T
TriuneUnity
Guest
IV. The Assumption of Mary
This teaching is the most recent to be dogmatized by Rome, in 1950 by Pope Pius XII. As with the Immaculate Conception, Mary’s Assumption appears nowhere in the Book of Concord. However, this is not to imply that the Assumption was abandoned by the Lutheran churches in the 16th century (and probably later as well – I’m not certain however). The Feast of the Assumption was one of the Marian festivals which Luther allowed to the faithful, and it was kept by the Lutheran churches in Luther’s day. Many sermons which Luther preached on this Feast are preserved unto our own day. In fact, the Feast of the Assumption is even celebrated today by Lutherans, although under a different name, i.e. the Feast Day of Saint Mary, Mother of Our Lord, and of course shorn of the Assumption. August 15 is this feast day, the same day that the Roman Catholic and early Lutheran churches celebrate(d) the Assumption. For the Orthodox, this is the feast day of the ‘Dormition of the Theotokos’, her ‘falling asleep’ in the Lord. The Orthodox approach is more clear than the Roman Catholic in that through ‘dormition’ we are saying that the Blessed Virgin indeed died as all of us will. The assumption adds that Mary was then taken up, body and soul, to heaven by an act of God at the time of her death. Her body thus did not experience decay, but was preserved against corruption. Make what you will of the following:
"At the Council of Chalcedon in 451, when bishops from throughout the Mediterranean world gathered in Constantinople, Emperor Marcian asked the Patriarch of Jerusalem to bring the relics of Mary to Constantinople to be enshrined in the capitol. The patriarch explained to the emperor that there were no relics of Mary in Jerusalem, that “Mary had died in the presence of the apostles; but her tomb, when opened later . . . was found empty and so the apostles concluded that the body was taken up into heaven.”
“Whether she died or was buried we know not.” (Epiphanius of Salammis, Medicine Chest Against All Heresies, 78, II, PG, 42., 716 [c375 AD])
Is Mary the only human creature granted such a blessing? Old Testament figures such as Enoch and Elijah were taken up to heaven, and thus there is no necessary reason why Mary’s assumption should be viewed automatically with suspicion. The Apology of the Augsburg Confession, part XXVI, affirms:
and thus confesses that the Blessed Virgin is already awakened to glory in heaven.
Via her assumption, Mary is shown as the model of a fully redeemed human person. Recall that Mary is not said to ‘ascend’ to heaven as did Christ under His own power. She was ‘taken up’ by the power of God alone. Furthermore, Mary’s assumption as both a soul and a physical body points us toward God’s promise of our own resurrection, not as spirits but as complete human persons with corporeal yet incorruptible bodies. Finally, the Assumption completes God’s work in and through His chosen vessel. If we accept some version of Mary’s sinlessness prior to the Annunciation, her role as Mother of God, and her perpetual virginity, all gifts out of the grace of God, we can understand her assumption as God’s final miraculous and yet quite consistent act in her earthly life.
Luther in his day did, and Lutherans in our own day should, approach this teaching regarding the Blessed Virgin much as our brothers and sisters in the Orthodox churches. For them it is a pious belief based on tradition handed down to us by the one holy catholic and apostolic church, but one which has no clear relation to the center of our faith in Jesus Christ and thus is best left outside the realm of official dogma. Whereas Mary Mother of God, Mary Ever-Virgin, and Mary’s sinlessness are all clearly rooted in the necessary part she played in the Incarnation, the Assumption is not.
This does not mean we should reject it. It does mean that we should not hold to it in the same way we hold to the central articles of our faith. Mary through her assumption yet again serves as a great hope and comfort to us who await our own “resurrection of the body and the life everlasting” (Apostle’s Creed).
"For this which is corruptible must clothe itself with incorruptibility, and this which is mortal must clothe itself with immortality. And when this which is corruptible clothes itself with incorruptibility and this which is mortal clothes itself with immortality, then the word that is written shall come about:
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (I Cor. 15:53-57)
This teaching is the most recent to be dogmatized by Rome, in 1950 by Pope Pius XII. As with the Immaculate Conception, Mary’s Assumption appears nowhere in the Book of Concord. However, this is not to imply that the Assumption was abandoned by the Lutheran churches in the 16th century (and probably later as well – I’m not certain however). The Feast of the Assumption was one of the Marian festivals which Luther allowed to the faithful, and it was kept by the Lutheran churches in Luther’s day. Many sermons which Luther preached on this Feast are preserved unto our own day. In fact, the Feast of the Assumption is even celebrated today by Lutherans, although under a different name, i.e. the Feast Day of Saint Mary, Mother of Our Lord, and of course shorn of the Assumption. August 15 is this feast day, the same day that the Roman Catholic and early Lutheran churches celebrate(d) the Assumption. For the Orthodox, this is the feast day of the ‘Dormition of the Theotokos’, her ‘falling asleep’ in the Lord. The Orthodox approach is more clear than the Roman Catholic in that through ‘dormition’ we are saying that the Blessed Virgin indeed died as all of us will. The assumption adds that Mary was then taken up, body and soul, to heaven by an act of God at the time of her death. Her body thus did not experience decay, but was preserved against corruption. Make what you will of the following:
"At the Council of Chalcedon in 451, when bishops from throughout the Mediterranean world gathered in Constantinople, Emperor Marcian asked the Patriarch of Jerusalem to bring the relics of Mary to Constantinople to be enshrined in the capitol. The patriarch explained to the emperor that there were no relics of Mary in Jerusalem, that “Mary had died in the presence of the apostles; but her tomb, when opened later . . . was found empty and so the apostles concluded that the body was taken up into heaven.”
“Whether she died or was buried we know not.” (Epiphanius of Salammis, Medicine Chest Against All Heresies, 78, II, PG, 42., 716 [c375 AD])
Is Mary the only human creature granted such a blessing? Old Testament figures such as Enoch and Elijah were taken up to heaven, and thus there is no necessary reason why Mary’s assumption should be viewed automatically with suspicion. The Apology of the Augsburg Confession, part XXVI, affirms:
Code:
"that the blessed Mary prays for the Church"Via her assumption, Mary is shown as the model of a fully redeemed human person. Recall that Mary is not said to ‘ascend’ to heaven as did Christ under His own power. She was ‘taken up’ by the power of God alone. Furthermore, Mary’s assumption as both a soul and a physical body points us toward God’s promise of our own resurrection, not as spirits but as complete human persons with corporeal yet incorruptible bodies. Finally, the Assumption completes God’s work in and through His chosen vessel. If we accept some version of Mary’s sinlessness prior to the Annunciation, her role as Mother of God, and her perpetual virginity, all gifts out of the grace of God, we can understand her assumption as God’s final miraculous and yet quite consistent act in her earthly life.
Luther in his day did, and Lutherans in our own day should, approach this teaching regarding the Blessed Virgin much as our brothers and sisters in the Orthodox churches. For them it is a pious belief based on tradition handed down to us by the one holy catholic and apostolic church, but one which has no clear relation to the center of our faith in Jesus Christ and thus is best left outside the realm of official dogma. Whereas Mary Mother of God, Mary Ever-Virgin, and Mary’s sinlessness are all clearly rooted in the necessary part she played in the Incarnation, the Assumption is not.
This does not mean we should reject it. It does mean that we should not hold to it in the same way we hold to the central articles of our faith. Mary through her assumption yet again serves as a great hope and comfort to us who await our own “resurrection of the body and the life everlasting” (Apostle’s Creed).
"For this which is corruptible must clothe itself with incorruptibility, and this which is mortal must clothe itself with immortality. And when this which is corruptible clothes itself with incorruptibility and this which is mortal clothes itself with immortality, then the word that is written shall come about:
Code:
'Death is swallowed up in victory.
Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?'