What is Mary's status?

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Almost everyone throughout Church history that assumed that she physically died, shared in the resurrection of her Son, and was taken up into heaven… just off the top of my head:
A) Pope Pius XII assumes her death in his encyclical “Munificentissimus Deus” - the same encyclical in which he promulgated the dogma of the Assumption
B) Our iconography assumes her death…have you ever visited St. Mary’s Major in Rome, the most important Marian church in all of Catholicism? A huge mural shows her empty tomb with the apostles looking on in awe as her risen body is assumed into heaven.
C) The Eastern Church, including those in full communion with Rome, celebrates her death / resurrection / assumption as a single event…for them August 15 is the Feast of the Dormition (falling asleep - as in her physical death).
D) You won’t find a single Church Father who taught that Our Lady did not die…the idea that she didn’t die is a novelty.

From Munificentissimus Deus:
  1. In the liturgical books which deal with the feast either of the dormition or of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin there are expressions that agree in testifying that, when the Virgin Mother of God passed from this earthly exile to heaven, what happened to her sacred body was, by the decree of divine Providence, in keeping with the dignity of the Mother of the Word Incarnate, and with the other privileges she had been accorded. Thus, to cite an illustrious example, this is set forth in that sacramentary which Adrian I, our predecessor of immortal memory, sent to the Emperor Charlemagne. These words are found in this volume: “Venerable to us, O Lord, is the festivity of this day on which the holy Mother of God suffered temporal death, but still could not be kept down by the bonds of death, who has begotten your Son our Lord incarnate from herself.”(11)
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It would have been impossible for Mary to avoid sin without God’s assistance. She was still reliant on God for her salvation. Her avoiding sin was not something she did or could have done all by herself.
 
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Would this involve interfering in her free will? Why does God not provide this sin avoidance for all of us?
 
twf said:
She is not divine in her own nature, but she is deified in as much as she shares in the divine nature more perfectly and more completely than any other creature.
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No, she is not deified in at way whatsoever, ‘Share in the Divine nature’? No. She is human. She is not a goddess.
 
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No, it does not involve a violation of free will, and she was still capable of sinning, as Adam and Eve sinned even before they forfeited the original holiness and justness in which God created them. She was not prevented from doing so, as we are not prevented even after being regenerated through the sacrament of baptism, which most Christians receive before they are capable of personal sin. But she could not have avoided sin entirely without God’s grace, which is the same for all Christians and indeed all mankind.
 
Yes she is. She is deified. So are you…if you’re baptized. This is basic Catholic theology. Our Eastern brethren refer to it as “theosis” (becoming like God). In the West we speak of divinization or deification. From the liturgy during the preparation of the gifts the priest says:
_"By the mystery of this water and wine _
_may we come to share in the divinity of Christ _
who humbled himself to share in our humanity."

In Scripture, St. Peter says:
By whom he hath given us most great and precious promises: that by these you may be made partakers of the divine nature: flying the corruption of that concupiscence which is in the world. (2 Peter 1:4)

The Catechism says:
460 The Word became flesh to make us “partakers of the divine nature”:“For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God.” “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.” “The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods.”
 
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Its not dogmatically defined, but it always baffles me that people find the idea of her dying so surprising. It is definitely the traditional consensus of the Church. Its right there in Pius XII’s encyclical.
 
She was given special privilege by God. To honor her as His mother, to allow her to say yes to the Incarnation without any reservation due to sin, to exemplify her as the archetype of the Church, to name a few reasons. Do you think all persons are due this?
 
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We can.
We simply fail.
I should also add that she MAY have had reduced cocupiscience as she lacked original sin.

But God always grants us enough Grace to not sin. We fail to cooperate enough to avoid it when we fail. Mary was given many graces. We too can gain more graces through various things like prayer.
 
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