On the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the Great Catholic Feast Celebrated on August 15 (On Tuesday, This Week in 2017)n

[mdgspencer]

see sydneycatholic.org/news/latest_news/2011/2011812_1809.shtml

This feast celebrates the assumption of the Virgin Mary, when she was assumed bodily in heaven.

(This in fact will happen later with everyone upon the resurrection of the dead.)

In 1950 Pope Pius XII explicitly invoked Papal infallibility when he declared that Mary ascended bodily into heaven. But this had already already been accepted in the Church since earliest times.

“For many, the most telling verification of the Assumption can be found not only in learned theological studies or definitive doctrinal statements, but in the medium of Mary’s many apparitions which the Church has declared worthy of belief. Where these apparitions have appeared have become beloved Holy shrines visited by millions each year and include the Shrines of Our Lady at Guadaloupe, Lourdes and Fatima.”

 

[commenter]

Why **defined **in 1950? Obviously believed long before, but now dogma. Here is my theory.

Pope Pius XII observed then-small trends in theology, that might grow, and he could see where those trains of thought would lead. In the 1960s some Protestant and Catholic writers began questioning the reality of Christ’s uniqueness, often a subtle way of challenging his divinity. They hinted that he was just a symbol - for instance, they talked about the apostles having a Christ-experience, rather than Christ. Some said the important thing is not any one man, but rather, a caring generation, or a commitment to community, with the Christ-figure.

Christ, or rather the Christ-movement, was made out to be a political or psychological messiah, whose main work was equality, and his opposition was selfishness. I have seen teacher’s texts that accompanied religion books from the 1970s, that specifically urged teachers to avoid mentioning any physical aspects of his birth, or his crucifixion; focus only on Jesus the preacher. I have seen other books from the 1970s from the New Age movement, that hint that Christ’s only gift was his “spirituality” that also omit reference to physical birth and death. His resurrection only means his cause will go on forever.

I think the pope, guided by the Holy Spirit, put the extra level of definition on the Assumption, to make it a little harder for future heretics to downsize Christ. The uniqueness of Christ and his physical reality as Man/God are reinforced. Yes, there was a womb, and yes, a specific woman, who was assumed into Heaven.

 

[Augustine]

(This in fact will happen later with everyone upon the resurrection of the dead.)

No, it won’t. We will rise from death in a “new earth”, in the New Jerusalem that will come “down out of Heaven from God” (cf. Rev 21).

 

[mdgspencer]

That is, our bodies will rise too, to share in our glory with God, just like Mary, who has already ascended bodily to her glory, glory in body and soul.

No, it won’t. We will rise from death in a “new earth”, in the New Jerusalem that will come “down out of Heaven from God” (cf. Rev 21).