Reflections on the Assumption

Though it was only in 1950 that the Feast of the Assumption was defined by Pope Pius XII, Catholics have believed that “having completed the course of her earthly life, the Blessed Virgin Mary was taken body and soul to heaven,” going back to Patristic times.

Various factors, however, worked against the formal establishment of the feast.

Ecumenists find it awkward in dialogue with Protestants concerned about “Mariolatry.” And even the Orthodox who might agree with the substance of the dogma often don’t like that the pope defined it.

High Mariology focused on Mary’s uniqueness. The Assumption was the special privilege of the one who was immaculately conceived (another ecumenical stumbling block). The body of the sinless woman who bore the Body of Christ could not suffer corruption.

General religious illiteracy, coupled with a strong emphasis on canon law, focused more on Catholics attending Mass on a holy day of obligation and less on why what happened has significance for Catholics.

And then there was the absolute 1991 lunacy by the American Catholic bishops that August 15 is a holy day unless it falls on a Saturday or Monday (a kind of reverse “Monday federal holiday” rule).

Does anybody wonder why, apart from the overall decline of  Mass attendance, participation in the liturgy on the Assumption is even worse?

In view of all those considerations, let’s consider a fuller theological perspective for this Solemnity.

The Assumption is not some isolated dogma, merely to be taken on faith as if it lacked coherence with the rest of salvation history.  It is, in fact, a clear and substantial component of that salvation history.

St. Paul emphasizes that the Resurrection of Christ – his physical rising from the dead in a transformed but real human body – is essential, indeed indispensable, to the Gospel.  The Apostle to the Gentiles argues that the Resurrection – not Jesus’s Passion and Death, is the acid test for Christianity.  He’s blunt: “if Christ is not raised from the dead, your faith is in vain.” (I Corinthians 15:14)

The first pages of the Bible (Genesis 3:2) demonstrate that death is the consequence of sin.  Death is not God’s arbitrary punishment for sin, as if he could have selected another.  It’s elementary: one cannot cut oneself off from the source of life – God – without dying.

Read more at The Catholic Thing