The Assumption of Mary

    The Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a commemoration celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and a few other Christian religions around the world.

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    This celebration of Mary's Assumption began with 5th century Christians (AD 400's), although some evidence points to an even earlier observance. But it was basically a remembrance of Mary's death, without the Assumption connection.
Rather, it bore a sense of Our Lady’s, “Birth Into Heaven,” or, as it was known in the Byzantine tradition, her “Dormition” (falling asleep). 

    The actual Feast of the Assumption, as we think of it, however, was first seen within the Church at Rome during the middle of the 7th century. 
So while it has obviously been observed by the faithful for a long time, it did take roughly 13 centuries for it to be declared doctrine:
 

    On 1, November, 1950, Pope Pius XII proclaimed Mary’s assumption, body and soul, into heaven as official dogma.

    Are you still with me? If so, you might be asking...
"The Assumption of Mary into heaven - body and soul?? 

What's that all about?"

    Since about AD 175, and the first Apostles Creed (Testamentum in Galilaca Dominus Noster Iesu Christi), Catholics have professed our faith in two things:

1. The, “Resurrection of the body” after death, and
2. “Life everlasting” with God, thereafter.
    
    Most of the core Protestant sects profess much the same, too, since they carried the Creed over after the schism of the Reformation.

    In short, this is the ultimate goal and meaning of our life’s journey as Christians.
    And it is this faith promise of resurrection and eternal life in Heaven that, from the earliest times, is believed to be already accomplished in Mary – because she is believed to have been taken up to heaven body and soul.
And because of that, she is our, “sign of sure hope and comfort.”

"Okay, hold on a minute... time out. ❓❗
You're saying Mary is in Heaven, now?"

Yes, exactly, and here's why.

Thank The Romans
    The Assumption is the oldest feast day of Our Lady. However, its origin came from the days before Jerusalem was restored as a sacred city by the Roman Emperor Constantine (c. 285-337).

 
    Constantine came late to the Christian party; he only converted to the religion in the early 4th century (312 AD). But for the two and half centuries until that time, Jerusalem was a pagan Roman city, thanks to Emperor Hadrian (76-138). During his reign, around the year 135, he leveled the city and rebuilt it as 'Aelia Capitolina', to honor the Roman God, Jupiter.

    And along with all the other damage Hadrian did to Jerusalem during his rebuilding, he also had every memory of Jesus in the city covered over and obliterated.

    Now, Jesus was long-gone by the time Hadrian came to power. But he had no trouble finding these sites, because sacred tradition and good Roman recordkeeping helped him. In other words,  the places associated with Jesus were well known to people of that age.... and the Romans kept good notes(1)

    Bear in mind, Hadrian was no fan of Christ or His followers. There was a well-established Christian presence in the area around Jerusalem by his time, and these "Christians" were viewed as trouble, and probably rebels against Roman rule.
    Worse, they they refused to honor and make sacrifice to the Roman gods. This made them a rich target for Roman persecution.
    And since all of the, "Jesus" sites made holy by Our Lords life, death and Resurrection were KNOWN through tradition and Roman documentation, Hadrian had no trouble finding them and sending his shovel teams to do their dirty work.
    His favorite trick? Destroy them and build temples to the Roman gods built atop them.

    Now, skip forward 250 years, or so.

    Along comes Constantine, the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He commissioned the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 336, and his mother, Helena (also a converted Christian), came behind Hadrian and tracked down all the sacred sites he covered up... then dug them back up and restored them!

    Once more, the memories of the life of Our Lord began to be celebrated by the people of Jerusalem.

    (1) We really owe the Romans some thanks for their pedantic penchant of meticulously recording anything that happened. Wherever they set up an outpost, enclave, or government prefecture - they wrote everything down. So it was easy enough for Hadrian to to find and destroy them, and for Helena to retrace HIS steps and uncover them!
 

Mary Reappears

     Thanks to all that digging and rooting around in the old city sites, a curious thing happened: the memory of Mary's death pops back up in the form of her original tomb! 

    It was uncovered close to Mount Zion, where the earliest Christian community had lived. And on that hill was the site then-known as, The "Place of Dormition," aka, the spot of Mary's, "falling asleep." (2)

    In other words, the "Tomb of Mary," where she had died, was buried at her death, and where she would remain. 

    Or, so it was thought.

    You see, at the this time the, "Memory of Mary" (her earthly life and death) was already being celebrated by these early Christians. Then suddenly, Mary's tomb was found. So it was a pretty big deal.

   

    For a time, the, "Memory of Mary" was marked only in the immediate area of Judea, but it was extended by the emperor to all the churches of the East. 

    Then, in the seventh century, as we've mentioned, it began to be celebrated in Rome under the title of the, "Falling Asleep" or the, "Dormitio," of the Mother of God.

    But before long, the name was CHANGED to the, "Assumption of Mary," since there was apparently more going on than just her dying.

    "And what more was that," you might ask?

    Well, it was also being proclaimed that she had been taken up, body and soul, into heaven.

    Now we're getting somewhere - here is the rest of the story.

    (2) It must be known that Catholics believe that all those who die are judged immediately upon their death, and are destined to Heaven or Hell at that point. Many other Christians, however, think that we lie in a sort of limbo, waiting for Christs' Second Coming and God's Final Judgement of Man.
    In the first case, the judged souls will be "woken back up" for the final reckoning of mankind and the reformation of the world.
Or, in the latter case, they will be called awake for the Final, aka, General, Judgement.

    Either way, it is seen that they are, in one way or another, "asleep" until then.

Where IS Mary, Anyway?
    The belief in Mary's assumption was actually pretty old, dating back to The Apostles, themselves, because It seems they found her tomb empty at some point.
So they naturally figured that Mary had been assumed to Heaven, like Jesus. They had no other explanation for her bodies disappearance and no sign of her was ever seen thereafter.
    But in all the chaos of Hadrians city-leveling and rebuilding, then The Christian Persecutions, then the UNCOVERING of the holy sites of Jesus... well, that apostolic belief in her assumption was all but forgotten.

    But with the coming of stability under Constantine, Christianity began to flower, and what was clear from the beginning was now being recognized again:

    There were no RELICS of Mary to be venerated, anywhere (3), and the tomb of Mary on the edge of Jerusalem was still empty!
   
    So, along comes the Council of Chælcedon (Northern Turkey) in AD 451, where bishops from throughout the Mediterranean gathered in Constantinople. Emperor Marcian sent a letter to the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Juvenal, asking that he please bring all the relics of Mary with him to the council, so they could be honored and enshrined in the capitol.

 
    Ol' Juvenal kind of kicked at the ground, and wrote back that, well...unlike nearly all the OTHER early Christian figures, there WERE no relics of Mary in Jerusalem. And apparently, he explained that...

    "Mary had died in the presence of the apostles, so her death was understood and known to them. But her tomb, when re-discovered and opened later . . . well, it was empty. So there are no relics to bring.:

    The old memory of her assumption was then revived, and once again it was 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 known to be duly buried, it did not remain in the state of death, and neither was it dissolved by decay. . . You were transferred to your heavenly home, O Lady, Queen and Mother of God, in truth."

    Basically, The facts were laid out and plain to see:

1.  It was known when she died
2. Her resting place was known - twice
3. Her body was gone and no relics had surfaced, so grave robbery was unlikely.
4. There was no trace of her, anywhere.

    In short, nobody had a forensic answer to the question: Where could she have gone?
    Therefore, the only logical answer was a theological one: She had been taken to heaven with all the other saints, like Elijah, Moses, and the rest.
     Which is not such a stretch, when you think about it. It had happened to them, and to Jesus Himself, in fact - so it was obviously within Gods power to do such a thing.
    And further, why would God allow Mary, His Chosen, Blessed Among All Women, The Holy Vessel and Mother of Jesus Our Lord, to simply rot in the grave?
    I'll say it - He would not!

(3) Relics? Understand that these were different times, and relics of  prominent Christian figures, like the Apostles, first bishops, and other important people were both common and revered. 

And when we say, "relics," we mean body parts, such as bones, teeth, hair... and anything physically associated with these people that could be preserved.

This was a time with no internet, no TV, no museums, no film crews poking into every dusty corner....and no Bibles readily available. No Bibles, in fact, at all.

So, relics were a big deal to the simple people of that age; they were a vital and tangible link to the events surrounding Christianity. So while we may be tempted to judge their faith in these things, we should not.

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All the feast days of Mary within the Church mark the great mysteries of her life and her part in the work of redemption.

1. The Central Mystery of her life and personage 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.

2. The Immaculate Conception of Mary (Dec. 8th) marks the moment when God prepared her for that motherhood.
She had the fullness of grace from the first moment of her existence, untouched by grave sin...otherwise, God would not have chosen her to bear Christ.
Her whole being throbbed with divine life from her own birth, readying her for the exalted role as Mother of the Savior.

3. The Assumption Of Mary completes God's work in her, since it was not fitting that the flesh of the very woman that had given life to God-himself-as-Man should undergo the corruption of the grave.
The Assumption, then, 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 hope to follow when our earthly life is over.

    On November 1, 1950, Pius XII defined the dogma of the Assumption.
    Thus, he solemnly proclaimed that the belief whereby the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the close of her earthly life, was taken up, body and soul, into the glory of heaven, definitively forms part of the Deposit of Faith, received from the Apostles.

    To avoid all that is uncertain, the Pope did not state either the manner, or the circumstances of time and place, in which the Assumption occurred — only that the Assumption of Mary, body and soul, into the glory of heaven, is the matter of the definition.

    The feast days of the Church are not just the commemoration of known and recorded historical events; they do not look only to the past.
    They also 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.

- This was inspired by, and expanded with historical context from, a work by Fr. Clifford Stevens in Catholic Heritage

References

https://www.vaticannews.va/en/liturgical-holidays/solemnity-of-the-assumption-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary.html

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assumption_of_Mary

 https://www.gotquestions.org/Assumption-Mary.html

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint/the-assumption-561

https://ia600200.us.archive.org/24/items/EcceFidesPillarOfTruth/ecce-fides-pillar-of-truth.pdf