“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers” (Gn 3:15).
Newsdesk (21/08/2023 16:52, Gaudium Press) Holy Church has just celebrated the Solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady, body and soul, into heavenly glory.
This extraordinary fact has been Catholic belief since apostolic times. Liturgical documents dating back to the 5th century show that at that time a special Mass was celebrated in honour of the Mother of God for Her Assumption into Heaven.
However, it wasn’t until 1950 that the Magisterium officially pronounced on the fact. On that occasion, Pius XII proclaimed: “We declare and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma that the immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of Her earthly life, has been assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.[1]
Mary could not contain more grace
In declaring the dogma of the Assumption, Pius XII did not mention whether or not Our Lady suffered death before ascending to Heaven. Nor has the Church’s Magisterium given an opinion on the matter to date. The fact is, however, that theologians differ on the subject.
Regardless, “Catholic doctrine teaches that charity is a virtue rooted in the will.[2] When charity – which is characterized by love for God and neighbour – is very strong, love impels the one who loves to unite with the one who is loved. For this reason, every Christian, on the Day of Judgement, must present his progress in this virtue, since it is indispensable for entering Heaven.
There was someone who departed from this life full of love for God: Our Lady. St Albert the Great says that “the one to whom one gives the most is most obliged to love. The Blessed Virgin was given more than all creatures; therefore, She was obliged to love more than any other.”[3] And so She did, concludes the holy doctor.
In Her, in fact, 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 herself to Him meant that the soul of Mary Most Holy, in ascending, also took Her body with it. In addition, it is certain that grace in Her, although full since Her conception, increased incessantly 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 created universe and the very vision of God.
What was She missing? Only the Assumption. Her soul reached such sublimity and splendour that the veil of separation between human nature and the beatific vision became tenuous, crumbled and, without the need to pass any judgement, She began to contemplate God in beatitude. As a result, Her body became glorious, and She rose to Heaven[4].
The triumph of the Holy Church
Mary Most Holy has been raised to Heaven and sits on a throne of glory, but She also has the honour of being the Mother of the Church.
If Her life on this earth was a constant struggle, the story of Her children, members of the Mystical Body of Christ, could not be any different. Let’s not forget that already at the beginning of creation, God established enmity between the serpent and the woman, between his offspring and Hers. And it was prophezied that the Virgin would crush satan’s head, and this vile dragon would strike Her heel (cf. Gen 1:15). Thus, since She has been raised to Heaven, we are called to continue the fight that She began, until the moment when all Her enemies are put under Her feet (cf. 1 Cor 15:27).
In our day, in the struggle between good and evil, God will once again show the strength of His arm, scattering and bringing down from the throne the proud and raising up the humble (cf. Lk 1:51-52), children and devotees of the Blessed Virgin.
In the present historical phase, the scene of a marked religious crisis, the consideration of Mary’s Assumption urges us to have unbreakable confidence in the triumph of the Holy Church, even when she is taking refuge in the desert (cf. Rev 12:6) or sleeping the sleep of an apparent death; because, like Our Lady, after her “Dormition”, the Church will be exalted above the angelic choirs.
By Guilherme Maia
[1] Cf. PIUS XII. Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus, 1 November 1950 (DH 3903).
[2] Cf. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 24, a. 1.
[3] Albert the Great. Mariale. Q. XLVI, n. 1. Buenos Aires: Emecé, 1948, p. 235.
[4] CLÁ DIAS, João Scognamiglio. New Insights on the Gospel. Vatican City-São Paulo: LEV-Instituto Lumen Sapientiæ, 2012, v. 7
Compiled by Roberta MacEwan
