On Monday, Aug. 15, the Church will celebrate the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. While that Solemnity is a Holy Day of Obligation, since it falls on a Monday this year, the faithful are not required by the Church to attend Mass. Still, this feast of Mary should find an important place in our faith and in our hearts.

 

The Assumption is the faith of the Church that Mary, at the end of her life, was taken up to heaven, body and soul, to be joined to Christ her son. The description of this event is not found in Sacred Scripture. But the belief that Mary was assumed into heaven body and soul was present in the early centuries of the Church. Pope Saint Pius XII infallibly declared the Assumption to be a part of our Catholic faith in 1950.

 

Of course there is an immediate similarity to be noted between the Ascension of Jesus, 40 days after His resurrection, and Mary’s assumption. Most especially, both express the revelation that we are called to be in heaven not just as spiritual realities but as whole persons, body and soul. 

 

That means that even now, Jesus is at the right hand of the Father as we pray each Sunday in the Creed. But He is there not simply spiritually but also in His glorified body. Mary, not just as Jesus’s mother but rather as the perfect disciple who never sinned but always gave her will to Christ, has already followed Him by means of this great privilege. She too has been taken from among us and is already in heaven with Christ in her glorified body.

 

Of course in Jesus’s case, He ascended into heaven. That means that He did so by His own will and divine power. Mary, however, was assumed into heaven. That has a passive sense, meaning that she was not taken up by her own power. Instead, as in all things, she is the recipient of grace and the power of God.

 

However, the truth of our faith asserts that Mary’s Assumption is not an ancient myth or a pious tale by which we attempt to honor the Mother of Jesus. If that were the case the Assumption would still be false and unworthy of our belief.

 

But the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary has deep and daily implications for our lives. For example, it tells us that we were made to follow Jesus not only with our will and our conduct. Rather, we are meant to follow Him eternally by joining in the glory of His Ascension. 

 

This dogma also has great importance for our understanding of our human nature. In modern society, the human person is often understood to consist of our soul, that is, the thinking, reasoning and deciding part of our nature. The body is often conceived of as an external component that carries around the soul which bears our identity.

 

In that case, the body is really the tool of our soul. It can be manipulated, pleasured or otherwise used as each one of us decides.

 

But the Assumption, along with the Ascension of Christ, reminds us that this body we bear is a gift from God. It is a part of who and what we will be for all eternity, in heaven or in hell. Accordingly, we need to respect that gift and to incorporate it in our preparations and struggle for eternal life with Christ.

 

We need to reverence our bodies and those of others. Our acknowledgement of the gift of our gender as given by God, the care of the body in this life as well as the reverent burial of its remains awaiting Christ’s return are signs of our acceptance of this reality.

 

Yes, we are not obligated to attend Mass on Aug. 15 this year. But how good it would be for us to attend Mass anyway to celebrate Mary’s Assumption and to pray that we live faithfully, ready to join her and her son, body and soul, in heaven.