“Finally, the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.” [Vatican II LG 59; cf. Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus (1950): DS 3903; cf. Rev 19:16] The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son’s Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians:
In giving birth you kept your virginity; in your Dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life. You conceived the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death. [Byzantine Liturgy, Troparion, Feast of the Dormition, August 15th]
(Catechism of the Catholic Church §966)
Objections
“This is truly an amazing dogma, yet there is no Scriptural proof for it….”
Assumption and coronation of the Virgin
Raphael (1483-1520) Says who? Pius XII states the dogma is based on the Sacred
Writings (Scripture): “All these proofs and considerations of the holy Fathers and the theologians are based upon the SacredWritings as their ultimate foundation.”
(Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus)And not “amazing” if one considers in Scripture that Enoch and Elijah were “assumed” to heaven, body and soul; and perhaps Moses if we interpret Jude’s mention with the apocryphal literature (Assumption or Testament of Moses) as an “assumption” of the body of Moses. Jesus ascended to heaven on his own power, body and soul, and it is only fitting that His own Mother, the holy Mother of God, would also not see corruption. All true Christians will eventually be sinless and bodily assumed (resurrected and glorified) in heaven. The Blessed Virgin Mary, being a type of the Church as all the Fathers taught, is an example of the perfected Christian in heaven (cf. the holy, stainless, blameless Church mentioned in Ephesians 5:25-33; Heb 12:22ff; Rev 21:1ff). Mary received that perfected state (in soul and body) before the rest of Christ’s Church by the grace of God.
“Often there are theologians and preachers who, following in the footsteps of the holy Fathers, have been rather free in their use of events and expressions taken from Sacred Scripture to explain their belief in the Assumption. Thus, to mention only a few of the texts rather frequently cited in this fashion, some have employed the words of the psalmist: ‘Arise, O Lord, into your resting place: you and the ark, which you have sanctified’; and have looked upon the Ark of the Covenant, built of incorruptible wood and placed in the Lord’s temple, as a type of the most pure body of the Virgin Mary, preserved and exempt from all the corruption of the tomb and raised up to such glory in heaven.
“Treating of this subject, they also describe her as the Queen entering triumphantly into the royal halls of heaven and sitting at the right hand of the divine Redeemer. Likewise, they mention the Spouse of the Canticles ‘that goes up by the desert, as a pillar of smoke of aromatical spices, of myrrh and frankincense’ to be crowned. These are proposed as depicting that heavenly Queen and heavenly Spouse who has been lifted up to the courts of heaven with the divine Bridegroom.
“Moreover, the scholastic Doctors have recognized the Assumption of the Virgin Mother of God as something signified, not only in various figures of the Old Testament, but also in that woman clothed with the sun whom John the Apostle contemplated on the Island of Patmos. Similarly, they have given special attention to these words of the New Testament: ‘Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women,’ since they saw, in the mystery of the Assumption, the fulfillment of that most perfect grace granted to the Blessed Virgin and the special blessing that countered the curse of Eve.” (Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus)
As for biblical evidence for the belief, Pius XII refers to several texts and Marian types: the holy Ark of the Covenant; Psalm 132(131):8; Psalm 45(44):10-14; Song of Songs 3:6; 4:8; 6:9; Rev 12:1ff (cf. 11:19); Luke 1:28. If the “Ark” of Psalm 132:8 or the “Woman” of Revelation 12 is the Blessed Mary, then the Scriptures directly
“prove” the Assumption. But scholars interpret these texts different ways. As Pius XII explained, the Church Fathers were “rather free in their use of events and expressions” taken from Scripture. But neither Pius XII nor the Fathers ignored the Scriptures when speaking of Mary’s Assumption into heaven:
“These [the “Sacred Writings,” the Scriptures] set the loving Mother of God as it were before our very eyes as most intimately joined to her divine Son and as always sharing His lot. Consequently, it seems impossible to think of her, the one who conceived Christ, brought Him forth, nursed Him with her milk, held Him in her arms, and clasped Him to her breast, as being apart from Him in body, even though not in soul, after this earthly life. Since our Redeemer is the Son of Mary, He could not do otherwise, as the perfect observer of God’s law, than to honor, not only His eternal Father, but also His most beloved Mother. And, since it was within His power to grant her this great honor, to preserve her from the corruption of the tomb, we must believe that He really acted in this way.” (Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus)
The Scriptures are the ultimate theological foundation for the dogma, according to Pius XII.