Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
“It’s not in the Bible.”
Some of our sisters and brothers in other denominations counter Catholic dogma and practice with the above argument. The role of Mary is usually the hottest of hot button issues.
When I served as Director of RCIA for fifteen years some of the folks had honest and sincere questions around our mariology, including today’s solemnity.
Although the specific dogma as defined by Pius XII in 1950 of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, per se, isn’t in the New Testament, it is alluded to in today’s readings.
Revelation 12 illustrates a great sign in the heavens: “A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” She’s at war with the dragon and ultimately wins a great victory. Indeed, in the drama, the woman is taken up by God.
“Assumptions” into heaven are not uncommon through salvation history. Besides Mary, we have traditions of Moses, Elijah, and Enoch assumed into the celestial realm. But Mary is the first fruit of the harvest brought by Jesus Christ.
In early Christian communities relics of saints and martyrs were highly prized and closely guarded. Many churches claimed the mortal remains of the heroes of the faith, famous and little-known. But there are no records of Mary’s bodily remains being venerated by anyone anywhere.
According to Saint John of Damascus, Roman emperor Marcion requested the relics of the Blessed Virgin at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. Saint Juvenal, bishop of Jerusalem, told the emperor that “Mary died in the presence of all the apostles, but her tomb, when opened upon the request of Saint Thomas, was found empty; the apostles concluded that her body was taken up to heaven.”
There is much genius in our liturgical year as it flows and ebbs within the seasons of the natural world. For God is revealed in both. By the start of the sixth century the mid-August feast of first fruits began to be identified with Mary’s assumption.
Our Lady may be the “first” of the harvest gained by Christ but she is assuredly not the last. No, it’s not “quite the assumption” that some of our friends may make it out to be.
And to assume otherwise is to miss the mark.
-Timothy J. Cronin