By Leon Bent –
The Assumption is the oldest feast day of Our Lady, but we are oblivious how it first came to be celebrated: Initially, the “Memory of Mary” was celebrated. Later, it metamorphosed into the feast of the Assumption. It was observed since apostolic times.
Initially it was thought that the Assumption of Mary was just a fanciful story, the product of the Church’s overactive Marian imagination, a belief entirely extraneous to the Gospel of Christ.
This doubt led me to do research on the subject, and to my utter amazement, I discovered a whole new dimension of Mariology, in its multifarious nuances that led me (a simple lay person) deeper and deeper, and with greater intensity, into the controversial, nevertheless, beautiful subject of the Assumption.
Today, I will delve into one very crucial aspect of Mary’s Assumption:
The human Ark of the Divine Covenant was assumed into heaven. The body which gave birth to God himself on this earth was not allowed to decay after death. It has been the belief of the Christians, right from the early days of Christianity, that the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary completed God’s work in her, since it was not fitting that the flesh that had given life to God himself should ever undergo corruption. The virgin whose life began fully in grace, as was hailed by heaven “full of grace, the Lord is with you,” has to end fittingly by assumption into heaven.
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been announced as a doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. This doctrine was dogmatically and infallibly defined by Pope Pius XII on November 1, 1950, through his Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus. It teaches that the Blessed Virgin Mary “having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”
First and foremost, if Mary is the new Ark, then her body is nothing less than the dwelling place of God on earth.
The original ark was made of “pure gold” and kept in the “Holy Of Holies”, because it was “the Place” where God would descend from heaven to “meet” his people. It was the sacred container for the Ten Commandments, the manna from heaven, and the Staff of Aaron (Hebrews 9:4). So, now, the new and greater Ark must likewise be free from any impurity and be completely holy. Mary is the sacred vessel for the “Word” made flesh, the “Bread of Life,” and the “high priest”:
Now, if Mary is the new Ark, and the Ark is the dwelling place of God on earth, then, by implication, Jesus is God on earth, then, by implication, Jesus is God o earth. In other words, he is divine. The mystery of Mary’s identity as the new Ark illuminates the even deeper mystery of Jesus’ divinity.
Now, if Mary is the new Ark of the Covenant, then it makes sense that Jesus the new David, would bring her up into heaven, to be with him forever in the heavenly Temple. In other words, the New Testament revelation of Mary as the new Ark is essential for understanding the belief in her bodily assumption into heaven. This ancient connection between the Ark, the woman, and the bodily assumption of Mary, makes sense when we remember that, the new Ark is not just Mary’s soul but her body. In the recent words of Pope Benedict XVI:
The passage from the book of Revelation also indicates another important aspect of Mary’s reality. As the living Ark of the Covenant, she has an extraordinary destiny of glory because she is so closely united to the Son, whom she welcomed in faith and generated in the flesh, as to share fully in his glory in Heaven. This is what the words we have heard suggest: “A great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun…” (Rev.12:1). Mary, Mother of God, full of grace, fully docile to the action of the Holy Spirit, already lives in God’s Heaven, with her whole being, body and soul” (Benedict XVI, “Homily Mass for the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” August 15, 2011).
This gold nugget! The opening Prayer for the Liturgy of the Assumption: All-powerful and ever-living God, you raised the sinless Virgin Mary, mother of your Son, body and soul to the glory of heaven. May we see heaven as our final goal and come to share her glory. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
And, this final flourish! The Assumption of Mary into heaven is a living testament to the Resurrection of Jesus and our resurrections into heaven. Because Mary is the first Christian, God deigned to demonstrate her resurrection in a unique manner (by virtue of the death and resurrection of her only Son). Just as Christ came into the world – to His Mother – in a singular fashion, so God has deigned that Mary should go to heaven – to her Son – in a singular manner.
Leon Bent is an ex-Seminarian and studied the Liberal Arts and Humanities, and Philosophy, from St. Pius X College, Mumbai. He holds Masters Degree in English Literature and Aesthetics. He has published three Books and have 20 on the anvil. He has two extensively “Researched” Volumes to his name: Hail Full of Grace and Matrimony: The Thousand Faces of Love. He won The Examiner, Silver Pen Award, 2000 for writing on Social Issues, the clincher being a Researched Article on Gypsies in India, published in an issue of the (worldwide circulation) Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection, New Delhi. On April, 28, 2018, Leon received the Cardinal Ivan Dias Award for a research paper in Mariology.