Thanks!
Regina

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.

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!

Regina