The dogma of the Assumption of Mary was defined by Pope Venerable Pius XII on November 1, 1950 with the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus. Deus, meaning God, of course, and munificentissimus, meaning most munificent. Generous, bountiful. We don’t use the word munificent much, though thanks to Disney we know maleficent. But this world could use less maleficence and more munificence, am I right?
And as we shall see, this great feast recalls and celebrates God’s bountiful generosity towards us, his human creature.
The dogma of the Assumption teaches “that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”
Mary’s Assumption at the end of her earthly life goes together with the mystery of its very beginning, that of the Immaculate Conception. Just as in her Immaculate Conception Mary was preserved, from the first moment of her conception, from Original Sin, so at the end of her life it is fitting that she be preserved by the same special privilege from the death and bodily decay which is one of the lingering effects of the same sin. So, at the end of her earthly life, Mary did not die in the same way we will, but was assumed into heaven, body and soul.
This can seem like something very marvelous, and indeed it is, but it is the destiny for which we hope as well; as we say in the Apostle’s Creed, we believe in the ‘resurrection of the body.’ We Christians believe that at the time of the General Judgment our souls will be reunited with our bodies, transformed into what St. Paul calls the ‘glorified body.’
And just as the body of the Risen Lord after his Resurrection is the same body that was Jesus of Nazareth in his earthly life, though glorified and possessing certain new, spiritual characteristics – appearing in locked rooms for example – so our soul will be reunited with our body at the end of time, the same body which is ours in this life but also new and glorified.
Now we admit that we don’t know exactly how all of this will work; it is a matter of our faith, of the faith of the Church.
And so our faith is also our hope. That as the Blessed Virgin Mary was assumed into the glory of heaven, body and soul, so one day we will find ourselves in the eternal, happy rest of beholding God in our body, glorified in the Christ who has saved us and through his Resurrection opened for us the path to this most blessed destiny. May our hope for heaven, for the full vision of the bountiful generosity of God, be our strength and our joy as we continue on the pilgrimage of this life.
