The Assumption of Our Lady: Body and Soul, Glorious Forever

“Today, in union with the whole Church, we celebrate the triumph of the Mother, Daughter, and Spouse of God. … We can be happy that Our Lady, after accompanying Jesus from Bethlehem to the Cross, is now next to her Son, body and soul, glorious forever.”

St. Josemaria Escriva
Christ is Passing By, no. 176

As a consequence of her Divine Motherhood, Our Lady had special privileges. One was that she was immaculately conceived, preserved free from all stain of sin. And another was that it was not fitting, said St. Thomas Aquinas, that her body would undergo any form of corruption because she had been preserved immaculate from sin. It’s thought that she was assumed into heaven. This was almost universally believed for more than a thousand years, although the Bible contains no mention of the Assumption of Our Lady into Heaven.

The first Church writer to speak about it was St. Gregory of Tours in 594. On May 1st, 1946, Pope Pius XII asked all the bishops in the world for their opinion about the Assumption of Our Lady into Heaven, and whether it should be defined as a dogma of faith. [All] the bishops replied in the affirmative.

On the 1st of November 1950, the Feast of All Saints, Pope Pius XII declared as a revealed dogma, a dogma revealed by God, that “Mary, the Immaculate [perpetually] Virgin Mother of God, after the completion of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heaven” (Pius XII, Apostolic Constitution, Munificentissimus Deus Defining the Dogma of the Assumption, November 1, 1950).

MYSTERY OF DEATH

We don’t have any knowledge of the day or the year or the manner of Our Lady’s death. Some dates which have been assigned to her death vary between three and fifteen years after Our Lord’s Ascension. During this time, she would have been cared for by St. John and have attended his Masses.

Both Jerusalem and Ephesus have been mentioned as places where she may have died. But we don’t really know. It’s thought that she died in the presence of the Apostles. There’s a lot of devotion that’s given to what’s called the “dormition” of Our Lady on her deathbed.

There’s also a belief that after her burial, her tomb, when opened, was found empty. Therefore, it was concluded that her body had been “taken up or assumed into Heaven” (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 966).

When the Church defines the Assumption of Our Lady into Heaven, it doesn’t define the manner of her death or when it took place. All those details we will find out in heaven.

NEW ARK OF THE COVENANT

St. Gregory of Tours said the rationale for this tradition lies in the fact that she was preserved free from original sin. He said it’s inconceivable that Our Lady’s sinless body, likened to the Ark of the Covenant, which was made of incorruptible wood, should decay in the grave.

There’s a text from the Psalms that says: “Arise…you and the ark of your strength” (Ps. 132:8). It was understood to mean that it was God’s will that as Christ had ascended into heaven, so too Our Lady would be received into heaven.

THROUGH GOD’S POWER

Our Lord ascended into heaven by His own power. But we say that Our Lady was assumed because in her case it’s passive. It is not the generation of her own power that leads her into heaven. She is assumed by God. This is how we explain this truth as being rational. Our Lord had no need of assistance because He was the second Person of the Blessed Trinity. But Our Lady didn’t have this power.

From the late 16th century onwards, there were many paintings in Christian art that depicted Our Lady as assumed into heaven. Our Lady appears as a woman adorned with the sun, standing on the moon, with twelve stars on her head for a crown.

There was a lot of devotion to Our Lady under this title, and the theme of the heavenly Coronation of Our Lady as Queen of Heaven, well often represented also in Christian art, which more or less presumed that she must have been assumed into heaven also.

CONCLUSION

Mary, may you continue to be our Great Advocate before God Most High. Help us to look to you, Mary, frequently. We need to examine the quality of our daily dealings with her. In The Forge, we’re told, “If you feel proud to be a child of Our Lady, ask yourself: How often do I express my devotion to Our Lady during the day, from morning until night?” (The Forge, no. 433)

In the Communion Antiphon of today’s Mass, it says: “Blessed is the womb of the Virgin Mary. She carried the Son of the eternal Father” (Luke 11:27). Mary, assumed into heaven, may you help us to rejoice as all the angels did.

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This article is an excerpt from the meditation Assumption of Our Lady on the podcast “Fr. Conor Donnelly Meditations.” Tune in on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your favorite podcast app.

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Cover image: The Assumption of the Virgin (ca 1657) by Juan Carreño de Miranda