THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY INTO HEAVEN AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR US CHRISTIANS
*St Paul the Apostle in his letter to the Philippians 1:6 says “The Lord who began the good work in you will bring it to completion”. This is what the Holy Mother Church celebrates in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Lord who chose her before she was born, today brought the good work He started in her to completion by assuming her body and soul into the heavenly glory.
*Today’s Solemnity is one of the four Marian dogmas which includes
1) Her Divine Motherhood
2)Her Immaculate Conception
3) Her Perpetual Virginity, and
4) Her assumption into heaven, which we are celebrating today, and which was made a dogma on 1st November 1950 by Pope Pius XII in the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus.
By that, it means that all Roman Catholic Christians are bound to believe that the Blessed Virgin Mary was assumed body and soul into the heavenly glory, after her earthly life.
*Many people still misunderstand the difference between the Assumption of Mary and the Ascension of Christ into heaven.
Going by etymology, the word Assumption comes from the old Latin verb “assumere” meaning to take home to oneself. *It therefore means in the religious sense that Christ took Mary home to where he is. He took her home, body and soul by His power, while in Ascension, He ascended into heaven by His power as God.
*Mary’s Assumption into Heaven is not explicitly recorded in the scripture unlike the Ascension of Christ, but can be found in the Apostolic traditions of the Church.
*However, the scripture provides some grounds to prove that she was assumed into heaven after her earthly life.
*The first is Psalm 16:10 which says “You will not allow your faithful one, your beloved one to experience corruption in the tomb.
Here we have two examples: In the book of Genesis chapter 5:24, Enoch was taken up to heaven and in 2 Kings 2:11, Elijah was also taken up to heaven by a whirlwind.
*The letter to the Hebrews chapter 11:5 declares that they were taken up to heaven and were not allowed to experience death and corruption because they pleased God. *Here we are sure that among all created by God, no one has ever pleased God more than the Blessed Virgin Mary who has a special and unique relationship with the Trinity – She is the Daughter of God the Father, the Mother of God the Son and the Spouse of God the Holy Spirit. *God the Son took His earthly and biological life from her. He shares the same flesh and blood with her, and there is no way He would have allowed His own flesh, I mean the flesh of His mother to experience corruption.
*The second proof of Mary’s assumption into heaven from the Scripture is that she is the Ark of the New Covenant and the Immaculate Conception. In the book of Revelation 11:19, the Ark of the Old Covenant was sighted in heaven. *The Ark of the Old Covenant was man-made, made from Acacia wood and overlaid with stainless gold. *The contents of this Ark include a tablet of stone containing the Ten Commandments which prefigures Jesus the eternal lawgiver; the Jar containing manna which prefigures the Eucharistic Jesus and the staff of Aaron the High Priest which prefigures Jesus the Eternal High Priest.
*The spotless and stainless gold prefigures Mary’s Immaculate Conception, who conceived Jesus in her Immaculate womb as the New Covenant in its Ark.
*Therefore, if the Ark of the Old Covenant which was man-made and temporal could be sighted in heaven, then we are sure that Mary, the New Ark of the Covenant was taken up to heaven body and soul, and she is the woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet in Rev. 12:1.
THE IMPLICATION OF MARY’S ASSUMPTION INTO HEAVEN FOR US CHRISTIANS
Mary was assumed into heaven so that all generations shall call her Blessed as she predicted herself in the gospel reading of today’s Solemnity. *How are we to call her Blessed? *It is by giving her a special place in our lives, by being devoted to her, especially through the devotion to the most Holy Rosary which she told St. Gertrude is more precious to her than the riches of the world put together.
*Mary was also assumed into heaven so that better placed in the right hand of God, she would be interceding for us. Her powerful intercession started while on earth as witnessed in the marriage feast of Cana in Galilee in the Gospel of John chapter 2 where she interceded for the wedding couple when they ran out of wine.
Now better placed in the right hand of God in heaven, she would be interceding for us in all our bodily and spiritual necessities. This is why St. Basil the Great says “O sinner, be not discouraged, but have recourse to Mary in all your necessities. Call her to your assistance, for such is the divine Will that she should help us in every kind of necessity.”
St. Francis de Sales says, “Let us run to Mary, and, as her little children, cast ourselves into her arms with perfect confidence.”
St. Bernard of Clairvaux also says that never was it known that anyone who fled to her protection, or sought her intercession was left unaided.
Let us therefore in all our bodily and spiritual necessities have recourse to the great intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, and she will never disappoint us.
Finally, today’s feast reminds us that there is a special place God has prepared for His beloved ones in heaven. If we persevere in our calling as Christians relying on the intercession of Our Blessed Mother Mary, that place will be ours at the end of our earthly life.
Fr. Emmanuel Chukwujekwu HFFBY