cont;d 3
Here is a Roman Catholic understanding . ,
oh.essortment.com/assumptionbless_rrbi.htm
On November 1, 1950 Pope Pius XII announced that the Roman Catholic Church was adopting as dogma the Assumption of Mary. His address, “Munificentissimus Deus”, was delivered before 50,000 faithful in St. Peter’s Square. The dogma states that Mary, the mother of Jesus, is more than just a saint of the Church or a hero of faith. The Assumption is a declaration of faith in the assumption of Mary, body and soul, into Heaven.
The Assumption became a feast day celebrated by the Church every year. What it brings to mind is the height to which the Church has elevated this special woman. This revelation did not just occur to Pope Pius XII in 1950. Rather, his announcement made formal what had been believed for centuries. The beliefs about Mary go beyond assumption and include doctrines about her Immaculate Conception; she was born free from sin, her perpetual virginity and her action as co-redeemer with Christ.
Whereas non-Catholic Christianity tends to view the Bible as God’s last revelation to mankind, the Roman Catholic Church sees itself as an instrument of God receiving new revelations from the Holy Spirit. So this new revelation about Mary was confirmed in 1950 without a visible ripple. The doctrine of the Assumption fits right in to orthodox Catholic thinking.
The term “assumption” does not appear in the Bible but Enoch and Elijah went to be with God without experiencing death. Bishop Theoteknos of Livias (c. 550-650) was one Catholic theologian who believed that Mary, above all, deserved at least the same treatment. In his sermon he states:
"For Christ took His immaculate flesh from the immaculate flesh of Mary; and if He had prepared a place in heaven for the Apostles, how much more for His mother. If Enoch had been translated and Elijah had gone to heaven, how much more Mary, who like the moon in the midst of the stars shines forth and excels among the prophets and Apostles?
For even though her God-bearing body tasted death, it did not undergo corruption, but was preserved incorrupt and undefiled and taken up into heaven with its pure and spotless soul."
So Mary is above and beyond anyone who ever lived with the exception of her son, Jesus. It is a firm belief among Catholics that from her conception, Mary was free of original sin, the sin that we all inherit from Adam. The angel Gabriel, in announcing to Mary her imminent pregnancy, called her “highly favored one” “the Lord is with you” and “blessed are you among women”. So Mary is chosen to be the mother of God incarnate, through a virgin birth by the power of the Holy Spirit.
No one knows exactly where, when or how Mary died. Apostolic Tradition Points to a time between three and fifteen years after the Ascension of Jesus. There are conflicting claims as to her place of death, either Jerusalem or Ephesus. There is a tomb of Mary in Jerusalem but it only became known after the sixth century AD. St. Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem let it be known in 451 that Mary died in the presence of all the Apostles. Her tomb was opened at the request of St. Thomas (did he doubt that she was there?) and found to be empty. The Apostles concluded that she had been taken up to Heaven, body and soul.
There are some apocryphal writings from the early church that mention the Assumption of Mary but most of these documents are flawed and suspect. There is a letter bearing the name of St. John which mentions Mary’s bodily assumption into Heaven but it has been dated to the fourth or fifth century AD. “De Transitu Virginis”, a letter falsely ascribed to St. Denis the Areopagite, also mentions it. Genuine writings from St. Andrew of Crete, St. John of Damascene and others also make mention of Mary’s bodily assumption. Sermons previously attributed to St. Jerome and St. Augustine that support the Assumption have been shown to be counterfeit.
The belief in Mary’s bodily assumption is universal in eastern and western Catholic Churches of today. Why wasn’t the Assumption a part of Catholic doctrine long ago? Why was it adopted so long after the fact? Catholic apologists say that the early Church had too many questions to resolve surrounding who Christ was and what He meant to us and did not have a particular set of doctrines to deal with Mary until many of the other questions were dealt with.
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