Assumption feast celebrates Blessed Mother in heaven

In November 1950, Pope Pius XII issued "Munificentissimus Deus" in which he declared that "the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-Virgin Mary...was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory."

With that, the Assumption became a dogma of the Church, to be believed by all the faithful. But the idea that Mary's body and soul had immediately entered heaven after her death had been around for centuries.

There is no direct scriptural basis for the Assumption; Jesus's mother last appears in the New Testament at Pentecost. Her death is not referred to. Pope Pius relied on indirect references in the Bible to support the dogma, particularly Luke 1:28 and 42, in which Mary is said to be "full of grace" and "blessed among women."

Since Mary and her son were both free of original sin, the pope argued, then it followed they would be free from one of the consequences of that sin: the corruption of the body after death. As Jesus's body had ascended into heaven after His death and resurrection, Pius said, Mary was assumed into heaven.

The pope also referred to the Blessed Mother as "the new Eve" through whose actions Jesus, "the new Adam," saved the world. From her cooperation with God in bearing, raising and being with Jesus from Bethlehem and Cana to Golgotha and the Upper Room, Mary became, in the words of the New Catholic Encyclopedia, "in an ever fuller sense, the mother of all the members of the Mystical Body. Hence,...things said of Christ apply also, but proportionately, to Mary."

The notion of Mary's Assumption dates back to the early Church, which also developed the teachings of her immaculate conception and perpetual virginity.

An intriguing question which runs parallel to the dogma of the Assumption is this: Did Mary die, or was she exempt from that, too? Pius XII, sidestepping the question, chose to say, "Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory."

The early Church Fathers, however, generally believed that she died; after all, even her Son was not spared from death. But the early Church also celebrated the Dormition ("falling asleep") of Mary, a tradition that persists to this day.

However, it is widely held by modern theologians that the Blessed Mother died a natural death, like all other mortals.

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