On the Feast of the Assumption, it might be useful to post a few links explaining the dogma and the feast, since it is one of those matters on which First Things readers find themselves divided. And quite rightly, because it expresses deep differences in the way we understand the Church, read Scripture, see our place in the Communion of Saints, and the like.
This being the case, understanding what the Catholic Church will be helpful. If you’re interested, you might start with Pope Pius XII’s Munificentissimus Deus . Notice how carefully and indeed narrowly worded it is.
A short systematic explanation from an Australian theologian, Some Thoughts on the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary , may help, as may another more journalistic one from the English newspaper The Catholic Herald , Why do we believe in the Assumption? . And here are a couple short meditations by John Henry Newman , with links to others. (Energetic readers interested will find more apologetic material easy to find on the web.)
Here is a mediation (attached to the end of the first link) from one of Newman’s Discourses to Mixed Congregations , which expresses much of what the dogma means to the Catholic:
And therefore she died in private. It became Him who died for the world, to die in the world’s sight; it became the Great Sacrifice to be lifted up on high, as a light that could not be hid. But she, the lily of Eden, who had always dwelt out of the sight of man, fittingly did she die in the garden’s shade, and amid the sweet flowers in which she had lived.Her departure made no noise in the world. The Church went about her common duties, preaching, converting, suffering; there were persecutions, there was fleeing from place to place, there were martyrs, there were triumphs: at length the rumour spread abroad that the Mother of God was no longer upon earth.
Pilgrims went to and fro; they sought for her relics, but they found them not; did she die at Ephesus? or did she die at Jerusalem? reports varied; but her tomb could not be pointed out, or if it was found, it was open; and instead of her pure and fragrant body, there was a growth of lilies from the earth which she had touched. So, inquirers went home marvelling, and waiting for further light.
And then it was said how that when her dissolution was at hand, and her soul was to pass in triumph before the judgment seat of her Son, the Apostles were suddenly gathered together in one place, even in the Holy City, to bear part in the joyful ceremonial; how that they buried her with fitting rites; how that the third day, when they came to the tomb, they found it empty, and angelic choirs with their glad voices were heard singing day and night the glories of their risen Queen.
But, however we feel towards the details of this history (nor is there anything in it which will be unwelcome or difficult to piety), so much cannot be doubted, from the consent of the whole Catholic world and the revelations made to holy souls, that as is befitting, she is, soul and body, with her Son and God in heaven, and that we are enabled to celebrate not only her death, but her Assumption.
