Following is a post from guest blogger, Jackie Walker. Visit her Web site at www.religiontranscends.com. And watch for an upcoming post on her site from Sister Julie.
On August 15, Catholics will celebrate the feast day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This feast is a celebration of the Catholic dogma that Mary was “assumed into heaven body and soul.” As one of the principal Marian feasts and one of the 12 great feasts of the Catholic year, August 15 is a holy day of obligation.
Since the early days of the church, Christians have celebrated the “Memory of Mary” at both the place where Orthodox Christians believe she died (the Place of Dormition in Ephesus) and the place where she was buried (the Tomb of Mary in Israel).
In the 5th century, the Roman emperor Marcian requested Mary’s relics be enshrined in Constantinople; it was then that bishops explained that, aside from her burial shroud, there were no existing relics of Mary. Rather, when the disciples opened her tomb after she had been buried three days, they found no traces of her. This led them to believe she had been taken up (or assumed) into heaven. At that point, the celebration became less about death and more about her assumption into heaven, dead or alive.
By the 13th century, most Catholic leaders accepted that she had been assumed into heaven. But while the belief as accepted, it did not become official dogma of the Roman Catholic Church until 1950.
Around 1946, Pope Pius XII had asked the bishops whether they felt Mary’s assumption should become dogma. When they replied with a resounding yes, he issued the following summary in his encyclical Munificentissimus Deus on November 1, 1950:
The revered Mother of God, from all eternity joined in a hidden way with Jesus Christ in one and the same degree of predestination, immaculate in her conception, a most perfect virgin in her divine motherhood, the noble associate of the divine redeemer who has won a complete triumph over sin and its consequences, was finally granted, as the supreme culmination of her privileges, that she should be preserved free from the corruption of the tomb and that, like her Son, having overcome death, she might be taken up body and soul to the glory of heaven where, as queen, she sits in splendor at the right hand of her Son, the immortal King of the ages. (Concord Encyclopedia of World Religions, 2006)
Such speech exemplifies the idea that God would not allow a corrupt death after a pure birth and that, since Mary was so close to Jesus in life, she must be near him (body and soul) in heaven.
Today, Catholics commemorate this event with a feast. This commemoration is not meant solely to remember the past, but is also intended as a look to the future. It is hoped that by leading a life as Mary did, with obedience and faith, will lead to the same outcome – being taken into heaven with the Blessed Virgin upon death.
Today, a church at Gethsemane sits at the site of Mary’s tomb. According to oca.org, that church holds one of the most solemn ceremonies to celebrate the Assumption. They remember her burial by lifting up what is believed to be her burial shroud, then participating in a procession to the Gethsemane church a few days later.
Links:
For more information about the Assumption of Mary, visit http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/meditations/assumption.html.
For information about other Marian feasts, visit www.wf-f.org/MarianFeast.html.
On the same day that Roman Catholics celebrate the Assumption of Mary, Orthodox Christians commemorate her death or dormition. Read about this similar (yet quite different) remembrance at www.religiontranscends.com/category/christianity.
Jackie Walker is a freelance religion writer in Chicago, Illinois. She is a regular contributor to Relate magazine and has worked for a number of religion publishers in the past, including Guideposts, Relevant Media Group, and World Wisdom.
Religion Transcends is a Web site devoted to providing news about world religions – without prejudice. It includes commentary, reporting, and education to eliminate misconceptions about religions and to give context and meaning to stories in the news. Visit Religion Transcends today at www.religiontranscends.com.
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Ray 08.14.08 at 8:08 pm
Great informational post, thanks Sister Julie!
Sister Julie 08.15.08 at 4:00 am
Jackie did a beautiful job writing this post. She is my first guest blogger and I’m hoping she’ll be back again!
Sister Julie 08.15.08 at 4:17 am
Happy Feast Day to all!
Melissa 08.15.08 at 5:56 pm
We got to sing some really nice Marian hymns during the mass. I love singing Hail Holy Queen. I didn’t see too many in church; the dream cruise is going on right now and it seems like everyone is there.
Regina 08.16.08 at 6:34 am
So, how do you all feel about Assumption and Ascension, given that most of us no longer conceive of Heaven as a physical place to which Mary and Jesus’s physical bodies could have been physically taken up? Maybe I should post this question on my own blog, but it’s very new and so far no one has commented on anything I’ve written … and I really want to know what others think about this one.
Regina
Another Sister Julie, CSSF 08.16.08 at 9:04 am
The church I attended had very few people and NO MUSIC (Neither did the next Mass!) So sad! This feast is huge in Italy, esp in Dad’s home town, it’s the patronal feast for my province, and it’s a family feast, too (My sister awoke from her coma on Aug. 15, 1965 after brain cancer surgery that she was not supposed to survive. In fact, she claims that “Blessed Mother woke me up.”) I’m used to liturgically partying, I mean, really celebrating this day.
I’ll never forget how our pastor explained the difference between Ascension and Assumption to us. He lined up a coule of stools and climbed up them on his own power–that was the Ascension. Then he bent over from that perch (Yes, all the adults gasped!) and pretended to pull someone up–That was the Assumption. The kids got, he didn’t break a hip, and we adults all let out our collective breath. Yeah, I’ll never forget the difference between the two feasts!
Sister Julie 08.18.08 at 4:03 am
Hi Regina, Thanks for writing. There’s a good discussion of Mary’s Assumption into heaven on The Catholic Community Forum that you might find interesting. I’ll also see if the “guest blogger” would like to comment since she’s done some research in this area.
Jackie Walker 08.18.08 at 6:26 am
Happy to respond!
Here are my thoughts, Regina:
Personally, I don’t think believing that Heaven is not a physical place has any real affect on belief in the Assumption of Mary’s soul. Let’s say you believe Heaven is just a place where souls go – then Mary’s soul was just assumed into that place. I think the hard part that we have to wrestle with is that the doctrine states she was assumed “body and soul” into heaven. We can get over the soul part. But what about the body? If Heaven is not a physical place, where did the body go?
Here, I believe we have a couple of choices:
a. Mary’s body never really left Earth. It was perhaps misplaced or lost or hidden. (Taking this option means you don’t entirely believe in the Assumption.)
b. Mary’s body was taken from physical, material form and transformed into something new and different during the Assumption.
I think those who believe in the Assumption can cling to the latter option, since it jibes with everything else we’re taught about our bodies after death. Take this verse 1 Corinthians 15:39-49, for example:
“All flesh is not the same: Human beings have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.
“So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
“If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.”
This is the same verse people use to justify cremation. The human, physical body is no longer needed and is transformed into something entirely new. So no matter what you do to it – burn it, bury it, perhaps assume it? – it will still be changed into something else.
Thus I think one who believes in the Assumption can think it likely that Mary’s body and soul were snatched up into Heaven (the non-material realm where souls go after death). And Mary’s body could have been taken up with her soul, just transformed from an earthly body to a heavenly body.
Regina 08.18.08 at 4:49 pm
Wow. That’s excellent, Jackie! I am so glad I asked. Sr. Julie, I will go check out that forum discussion, too.
Thanks!
Regina