It is dogma that Mary ascended into heaven, body and soul at the end of her earthly sojourn. It is not dogma that Mary did not die. In fact, the Eastern tradition speaks quite literally of Mary’s death at the end of her life.
…which is quite strange, considering that death is the result of original sin, and Mary was preserved from original sin. The idea of Mary dying seems counterintuitive.
It’s not. Jesus was sinless and he died too.
Because He became sin, for our sake. Mary did not.
Your argument is not with us; it is with the Church. The Church allows as acceptable to hold to the idea that Mary did, indeed, die. The Eastern Church speaks of the “Dormition of the Mother of God.”
And to get back to the original topic, this is another interesting thing about Catholicism for a potential top 10 list. You can shut down any discussion by merely reciting this statement, without having to actually compose a real objection or point. It’s pretty cool.
That’s not a reason Mary should be excluded from the experience of death.
But the fact that she was excluded from original sin is. I’m not even 100% convinced of the idea that she didn’t die, I’m just trying to understand the position that she did die, with some sort of reasoning besides “just because.” And to use the term “excluded” suggests that she would have missed out on something by not dying, which I don’t understand at all. It just seems so simple…if she was assumed into Heaven, body and soul, it stands to reason that her soul never left her body. I’d love for someone to help me understand with something besides “the Church says we can believe it.”
Given that St. John Damascene relates an account already considered “ancient” by his time, that she was buried for three days in the Gethsemane area and by the time the latecomer Thomas showed up, the body was gone; in its place was only the fragrance of roses.
Interesting. Where is the best place to find St. John Damascene’s writings?
Frankly, I don’t see the point in arguing over minutia that you apparently don’t understand. This position isn’t new or novel; it has an ancient history within the Church. I don’t need to compose “a real objection or point.” If you truly wish to understand the topic then you need to do the research to discover where you went wrong, not trying to justify the Church’s position.
This is helpful, thank you.
I have to be honest, your list would’ve sent me running for the hills. But shrouds and ghosts and demons kind of freak me out, so…it might be appealing for some, but for me, I’d rather see the quotes and memes that encourage the faithful to greater holiness.Hi Jennifer! Congratulations and thank you for sharing your opinion, even though I would have sent you running for the hills.OP, the only Catholic person on my Facebook friends list is my midwife, and the only reason I even knew she was Catholic was by her posts there (even though I saw her in person many times, obviously, and she is a wonderful person to be around). She posts a lot of memes with inspirational quotes from the Pope or other respected leaders. She posts about her struggles and her answered prayers. She comes off as very genuine and approachable concerning her faith. And I will tell you, it does pay off-when we decided to attend our first Mass, I messaged her for advice. And now that we are joining the church, she is going to sponsor my daughter at her baptism, which is so beautiful too because she also delivered her!
)No. Our family was all evangelical Protestant. We were pretty devout (church every Sunday, actively involved, etc.). I got this free kindle book about Catholicism, and that was initially what got me looking into it. At the same time we began to see more and more issues with our evangelical outlook. We read a lot of Catholic books, and eventually attended Mass, and now are in RCIA.
My midwife never really talked to me about her faith until I approached her.