Although her Divine Son was already resurrected in the company of the elect, the fact that Our Lady joined them, being the most beautiful, elevated and holy of pure creatures, brought forth a surge of consolation for those awaiting the resurrection of their bodies.
Newsdesk (17/08/2023 11:09, Gaudium Press) “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Cor 15:21-22). By drawing a parallel between Christ and Adam, the Apostle St. Paul shows that we wouldn’t have known death if it hadn’t been for the first man’s sin, which required another man to triumph over him.
Our souls have already been cleansed of the original stain by Baptism, but we have yet to overcome death with our resurrected bodies. “But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at His coming those who belong to Christ” (1 Cor 15:23). Among those who belong to Him, Our Lady stands out, the most exalted human creature, who acquires a glorious body and occupies a special place in Heaven because She is the Mother of God.
Although the Church has not defined whether Mary died or not, it is a dogma of faith that She crossed the threshold of eternity in body and soul, carrying out God’s plan. Her Assumption offers us a pledge of hope, which in a certain sense can be considered greater than that of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
This bold statement is because She, as a pure creature, is the firstborn Daughter of the Church, the highest-ranking member of the Mystical Body of Christ, and is therefore closer to our human contingency than Her Divine Son, who is Man but also God.
The example of Mary
In Mary’s passage from this world to eternity, we already have a glimpse of what will happen to us at the Last Judgement if we die in a state of grace. All of us – this is a prophecy that anyone can make without risking error – will depart from this life. And how long will it be between death and resurrection? It doesn’t matter, because nothing is impossible for God. Our soul was created by Him from nothing and our body, although it has human origins in our parents, was constituted by Him.
Being omnipotent, God can create and recreate all beings. Just as He formed us individually and infuses the soul into each newly conceived child, He can order the remains of deceased men – some thousands of years ago, like our parents Adam and Eve – to be gathered together and their bodies reconstituted in a glorious state.
Ultimately, the resurrection certifies divine omnipotence. By simply remembering that we will die, be buried and wait until we are gloriously recomposed, to the point of acquiring a spiritualized body, we already anticipate that moment of extraordinary beauty when we will triumph, like Our Lady on the day of the Assumption.
Mary could not contain more grace
It is edifying to consider that, regardless of whether Mary Most Holy died or not, because She was immaculate, She never suffered any illness, did not grow old or suffer the slightest ailment due to sin, and Her body was not subject to decomposition, which is one of the reasons for Her Assumption into Heaven.
However, let’s hypothesize about other reasons why Our Lady passed from this life into eternity with Her glorious body.
Catholic doctrine teaches that charity is a virtue rooted in the will. When it is very strong, love impels the one who loves to unite with the one who is loved. Every Christian, on the Day of Judgement, must present their progress in charity, since it is essential for entering Heaven.
There was someone who left this life not with love, but for love: Our Lady. St. Albert the Great says that “the one who is given the most is obliged to love the most. The Blessed Virgin was given more than all creatures; therefore, She was obliged to love more than any other.”
And so She did, concludes the holy doctor. In Her, charity intensified to such an extent that the body could no longer support the soul, and the desire to contemplate God face to face in order to unite with Him meant that the soul of Mary Most Holy, when it departed, also took the body with it.
In addition, it is certain that in Her, grace, although full from Her conception, increased unceasingly throughout Her life to the point where it was no longer containable when the Assumption took place.
This is the marvel of a human creature who, from fullness to fullness, from perfection to perfection, had reached the extreme limit of all measures, until there was almost no difference between Her understanding of the universe and the very vision of God.
What did She lack? Only the Assumption. Her soul reached such sublimity, refinement and splendour that the veil of separation between human nature and the beatific vision became thin, fell away, and – without the need to pass through any judgement – She saw God. As a result, Her body became glorious and She was brought to Heaven.
Humanity, divinized, enters glory
Another reason for the appropriateness of this magnificent event is the restitution made to God for all the benefits granted to the human race. Since the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity came down from Heaven to become incarnate, bringing humanized divinity into the world, it was only right that a human person should make a harmoniously contrary offering and take to Heaven the best of holiness, the most beautiful, excellent and extraordinary thing that could exist on earth: divinized humanity. Such a mission was reserved for Mary. Furthermore, She had been the tabernacle of the Son of God during the nine months in which She bore Christ’s most holy humanity. It was understandable that having received Him as a tabernacle on earth, He would also receive Her into His heavenly sanctuary.
Jubilation in eternity
What incomparable joy all the blessed souls experienced when Our Lady entered there in body and soul! Although Her Divine Son was already resurrected in the company of the elect, the fact that She joined them, being the most beautiful, elevated and holy of pure creatures, brought forth a surge of consolation for those awaiting the resurrection of their bodies. As far as the angels were concerned, they had been waiting for this event for a long time, because Mary had been the rock of scandal, the sign of contradiction that had divided the angelic world, and fidelity to Her, as the key figure of the divine plan, had been the cause of the beatitude of the good.
It is possible that God left the angels in a certain suspense, without revealing details about Her nativity, so that they could hypothesize throughout the history of salvation, remaining ever vigilant to discern when the prevarication of the chosen people would lead Him to raise up that perfect Daughter. Eager to see Her seated on the throne destined for Her, they wanted to venerate Her, to pay honour and homage to a Queen who, being only a human creature, would have more grace than all of them put together. It was at the moment of Her entry into Heaven that they finally saw the fulfilment of this longing, and with what joy!
The coronation of the Blessed Virgin
When Our Lady had completed Her mission, we can well imagine Her triumph in Heaven: the three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity received Her and glorified Her. Crowned by the Father, who conferred on Her the imperial power and placed in Her hands the governance of Creation, Mary Most Holy became the administrator of the divine treasures; a sigh from Her is capable of moving the will of the Creator. The Son, the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom, gave Her all wisdom, and the Holy Spirit, as Her Spouse, granted Her the faculty to sanctify souls.
Faced with the pledge of our resurrection, given to us by the mystery of the Assumption of Mary Most Holy, we should consider each other according to this ideal, as if we were already resurrected, because above the gloom and trials of this life shines the hope of the glorification towards which we are heading.
Let us live seeking the goods above, and let our thoughts follow the path traversed by the Virgin Mary. She entered Heaven in body and soul and was exalted; we, in the present hour, since we cannot enter it physically, let us at least do so in desire. Let us turn to the throne of Mary Assumed, and in this way we will receive grace upon grace so that we can always remain on this path that will lead us to the happy and eternal resurrection, when we will recover our bodies in a glorious state.
Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias, EP
Text taken, with adaptations, from the Heralds of the Gospel Magazine no. 188, August 2017.
Compiled by Roberta MacEwan
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