creator as a child at her breast, should dwell in the divine tabernacles…it was fitting that God’s Mother should possess what belongs to her Son, and that she should be honored by every creature as the Mother and the Handmaid of God.” – St. John Damascene
“And with regard to ourselves, how deservedly do we keep the feast of the Assumption with all solemnity. What reasons for rejoicing, what motives for exultation have we on this most beautiful day! The presence of Mary illumines the entire world so that even the holy city above has now a more dazzling splendor from the light of this virginal Lamp. With good reason, thanksgiving and the voice of praise resound today throughout the courts of Heaven…let us not complain for here we do not have a lasting city, but we seek one that is to come, the same which the Blessed Mary entered today.” – St. Bernard of Clairvaux
“One wonders if this could not be the last of the great Truths of Mary to be defined by the Church. Anything else might seem to be an anticlimax after she is declared to be in Heaven, body and soul. But actually there is one other truth left to be defined, and that is that she is the Mediatrix, under Her Son, of all graces. As St. Paul speaks of the Ascension of Our Lord as the prelude to His intercession for us, so we, fittingly, should speak of the Assumption of Our Lady as a prelude to her intercession for us. First, the place, Heaven; then, the function, intercession. The nature of her role is not to call Her Son’s attention to some need, in an emergency unnoticed by Him, nor is it to “win” a difficult consent. Rather it is to unite herself to His compassionate Mercy and give a human voice to His Infinite Love. The main ministry of Mary is to incline men’s hearts to obedience to the Will of Her Divine Son. Her last recorded words at Cana are still her words in the Assumption: “Whatsoever He shall say to you, that do ye.” – Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
“Although the New Testament does not explicitly affirm Mary’s Assumption, it offers a basis for it because it strongly emphasized the Blessed Virgin’s perfect union with Jesus’ destiny. This union, which is manifested, from the time of the Savior’s miraculous conception, in the Mother’s participation in her Son’s mission and especially in her association with His redemptive sacrifice, cannot fail to require a continuation after death. Perfectly united with the life and saving work of Jesus, Mary shares His heavenly destiny in body and soul.” – St. John Paul II
In December 2020, Father Nicholas Blank, a former Parochial Vicar at the Basilica of Saint Mary, offered a beautiful reflection on the Assumption of Mary during our Communal First Saturday for December. Click on the podcast player above to listen.