The Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary on Aug. 15 celebrates Mary’s unique role in the Church, which she has had from the first days. The solemnity falls on Sunday this year, so it will be celebrated instead of the liturgy for the 20th Sunday of the year.
One Marian tradition tells us that the Blessed Virgin spent her last days in Jerusalem; another tradition tells us that Saint John the Apostle took her with him to Ephesus, where she lived her last days. One tradition tells us that Mary died and three days later was raised from the dead. The other tradition tells us that prior to death Mary fell asleep. In both traditions Mary was taken up into heaven body and soul.
In 431 at the Council of Ephesus the Church debated the question of the title to be given to Mary. Clearly, in Scripture, Mary is the mother of Jesus. Joseph, on the other hand, is just as clearly not the father of Jesus, albeit the husband of Mary. The Church in the previous century had debated who Jesus is, coming to the understanding that Jesus is fully divine and fully human. Jesus is the second person of the Blessed Trinity, who came to live among humanity as a fully human person. At the end of the debate on Mary, the Church understood that Mary must be the Mother of God. Indeed, if Jesus cannot be divided between humanity and divinity but is fully both at once, then Mary must be the Mother of God, for Jesus is God and human.
Pope Pius XII solemnly declared that Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory. Since Nov. 1, 1950 this solemn declaration has been the definitive teaching of the Church. The pope deliberately left unanswered the question of which tradition her death or her falling asleep is the correct one. While the dogmatic definition of the Assumption is recent, it was as early as the fourth century that Christians were asking whether or not Mary had died. Included in the tradition of Mary dying is an empty tomb from which she was resurrected.
The first 300 years of Christianity were dominated by the persecution of the Roman Empire. It was not that every year in every place Christians were martyred, but that at times and in different places one emperor or another would take up the persecution. The Church grew throughout the Empire. Once Emperor Constantine was baptized in the early fourth century the Church became a public institution. Barely 100 years later the Church focused on Mary. Even though as yet there were no apparitions of Mary, nor was there the rosary, Christians understood the special role that Mary played in salvation history.
In the fourth and fifth centuries, Christians were affirming the divinity of Jesus over against what some Christians thought - that Jesus was human, albeit the supreme human. At the same time Christians affirmed the humanity of Jesus through their understanding of Mary his mother. Reflecting on the very human relationship of mother to son and son to mother, it made perfect sense to them –as it does to us – that Mary would be a unique person in all of history. Mary is seen in that time as the first tabernacle. In the same way that we honor the presence of the Eucharist in the tabernacle, so Mary was honored by Elizabeth and John the Baptist when Mary went to visit her cousin. So today we see Mary as our own mother, for in baptism we are truly sisters and brothers of Jesus.
Father Martin Diaz is pastor of St. Therese of the Child Jesus Catholic Church in Midvale.
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