Posted on 08/15/2002 6:35:35 PM PDT by Lady In Blue
"The immaculate mother of God," announced Pope Pius XII in his Munificentissimus Deus in 1950, "when the course of her earthly life was run, was assumed in body and soul to heavenly glory." The proclamation of the Assumption of Mary as "divinely revealed dogma," while a modern event, was consistent with beliefs that date back at least to the 3rd century, and perhaps even before. Are those beliefs inconsistent with the Bible, as some critics suggest, or are they in truth a fulfillment of the Bible's deepest themes?
The first known analysis of the Assumption was produced by Theoteknos, a 6th century Bishop of Jericho. He argued that since Elijah ascended and since a place in heaven had been prepared for the apostles, so the much the more must Mary have ascended to a place prepared for her.
The wedding music of Psalm 45, reasoned Pope Pius, prefigures the Assumption, as the singers rejoice, "All glorious is the princess within her chamber; her gown is interwoven with gold. In embroidered garments she is led to the king."
Mary has often been seen as symbolic of the people of Israel, and in Exodus, God describes the liberation from Egyptian bondage in terms that foreshadow the Assumption: "You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself." (Exodus 19:4)
The literal significance the Assumption, of Mary's body rising from the earth toward the heavens, should not be underestimated. The morning prayer on the day of the Assumption asks us to "See the beauty of the daughter of Jerusalem, who ascended to heaven like the rising sun at dawn." "Whither goest thou, bright as the morn?" the antiphons of the Assumption ask Mary, "All beautiful and sweet art thou, O daughter of Zion, fair as the moon elect as the sun." She "is taken up into the bridal chamber of heaven, where the King of Kings sit on his starry throne."
This celestial imagery of the Assumption feast in turn prefigures Mary's role in the apocalyptic battles between good and evil described in Revelation. There, Mary (representing both the Church and the messianic populace) pregnant and "clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head" is attacked by "an enormous red dragon" (representing the Roman Empire in particular, and evil and persecution in general).
And then history repeats (or will repeat) itself, as Mary (and messianic community) is "given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent's reach." (Rev. 12: 1-14).
On another level, the Assumption epitomizes the reconciliation of the material and spiritual world, as the human Mary enters "body and soul to heavenly glory." Carl Jung, the transpersonal psychologist, concluded that the doctrine of the Assumption reflected an acceptance of the physical world. A similar thought was expressed by the Russian Orthodox theologian Sergius Bulgakov, who described Mary as "the creature glorified and deified. In her is realized the idea of Divine Wisdom in the creation of the world; she is Divine Wisdom in the created world."
From time immemorial Orthodox and Eastern churches have recognized the Assumption; Orthodox Russia celebrates a special feast honoring the Assumption with Holy Wisdom. And while the Anglican Church does not make the Assumption an article of faith, since "it is not read in Holy Scripture, 'nor may be proved thereby'," many Anglicans do choose to believe it. Whatever scriptural interpretation can or cannot prove, the decision to believe in the Assumption has always been, for many people, intuitively easy, for the Assumption is in its own way the fulfillment of the gospel.
Since Mary was, on one level at least, an ordinary human being, her assumption suggests the future that is open to every human: the entry into glory through and after a life of walking with God. Like Israel, like the Church, like the messianic community, and like Mary, the individual who travels with God will, in spite of all earthly persecutions, be taken up to a place of security and sanctity in the wilderness. Or as Pope Paul VI put it: The Assumption "is a feast that set before the eyes of the Church and all mankind the image and consoling proof of the fulfillment of their final hope."
-Dave Kopel
For more: Bulgakov's remarks after his pilgrimage to Lourdes. You can buy Fr. Bulkagov's book, Sophia, the Wisdom of God : An Outline of Sophiology at Amazon.com.
Discourse: "Of the Assumption of Mary," by St. Alphonsus de Liguori
Catholic Answers, defense of the Assumption (and of the Immaculate Conception).
History of the Doctrine of the Assumption.
Painting of The Assumption of the Virgin, by Peter Paul Rubens.
Painting by El Greco.
Even more medieval art on the Assumption.
Catholic Encylopedia on the Feast of the Assumption.
BTTT on the Feast of the Assumption, 08-15-04
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Thank you (again), Lady in Blue.
Struwwelpeter ... speaking of the Bulgakovs, did you ever check out Mikhail's digs? The ladies at Stanislavsky's house were very proud of their new third floor Bulgakov salon but said Kyiv had the best collection.
Thanks,Salvation very much. I don't come over here as much as I used to. Sometimes I forget. Thanks for bringing this one back.
Mikhail's Digs? No I never did. Sorry, but I never heard of it. I'll have to check it out sometimes. Thanks,Askel5.
Maria Assumpta, Ora Pro Nobis! Virgo Mater Misericoria, Ora Pro Nobis! Ave Maria Purissima!
Not to bring anybody down, but the pastor at our local NO church, in his homily, very subtly denied the dogma of the Assumption, denied the defined doctrine (as per JPII) of Mary as Mediatrix of All Graces.
Then he led the people in reciting portions of the Litany of Loretto. Crafty little bugger, ain't he!
How deviously subtle these modernists are! I am sure that all most folks will remember is "he said nice things about Mary".
Most highly favored lady, Queen of Heaven, pray for us!
**Most highly favored lady, Queen of Heaven, pray for us!**
I completely agree with you.
BTTT, Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, August 15, 2005!
THE ASSUMPTION OF MARY: A BELIEF SINCE APOSTOLIC TIMES |
Father Clifford Stevens |
The Assumption is the oldest feast day of Our Lady, but we don't know how it first came to be celebrated. Its origin is lost in those days when Jerusalem was restored as a sacred city, at the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine (c. 285-337). By then it had been a pagan city for two centuries, ever since Emperor Hadrian (76-138) had leveled it around the year 135 and rebuilt it as <Aelia Capitolina> in honor of Jupiter. For 200 years, every memory of Jesus was obliterated from the city, and the sites made holy by His life, death and Resurrection became pagan temples. After the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 336, the sacred sites began to be restored and memories of the life of Our Lord began to be celebrated by the people of Jerusalem. One of the memories about his mother centered around the "Tomb of Mary," close to Mount Zion, where the early Christian community had lived. On the hill itself was the "Place of Dormition," the spot of Mary's "falling asleep," where she had died. The "Tomb of Mary" was where she was buried. At this time, the "Memory of Mary" was being celebrated. Later it was to become our feast of the Assumption. For a time, the "Memory of Mary" was marked only in Palestine, but then it was extended by the emperor to all the churches of the East. In the seventh century, it began to be celebrated in Rome under the title of the "Falling Asleep" ("Dormitio") of the Mother of God. Soon the name was changed to the "Assumption of Mary," since there was more to the feast than her dying. It also proclaimed that she had been taken up, body and soul, into heaven. That belief was ancient, dating back to the apostles themselves. What was clear from the beginning was that there were no relics of Mary to be venerated, and that an empty tomb stood on the edge of Jerusalem near the site of her death. That location also soon became a place of pilgrimage. (Today, the Benedictine Abbey of the Dormition of Mary stands on the spot.) At the Council of Chalcedon in 451, when bishops from throughout the Mediterranean world gathered in Constantinople, Emperor Marcian asked the Patriarch of Jerusalem to bring the relics of Mary to Constantinople to be enshrined in the capitol. The patriarch explained to the emperor that there were no relics of Mary in Jerusalem, that "Mary had died in the presence of the apostles; but her tomb, when opened later . . . was found empty and so the apostles concluded that the body was taken up into heaven." In the eighth century, St. John Damascene was known for giving sermons at the holy places in Jerusalem. At the Tomb of Mary, he expressed the belief of the Church on the meaning of the feast: "Although the body was duly buried, it did not remain in the state of death, neither was it dissolved by decay. . . . You were transferred to your heavenly home, O Lady, Queen and Mother of God in truth." All the feast days of Mary mark the great mysteries of her life and her part in the work of redemption. The central mystery of her life and person is her divine motherhood, celebrated both at Christmas and a week later (Jan. 1) on the feast of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. The Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8) marks the preparation for that motherhood, so that she had the fullness of grace from the first moment of her existence, completely untouched by sin. Her whole being throbbed with divine life from the very beginning, readying her for the exalted role of mother of the Savior. The Assumption completes God's work in her since it was not fitting that the flesh that had given life to God himself should ever undergo corruption. The Assumption is God's crowning of His work as Mary ends her earthly life and enters eternity. The feast turns our eyes in that direction, where we will follow when our earthly life is over. The feast days of the Church are not just the commemoration of historical events; they do not look only to the past. They look to the present and to the future and give us an insight into our own relationship with God. The Assumption looks to eternity and gives us hope that we, too, will follow Our Lady when our life is ended. The prayer for the feast reads: "All-powerful and ever-living God: You raised the sinless Virgin Mary, mother of your Son, body and soul, to the glory of heaven. May we see heaven as our final goal and come to share her glory." In 1950, in the Apostolic Constitution <Munificentissimus Deus>, Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Assumption of Mary a dogma of the Catholic Church in these words: "The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heaven." With that, an ancient belief became Catholic doctrine and the Assumption was declared a truth revealed by God. Father Clifford Stevens writes from Tintern Monastery in Oakdale, Neb. This article was taken from the July-August 1996 issue of "Catholic Heritage".
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August 15, 2005
Assumption of Mary
On November 1, 1950, Pius XII defined the Assumption of Mary to be a dogma of faith: We pronounce, 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, was assumed body and soul to heavenly glory. The pope proclaimed this dogma only after a broad consultation of bishops, theologians and laity. There were few dissenting voices. What the pope solemnly declared was already a common belief in the Catholic Church. We find homilies on the Assumption going back to the sixth century. In following centuries the Eastern Churches held steadily to the doctrine, but some authors in the West were hesitant. However, by the thirteenth century there was universal agreement. The feast was celebrated under various names (Commemoration, Dormition, Passing, Assumption) from at least the fifth or sixth century. Scripture does not give an account of Marys Assumption into heaven. Nevertheless, Revelation 12 speaks of a woman who is caught up in the battle between good and evil. Many see this woman as Gods people. Since Mary best embodies the people of both Old and New Testament, her Assumption can be seen as an exemplification of the womans victory. Furthermore, in 1 Corinthians 15:20 Paul speaks of Christs resurrection as the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.Since Mary is closely associated with all the mysteries of Jesus life, it is not surprising that the Holy Spirit has led the Church to belief in Marys share in his glorification. So close was she to Jesus on earth, she must be with him body and soul in heaven. Quote:
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BTTT on the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, August 15, 2006!
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