Luke 1
We will be unsuccessful if we attempt to establish the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary by historical evidence and witness. From the third century on, many Fathers of the Church and scholars and commentators tried to find the facts about the Assumption without much success at all. Whether the Blessed Mother actually died or not was a point of debate. Moreover, the place of her presumed death and assumption was also not clearly known – it could be Jerusalem or could be Ephesus. No one seemed to have seen her being lifted to heaven. One tradition tells us the apostles found her tomb empty.
Traditionally, the Church does not use ‘to die’ or ‘death’ for the Blessed Virgin. Nor does the Church use ‘resurrection’ for her. But from very early on, the faithful have firmly believed that she was lifted or ‘assumed’ into heaven. And this assumption includes not only her soul but also her body. Almost after two millennia, when the Church officially declared the dogma of the Assumption of Mary in 1950, Pope Pius XII expressed, “The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”
This confession of faith is not an arbitrary theological composition. It has always been a part of the deposit of faith from the very beginning of the Christian faith. When the apostles found her tomb was empty, they realized she had to be with her Son in glory. From her immaculate conception, Mary was destined to be in union with Christ. From her womb to the Crucifix, Christ was always united with his mother. Mary did not merely rent out her womb to the Son of God and finished her role as a surrogate mother at the birth of Christ. By being conceived without sin, she knew her Lord from the beginning of her existence. And by giving her body and blood to the Son of God at the conception, she became a part of Christ, impossible to be separated. When her Son died at the Cross, her soul was also pierced to death as the prophet Simeon had foretold. Now, when her Son defeated death and ascended to the glory of heaven, it was natural for her to follow where her Son went. And her Son did not forget his Mother to be always with him as she had always been. In the course of the redemption of mankind, Mary was and is and will be always with her Lord, her Son, Christ Jesus. She enjoys this singular, unique grace as the new Eve of the new creation.
The Blessed Virgin exemplifies the destiny of the Church. The Church is the mystical Body of Christ. Just as Mary cannot be separated from Christ, Christ is always with her Bride, the Church. And the Blessed Virgin also shows what all Christians are to strive for. It is the union with Christ. Today, we celebrate the permanent union of our Blessed Mother with her divine Son. As long as Jesus is with us, as he promised, our Blessed Mother is with us, too. She hasn’t gone at all. She is among us with her Son.
