August 15 is the Feast of the Assumption, the day we commemorate the Blessed Virgin Mary being raised body and soul into heaven.
While it is not explicitly mentioned in Scripture, the Assumption is a belief that goes back to the earliest Christian Tradition of the Church. In 1950, Pope Pius XII declared it a dogma of the faith – after consulting all the Church – saying, “The ever-virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.” Interestingly, there was no mention of Mary dying in this sentence on purpose. Our Orthodox brothers and sisters refer to this feast as the “Dormition of Mary.” Pius XII chose this moment in history to give hope to all in Europe that was rebuilding after World War II.
That’s all well and good, but what does the Assumption have to do with you?
A lot, in fact!
God has promised that He will resurrect our enfleshed spirit. We will receive new glorified bodies that can no longer be touched by death. In heaven, we will see the same faces we loved on earth, but transformed in God’s glory.
Mary is proof that God will fulfill this promise. God’s promise of eternal life begins here on earth and will continue for all eternity.
The Assumption also highlights the goodness of our bodies. In the early Church, certain individuals distorted the Gospel and taught that our bodies are evil. The Church combatted these harmful teachings and maintained that our bodies are good because they are created by God. And while we exist in a world of suffering and death, God has promised to fully heal us.
Servant of God Fr. Paul Watson, S.A., the founder of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, had a deep devotion to Our Lady of the Assumption because some depictions of her share similarities with depictions of Our Lady of the Atonement. In both cases, Mary is portrayed with a crown of 12 stars. Both embody the idea of At-One-Ment, the core of our mission. Our Lady of the Assumption is a symbol of the Church — and of all humanity — and the union of her body and soul in heaven symbolizes the coming unity of the entire human race in the embrace of our Creator.
On this Feast of the Assumption, we raise our hearts in prayer for our troubled world torn by wars and death. We pray that God will restore humanity so “that all may be one,” living in peace and harmony once again.