Mary
Catholics annually celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of Mary on August 15. One of the several special feasts associated with Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Feast of the Assumption calls upon Catholics world wide to recall the role of Mary in Salvation History and to attend a celebration of Holy Mass . For faithful Catholics the Feast of the Assumption is a day to connect in prayer to the life of Mary but also to recall that in her life, death and assumption into heaven we all can find hope for the resurrection of our own bodies into eternal life.
The Many Feasts of Mary
More than any other Christian Church, the Roman Catholic Church holds Mary in special regard and accords to her several special days of commemoration during its liturgical year. On Dec. 8 the Church celebrates the Immaculate Conception of Mary. On this day Catholics celebrate their belief that Mary entered the world free from what the Church calls the "stain of Original Sin". The Catholic Church holds that because Mary would become the Mother of Jesus she was allowed the special privilege of being born as an immaculate or thoroughly pure human being, free of all sin.
On Jan. 1, the Catholics do not gather together to celebrate a mass to begin the new year. The mass celebration on that day instead is centered on "The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God". On this day , attention is turned to the role Mary played in the life of Jesus from the time of his infancy, through his public ministry until his death of the cross. Catholics are called upon to both honor and take as a model the qualities of humility and obedience they believe Mary demonstrated throughout her life.
Mary's Birthday is celebrated by the Church on September 8 and the entire month of May is dedicated to Mary as well. More than any other human being associated with Jesus, Mary has survived in Catholic tradition as the first and best example of what it means to be a follower of Christ .
The Feast of the Assumption
Among the Feast Days and remembrances of Mary, one that has caused considerable conflict between Catholics and non-Catholics is the Feast of the Assumption. On August 15 Catholics will recall and celebrate their belief that Mary's death was very different than that suffered by all other human beings. It is the Church's belief that while Mary passed from this earthly life, she never suffered the natural corruption of the body to which we are all liable. Instead after her early life was finished she was, in the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, " taken up" body and soul into heavenly glory. In a sense this was Mary's heavenly birthday, the day in which she was received into heaven.
The Feast has two significant aspects for Catholics. First Mary's Assumption is a gift from God. She did not raise herself from the dead. She is not a female Jesus. She did not experience a resurrection in the same way that believers say Christ arose from the dead. She was not seen after burial walking among the living. The belief is that she ended her earthly existence but was then taken from this world into the next.
Secondly this feast is of special importance to human beings because it can be seen as an example of what awaits all faithful believers after death. Those who have lived the Christian lifestyle can expect that beyond death waits life. What was given to Mary after death awaits us all. Mary then becomes a sign of hope for those who have faith.
A Few Questions.
For Catholics, the Assumption is simply another mystery of the Catholic faith. While they may not be able to apply the rules of science to the event they nonetheless accept it with the eyes of faith. Is it likely that Jesus would provide this special gift for the woman who bore him and cared for him and mourned him but remained faithful throughout? The answer for Catholics is resoundingly yes.
But for those outside the Catholic Church the Assumption can cause a whole raft of issues. To begin with, for those Christian faiths that rely totally on what is in the Bible, the Assumption lacks scriptural validity. You can look, but you won't find the Feast of the Assumption anywhere in anyone's Bible. In fact there is very little mention of Mary after her death in any Christian sources until around the year 500 A. D. For many Christian churches, Apostolic Tradition which Catholics depend upon, is simply not sufficient to validate such a major event.
Doubters are also troubled by what little they can find to read about the death of Mary. There are different schools of thought about where the actual physical burial of Mary took place with some insisting on Jerusalem while others holding on to Ephesus . There are differing opinions about when she died. Best guesses place the death of Mary sometime between 3 and 15 years after the death of her son Jesus, but there is no real consensus. If no one knows for sure when or where Mary was buried, it becomes increasingly more difficult to prove or for that matter disprove anything about Mary's death other than that she did at some time die.
The Infallibility of the Catholic Church.
This is where the doctrine of the infallibility of the Catholic Church comes into play. The Church promulgated the Assumption of Mary on Nov. 1, 1950. But at that time the Church did not say they thought this is what happened, or it was their best guess that the Assumption was a valid belief. The Catholic Church declared that the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary was being infallibly defined by Pope Pius XII. This means that in the mind of the Church the Pope's statement on this dogma is preserved by the Holy Spirit from the possibility of error.
As difficult as the concept of the Assumption may be for non-Catholics to accept or even understand, papal infallibility is a concept that clearly separates the Catholic Church from other Christian Churches. The concept was approved by the First Vatican Council in 1870. While it is used with great forbearance, the doctrine of papal infallibility seems to put the Catholic hierarchy beyond question and give it an ascendancy which non-Catholics find in many ways repugnant or at least arrogant.
Every August 15, Catholics dutifully recall the Assumption of Mary, body and soul, into heaven. They celebrate Mary's life and they see in her death and new life in heaven, hope for their own future eternal salvation. The rest of Christianity doubts the authority but ponders the possibilities.
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