Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary August 15, 2005
Today on this lazy day of summer, the Church celebrates the Assumption
of Mary. It is a feast of the Church which
comes down to us from the early centuries, but in our day we celebrate this
event as a dogma of the Church's faith, a truth of the faith solemnly defined
only in 1950 by Pius XII as a truth for our times. While the Church certainly always believed in
and variously celebrated this great event which closes the earthly history of
the Mother of God, its meaning and importance only gradually becomes
solidified, and only at the most propitious moment is it placed within the
creed, under the infallible guidance of the Holy Spirit, to be an essential
part of the contents of infallible truth from which the Church in her faith ever
lives. This long awaited declaration of
this truth of faith is an indication that the assumption of Mary is a doctrine
meant especially for our times. What then, we must ask, is the particular and
timely significance of this doctrine for our world?
It
is interesting that Pope Pius XII, in his declaration of this dogma stated quite
clearly that its meaning is not exhausted by saying that Mary's body never knew
decay, and that what we celebrate, above all, is Mary's triumph over death in
her glorified body. In this victory of her Son, she shares uniquely, as she
always has shared in the destiny of her son. She above all others shared in His
predestination; she was predestined to be his mother, predestined to be sinless
through his grace, predestined to be share his passion in her heart pierced by
a sword, and at last predestined to share his glory in her glorified body.
The
Church never tiers of singing the praises of Jesus and Mary, the new Adam and
the new Eve. So certainly this feast is such a song in honor of Mary. It celebrates her personal triumph, together
with her son, over the ancient enemy of man who brought sin and its offspring
death into our world. Certainly she who
was sinless was most fittingly spared from the corruption of the body, and, as
St. John Damascene says, she the sinless Virgin, who carried the Son of God in
the ark of her womb, was to most fittingly to be preserved from all corruption,
body and soul.
This
is, we might say, the personal dimension of this feast, but it does not end
there, for the Church who is likewise her offspring looks forward to
celebrating this same triumph over sin and death forever in heaven. So the significance of the feast of the
Assumption is not exhausted by speaking about Mary's triumph on the personal
level. Mary is what some theologians
have called the singular universal.
Mary has a not only a singular relationship to Christ but also a universal
relationship to the Church which is his body, and also her offspring. She is the barren Eve who becomes the mother
of countless children.
In
both of these relationships, to Christ and to the Church, the body of Mary is
integrally a part of the relationship.
She is the mother of Christ in her body and through her faith. And while certainly she is the mother the
Church through her faith, now we understand that she is also related to us through
her body, though obviously in a different way than in the incarnation. Her
glorified body, nonetheless, enables her to be for us the living sign of the
Church's future victory over sin and death. Her victory, which was deeply
personal, is also to be the permanent sign of the victory of the Church over
sin and death, a victory which will take place in the flesh, in the resurrection
of the Church triumphant.
Thus
Mary shares in the triumph of her son over Satan, sin and death both in her own
person and in the Church. This mystery is hinted at in the ambiguity of the
text in Genesis which speaks about he/she
crushing the head of Satan. Mary shared
in the conflict, says Pius XII, and thus she will also share in the conclusion
of Christ's victory. She is the vanguard of the Church, the already guaranteeing the Church's hope,
and the one who has been honored by her son by being made the maternal guardian
and Queen who leads the Church to its King.
One of the interesting roles Mary has
played in certain countries historically has to do with the military. Even today in secularized Spain Our Lady of
Pilar remains the Patrona of the Guardia Civil, and during the civil war Mary
was often invoked by the Carlist requetes as Patrona and even by some as their
general. Already in the Middle Ages,
Mary was chosen as the chief patron of the religious, military order known as
the Teutonic Order of Holy Mary in
But
if Mary is at the head of the Church Militant in her struggle with the forces
of darkness, she also teaches us what kind of weapons will win this war. It is
what the Scriptures call the victory of our faith: "And this is the
victory that has overcome the world - our faith" (1Jn. 5:4) Mary is the
exemplar of the great things that God will do through our faith. She has always been the pillar of orthodoxy,
the safeguard of the Church's faith, and she is so once again in our day. In the early Church Mary's divine maternity
was the answer to the Gnostics who would undercut the truth of the Incarnation
by denying the goodness of the body. Now
in our day Mary is the answer to the neo-Gnosticism in our society which denies
the very nature of man by denying the essentialness of the body itself for
man's beatitude and perfection, thus instrumentalizing half of human nature
itself and destroying its sacred character and destiny. Mary is assumed into heaven body and soul
because the body is essential to Mary's person, the body that was so holy as to
communicate itself to and carry within it the Son of the Most High. That is the truth we proclaim today through
Mary's Assumption, a truth which is critical for safeguarding the truth about
man and man's destiny.
Once
again we see how revelation is not a matter of mental deduction but an event
that enlightens man's mind. Man's body is sacred and destined for eternity; we
know this from faith because Mary is assumed into heaven as is Christ. We are to share in His resurrection quite
literally, just as Mary already does.
This is our joy; this is our declaration to the world. God has held this truth for definition when
it was most needed - Mary's assumption is the final confirmation of the truth
of Christ's redemption - we shall all rise in the flesh, a body just like theirs, if only we believe
and live a life of faith.
Our
victory, the victory of faith that John speaks of, and Peter and Paul, is the
hope of mankind. Because the victory is
through faith, Mary is most certainly leading the Church Militant, just like
Joan, just like Deborah. We march behind
our Queen to meet our King, and along the way our faith conquers the powers of
this world and the powers of darkness.
Jesus and Mary are in glory, and we hope to be with them forever. This
is the hope Paul speaks of in his letter to the Ephesians when he prays that:
the eyes of your understanding being
enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the
riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the
exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the
working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from
the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places