A university student at the Sorbonne was traveling on a train to Paris in 1880. He shared his compartment with a gentleman saying his Rosary. The student asked with scorn, “Don’t you know, monsieur, that science has destroyed all religious myths?” The man smiled and continued telling his beads. The student continued his science lecture. When the train reached Paris, the gentleman said au revoir. He gave the student his card. The young man blushed with shame. His traveling companion was the premier scientist of France, Louis Pasteur.
A teacher spent an hour explaining Mary’s Assumption to her 10 year olds. She asked one to tell her what the Assumption is about. The boy said brightly, “We assume Mary was taken into heaven after her death.” Happily we can do more than assume on this question.
Nowhere in the Gospels is there any reference to the assumption of Mary’s body into heaven. However, the Assumption has been the belief of Catholics and the Church’s teaching from the earliest centuries of the Christian epoch. Historians write that the Assumption may well have been the 1st feast in Mary’s honor. That would be the 5th century. But, if you research on your internet, you will find the Assumption spoken of in 325 at the Council of Nicea. Also a gentleman named Epiphanius referred to the Assumption in 431. In 457 the Bishop of Jerusalem left this statement for the record: “Mary died surrounded by the apostles. Her tomb, when opened afterwards, was found empty. So, the apostles judged her body had been taken to heaven.” A detailed 9th century fresco of the Assumption is in St Clement’s Church in Rome. A 12th century mosaic of the Assumption is in Palermo.
Thus, when Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Assumption an article of faith in 1950, he gave the stamp of approval to a teaching believed for at least 1700 years by billions of Christians.
British author Graham Greene wrote on the Assumption in a 1950 LIFE magazine essay. Greene penned that the general heresy of our time is the “unimportance of the individual.” He went on to say that the definition of the Assumption “foreshadows the Resurrection of each one of us.” Says Greene, “The Assumption affirms the importance of every single person and proclaims with clarity the Christian answer to death.”
The Assumption joyfully tells us that down the road salvation waits for each mother’s child of us.
Some Italian hill towns – especially around Rome – celebrate the Assumption with a charming twist. The ceremony is called l’Incinata which literally means bowing procession. The townspeople carry Mary’s statue down Main street with much excitement. From the other end of town comes a second happy group carrying her Son. He comes to rendezvous with His mother. Under a brilliant throne of branches and flowers, the two groups are joined. Jesus and His mother bow to each other solemnly. Then the villagers carry Mary and her Son side by side to the church. Jesus leads His mother to her throne in heaven. (Arthur Tonne)
The Nazarene did not want His mother to be under the control of Satan for a nanosecond. He gave her the gift of the Immaculate Conception at birth. Nor did He want the body of His mother to be corrupted by the earth. Thus, not too surprisingly, He gave her the Assumption. If we could, would any of us do less for our own mothers? (Ibid)
Today’s ancient feast teaches us to accept gladly the advice of WB Yeats and “walk proud, open-eyed and laughing to the tomb.” For the death of Mary reminds us, that “old age and death are equally natural and simply the next thing to do.” (Wilfrid Sheed)
And, like the woman we come to honor today, we will not be delaying in our respective tombs in any event. We will have places to go, things to see, and events to take a playful part in. (Unknown)
The question of how Mary died is still open to debate. Did she die a natural death? Was she martyred? Did she die at all before the assumption? Your speculation is as good as any theologian’s.
But, waiting for our assumption into the heavens, we should reflect on the 14th century Dominican Meister Eckhart: “We are all,” he wrote, “meant to be the mother of God. He is always waiting to be born in each one of us.”
Incidentally, the Koran mentions Mary thirty-four times. The New Testament speaks her name only ten times. Who is more devoted to her today – the Muslims or Christians?