Pastor's Column

Mary is Assumed into Heaven

Pastor’s Column

19^th Sunday Ordinary Time

August 15, 2010

How many resurrected bodies do we know are in heaven right now?  The answer, of course, is that there are at least two: Jesus and his mother.  Jesus’ ascension is found in scripture; Mary’s assumption is not.  So why do we believe this?

          First of all, in the Old Testament, Elijah was caught up in a whirlwind and taken up to heaven in a chariot directly from earth without dying (2 Kings 2:8ff);  Enoch was a friend of God who did not die “because God took him” (Genesis 5:24).  So already in the Old Testament we find humans close to God who have bodies in the next world.

          In the New Testament, after Jesus rose from the dead, many saints came out of their tombs bodily and appeared to the believers (Matthew 27:52-53).  What happened to them after that?  Is it really realistic to think that these saints then went back into their tombs, closed the door and died again?  Obviously, they are already sharing in the bodily resurrection of the dead with Jesus, something all believers will share in one day.

          We know that many in the early Church believed in the Assumption of Mary, because from the earliest times there have been Churches dedicated to Mary’s Assumption, even though it was not dogmatically defined until recently.

          In light of these biblical realities, it would be odd if Mary didn’t share in the bodily resurrection of the dead, like some of the saints already have. This is because Mary was conceived without sin, in anticipation of her son’s birth, for how could the Son of God have taken flesh from a woman born into sin?  Therefore death, the penalty of sin, could not hold Mary’s body.

          Mary’s Assumption is a feast for us all, because God’s will is that all believers will one day live with him, body and soul, like Mary, in heaven.  Angels are pure spirits, but we humans are both flesh and spirit.  We cannot be fully human without both!  But in the next world, after the resurrection of the dead, the body we will receive will be a glorified body like that of Christ, not subject to sin and death, and not confined to time and space or the earth we live on.  Mary already shares this great gift.  When we reflect on this truth of our faith, we cannot but be filled with hope.  The present may be tough, but, in Christ, the future is glorious, and Mary points the way for us!

                                                                                Father Gary