Most Rev. Joseph M. Siegel
The Bishop’s Corner
On Aug. 15, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This feast is the liturgical observance of the Catholic dogma that Mary was taken body and soul into heavenly glory at the end of her earthly life. While the obligation to attend Mass is suspended this year because the solemnity falls on a Saturday, I encourage everyone to still celebrate it as a “holy day of opportunity,” for it is a day of hope which highlights not only Mary’s unique role in salvation history but also the ultimate destiny promised to all faithful believers.
On Nov. 1, 1950, Venerable Pope Pius XII officially defined this truth in his Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus. This proclamation states that the Immaculate Mother of God, having completed the course of her earthly life, was brought directly into the fullness of heavenly glory. While the Church has never formally declared whether Mary experienced physical death before her assumption or was taken up alive, the core of the teaching is that her body never underwent corruption or decay.
Although the New Testament does not contain an explicit narrative of Mary’s physical departure, Scripture heavily supports the concept. Biblical precedents exist for individuals being bodily taken by God, such as Enoch and the prophet Elijah. Furthermore, theologians, drawing on Psalm 132:8, have seen Mary as the true “Ark of the Covenant” and have taught that it is entirely fitting that the physical vessel which gave flesh to the Son of God would be preserved from the decay of the grave.
Historical devotion to this mystery runs deep. Written records regarding the “Dormition” (falling asleep) of Mary trace back to the third and fourth centuries. By the early Middle Ages, Christian communities across both East and West universally celebrated the feast.
The Assumption is intrinsically linked to another critical Marian dogma: the Immaculate Conception. The Church teaches that Mary was conceived without the stain of original sin to prepare her to be the Mother of Jesus. Because bodily decay is fundamentally understood as a direct consequence of original sin, Mary was uniquely exempt from this physical dissolution. Her preservation from sin throughout her entire life seamlessly matches her preservation from the grave at its end. These twin dogmas illustrate the completeness of God’s grace working within her, from the moment she was conceived in the womb of her mother to her transition into eternity.
However, the Assumption is more than a historical tribute to Christ’s Mother; it serves as a powerful beacon of hope for all Christians. Mary’s entry into heaven, body and soul, offers a preview of the resurrection of the dead promised to the entire Church at the end of time, which we profess each Sunday in the Nicene Creed.
While the Assumption had been taught and celebrated by the Church for centuries, Pope Pius XII decided to declare it a dogma in 1950. He chose his timing quite deliberately, following the carnage of two world wars, the Holocaust and the spread of atheistic communism around the world. In contrast to these attacks on human life and spirit, the Pope placed Mary before us as a sign of hope. She stands as one like us, a human being of flesh and blood. Her glorification by her Son shows our potential, a future which can lie ahead of us if we, too, remain faithful.
In our own day, society often tries to separate the physical body from spiritual value, which we call the soul. This is a rehash of the ancient Gnostic heresy that taught that the body was irrelevant at best or evil at worst and that the soul longed to escape from it. The Assumption reasserts the sacred dignity of the human body and its intrinsic union with the soul, which was how God created humanity. It reminds believers that human destiny is a holistic redemption of both matter and spirit. As the perfect disciple who followed Christ flawlessly, Mary precedes the Church into the fulfillment of the Resurrection of the Body. What has already occurred in her is what all the faithful expect to experience when Christ returns.
So let us joyfully celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption as a feast of hope, looking to Our Lady as an example of faithful discipleship and of the reward that awaits those who remain in Jesus.
Holy Mary, assumed into heaven — Pray for us.