The Solemnity of the Assumption
of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Isaiah, 61:10-11
Galatians, 4:4-7
Luke, 1:46-55

"For he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden."

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

On All Saints Day, 1950, Pope Pius XII issued Munificentissimus Deus, a papal bull solemnly proclaiming that the bodily assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was Catholic dogma. It proclaims: "the immaculate Mother of God, Mary Ever-Virgin, when the course of her earthly life was run, was assumed in body and soul to heavenly glory." The dogma hardly popped out of the blue. Since the fourth century various accounts of our Lady's death have found favour in the Church. By the late sixth century, a bit more than a century after the Church had agreed upon a basic doctrine of Christ, that our Lord had two natures, S. Gregory of Tour had developed the doctrine of the assumption of Mary's body. In the eighth century, S. John of Damascus, the last of the great early Greek fathers, gave a detailed account of the translation of our Lady's body into heaven. He reported that the origin of belief in the Assumption of Mary was the Church in Jerusalem. John wrote:

St. Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, at the Council of Chalcedon (451), made known to the Emperor Marcian and Pulcheria, who wished to possess the body of the Mother of God, that Mary died in the presence of all the Apostles, but that her tomb, when opened, upon the request of S. Thomas, was found empty; wherefrom the Apostles concluded that the body was taken up to heaven. ⁽¹⁾

The scriptural allusions in John's account are charming, especially the implication that Thomas would want to see and to touch the dead Mary, just as he had wanted to see and to touch the wounds of the risen Christ. Alas, John's account does not bear the authority of scripture.

Alas because many have objected to belief in the Assumption. This is saddening because not only is it true, but it is beautiful, joyful, and hopeful. It should solely strengthen the Church, but unfortunately the dogma has deepened her divisions. John Henry Cardinal Newman explained that Protestants have tried to form a Christianity from the Bible alone, a Christianity that dispenses with history, and this is understandable he said because "'the Christianity of history' is certainly 'not Protestantism.'" ⁽²⁾ By relying upon the Bible only, by limiting the capacity of the Holy Spirit to guide the Church into all truth as our Lord promised, some Christians reject the Assumption. Another, and similar, objection is that God has revealed to us everything that we need to know. In other words, it is the false belief that orthodox faith is static. To the contrary, the faith is alive and growing. The Holy Spirit is constantly leading the Church more deeply and fully into truth, goodness, and beauty. That is one reason why we need to be humble and cautious about some of the controversies in the Church today. People on both sides of the Church's contentious issues should allow for the possibility that they have got it wrong. As Cardinal Newman, perhaps more eloquently than anyone, explained, doctrine develops. Doctrine develops while respecting the continuum of faith and practice, while responding to pastoral need and enlightenment. Doctrine develops, but with deep reverence and regard for the Church's history. The dogma of the Assumption is authentic, true, holy doctrinal development, and it amplifies God's revelation in Jesus and his work in creation. The great fifth theologian S. Vincent of Lérins declared - somewhat problematically - that orthodoxy was 'what was believed everywhere, always and by all;' and he also compared the growth of Christian doctrine to the growth of a human body, so that Church doctrine could be both consolidated and developed through the years. ⁽³⁾ Through the ages, what Christians believe, the content of faith, grows and matures. In other words, orthodoxy is dynamic.

Belief in the Assumption follows obviously and logically and necessarily from belief in the gospel. Belief in the Assumption derives from belief that God became man. If we take our Lord's humanity seriously, then we have to venerate and to honour our Lady and hold fast to the doctrines about her. It is not just that devotion to our Lady makes Christianity gentler, earthier, and more accessible. It is not just that Mary-less Christianity becomes merry-less. When Christianity is Mary-less, the Church weakens; the Church seems inhuman and becomes brutal. "Detached from Mary, the Church is no longer seen as a person, a woman, Christ's Bride, and our Mother, but as an organization, a conspiracy of interfering clergymen." But even more upsetting, if we leave Mary out of Christianity, then eventually we have a Christless Christianity. ⁽⁴⁾ Once we toss off Mary, what eventually follows is rejection of Christ's divinity, rejection of his virginal conception, rejection of his bodily resurrection. ⁽⁵⁾ It is a logical progression. The person who was the tabernacle of God for nine months, the person whose immaculate flesh God used to make himself incarnate, would not be separated from Christ at her death. John of Damascus asks of our Lady, "How could the spotless tabernacle of thy body, the source of life [and the new creation], become a partaker of death?" ⁽⁶⁾ If we believe in the Ascension of our Lord, that our risen Lord went up to heaven, do we not think that he would act to raise his mother up to heaven? The hope of every Christian is to be raised body and soul to be with God, and if his mother is not with him, then who is? If there is no Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, how do we have any hope? So the Church teaches that just as Mary cooperated with God while here on earth and gave her being to God at the Annunciation, she is now cooperating with him in heaven, hearing our prayers and helping God to distribute his grace.

We need to regard our Lady as "the prototype of what [God] can fashion from human material which puts up no resistance to him." ⁽⁷⁾ Mary gives herself to God, just as Jesus gave himself to his Father, just as Jesus gave himself to humanity. In Gethsemane, Jesus cries, "Father take this cup of suffering away from me, but thy will be done." He does not want to suffer, but the Father's will is for his only beloved Son to submit to the cruelty of humanity and to suffer. Our Creator, the source of our life, humbles himself before us, his creature. It is the opposite of the human instinct. Human beings seek to glorify themselves and to avoid suffering. But if we want to be like God, we have to humble ourselves. If we do not recognize the virtue of humility, if we seek our own glory, we shall resent our Creator more than ever because he humbled himself, and we shall resent Mary more than ever because she humbled herself. ⁽⁸⁾ There is Incarnation, there is God in the world, there is eternal life because the Creator is humble, and because Mary is humble. In Jesus, in Mary, we see perfect humility, perfect obedience. Our Lady is what the Church is supposed to be, perfectly responsive to the Lord, completely self-giving. She is what each of us is called to be. In her, we see that lowliness is a mark of greatness. For her lowliness, our Lady has been exalted. For her lowliness, our Lady has been assumed up on high, to a dignity greater than the angels.

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

1. Frederick G. Holweck (transcribed by Janet Grayson), The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume II, (1907) by Robert Appleton Company, Online Edition (1999) by Kevin Knight.

2. Ian Ker, John Henry Newman, OUP (1988), p. 302. History has no record of relics of the body of our Lady. Since there are corporeal relics of virtually every other saint, it is clear that Christian history is pretty definite about the Assumption.

3. The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought, Adrian Hastings ed., OUP (2000), art. by John McDade, SJ, p. 163.

4. Ibid., p. 157.

5. Saward, p. 145. Newman: "Look at the Protestant countries which threw off all devotion to her three centuries ago, under the notion that to put her from their thoughts would be exalting the praises of her Son. Has that consequence really followed from their profane conduct toward her? Just the reverse - the countries, Germany, Switzerland, England, which so acted, have in great measure ceased to worship Him. . . "

6.John Saward, The Beauty of Holiness and the Holiness of Beauty, Ignatius (1997), p. 142.

7. Hans urs von Balthasar quoted by Saward, p. 147.

8. Saward, p. 146.