Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Bishop of Lake Charles
St. Joseph Church, DeRidder
August 15, 2010
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
“God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple. A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon beneath her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child.” Revelation 11:19a, 12:1
The oldest church in the West dedicated to Mary is the Basilica of St. Mary Major. The Emperor Constantine built the first church over 1600 years ago. The present one is certainly one of the most beautiful in the world, in my opinion, and where I chose to celebrate my first Mass over 35 years ago. The gold covering the ceiling was the first gold brought by Columbus and given to the king and queen of Spain and then to the pope as a gift. In this immense shrine to Mary above the high altar is a 13th century mosaic of Mary seated on a throne next to her Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus’ hand is lifted placing a crown upon her head, a filial act of the king’s love for His mother. How does the first reading from the Book of Revelation describe it? “A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon beneath her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Revelation 12:1). If Christ is the King, then Mary is the Queen Mother, and where Christ is, there she is. To this the doctrine of the Assumption attests.
Pope Pius XII proclaimed the doctrine of the Assumption in 1950, five years after the end of the bloody conflict known as the Second World War. The tradition of Mary’s Assumption maintains that Mary after her death was taken body and soul into Heaven. It is an uninterrupted tradition found as early as the first century in the writings of ancient Christians (e.g. Transitus Mariae), as well as in the writings of St. Gregory the Great and St. John Damascene. The fact that no tomb of Mary or relics of Mary have ever existed in history testify to this belief. The body that God had willed to carry His Son was simply not to corrupt in a grave. This is the teaching, witnessed to by Sacred Tradition and alluded to by Sacred Scripture.
To those who have trouble with Sacred Tradition, even teachings from the First Century, I would remind them of St. Paul’s words to the Thessalonians. To them, he writes, “Stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours” (II Thessalonians 2:15). There is only one Revelation and two sources for it.
Pope Pius XII in 1950 chose this moment to re-affirm the doctrine of the Assumption because the world had just seen the bloodiest war known to mankind. Some historians estimate the total dead, combatants and civilians, at 45 million. In this doctrine the Holy Father sought to affirm the value of the human person that had been so neglected and abused during the first half of the Twentieth Century. Pope Pius XII knew that insane ideologists had unleashed crimes against the human person and that was only the beginning of further abuses. This is only borne out by what has happened in the second half of the Twentieth Century with abortion, euthanasia, human cloning and other distortions that remain in their infancy now. The Assumption confirms that what God creates is good, and in creating man and woman God has entrusted to them an extraordinary dignity. That dignity is manifested not only in the new Adam, who is Jesus Christ the new man, but also in the New Eve, who is Mary the new woman.
Nowhere in the Bible is this so manifestly clear than in the prayer from Mary’s own lips recorded in the Gospel of St. Luke. “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,” Mary says. “Behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed” (Luke 1:46, 48). There are some who are selective in their reading of Sacred Scripture. That “all ages will call [Mary] blessed” is conveniently ignored. They say the Church places too much emphasis on Mary. They say the Church has made Mary into a goddess. I think they are mistaken, if one truly reads Sacred Scripture. Assumptions are not unheard of in the Bible.
Elijah was for the Jews the greatest prophet. He had finished his work, teaching God’s word, reprimanding sinners, and defeating false prophets. Now God was to reward him. That story is found in the Book of Second Kings. Elijah and his student prophet, Elisha, were walking along the road. The account reads as follows: “As they walked on conversing, a flaming chariot and flaming horses came between them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind” (II Kings 2:11). Elijah was given a dignity, because he had served God well. He had been God’s spokesman, his servant, and his prophet.
Elijah would later appear in the Gospels with another great man of God, Moses. While we are not told that Moses was assumed into heaven, we are told in Deuteronomy 34:6 that no one knows where Moses was buried. I once stood on Mount Nebo, where Moses stood to view the Holy Land. Below the mountain, I saw the vast plain of Moab, and there Moses was laid to rest. It is no accident that these two men of God, whose mortal remains are too sacred to be enclosed in a grave, appear with Jesus at the Transfiguration. They attest to the fulfillment in Jesus, the new Adam, of the Covenant hopes of God’s Chosen People.
The vessel that carried the Ark of the Covenant was kept in the Temple in Jerusalem. It is spoken of in the Book of Revelation that we read in our first reading: “Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple” (Revelation 11:19). The earliest Christians saw Mary as an ark. Her body had opened up to give birth to Jesus, the New Covenant. For this reason the words of the Book of Revelation send chills down my arms every time I read them. “A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth” (Revelation 12:1-2). A great dragon tried to consume the child, but the Woman prevailed and the child was born and God caught up the child and placed Him on His throne. The Woman fled to “a place prepared by God” (Revelation 12:6).
Not only is an assumption a supernatural event spoken of in the Bible but also God’s plan for mankind confirmed in the event, no matter how incredible that plan might be. God has created us with dignity. Ideologies and misdirected scientific theories may try to lessen the value of the human being. Human beings try to destroy themselves, but God affirms human dignity not only in Jesus but also in the human being, the woman, that He chose to mother His Son. The dignity of a mother, as privileged as Mary, affirms the words of the Gospel, “all ages will call me blessed.” Mary is a model, as Elijah was a model prophet and Moses a model law giver. And we desperately need her today. She is a woman clothed with the sun, the moon, and the stars. She is an ark that opens to reveal a Son. God catches her up and whisks her away because Man was made for greater things.