J.M.J.
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May God and the Blessed Virgin Mary bless you who are reading this Post.
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Catholics honor the Blessed Virgin Mary on this day, August 15, with the Solemnity of the Assumption, one of the principal feasts of our Blessed Mother. We commemorate the departure of Our Lady from her earthly life and the assumption of her body and soul into heaven by God. It is a Holy Day of Obligation in many countries around the world like New Zealand and the United States. Here in the Philippines though, it is not.
The belief in the Assumption of Mary is a centuries-old tradition among the faithful and the Saints since the earliest years of the Church. On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII issued Munificentissimus Deus, an Apostolic Constitution, which officially proclaimed the Assumption as a Marian Dogma:
“By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a revealed dogma that the Immaculate Mother of God ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”
Be reminded that the belief in the Assumption is obligatory for all Catholics because it is no longer a mere ancient tradition, but a dogma of faith. If a person refuses to accept this teaching of the Church, he or she, as Pope Pius XII declared, “has fallen away completely from the divine and Catholic Faith.”
Did the Blessed Mother die a physical death?
Many wonder about the events prior to the Assumption – whether the Blessed Mother died, as all humans do, and was assumed thereafter, or whether she was assumed into heaven before actually dying. However, it is not compulsory for Catholics to believe either theory.
The tradition in both the East and the West is that she indeed died prior to being assumed. Some people believe, on the other hand, that she was simply transported to heaven before death. In the explanation of this Marian Dogma, Pope Pius XII himself repeatedly mentioned the death of the Blessed Virgin. But remember that it is not about whether she did or did not go through physical death. Either way Catholics may think of it, to believe with utmost faith in the very Assumption of Mary is what’s most important.
By the way, it can be said that what happened to Enoch (a descendant of Seth, who was a son of Adam and Eve) and Prophet Elijah (my most favorite Bible hero in the Old Testament) was similar to the Assumption because God took their earthly bodies with no mention of death of any sort. What’s different though, based on Church tradition, according to our Church Fathers and Doctors, and as revealed in the vision of a great mystic of the Church, Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, is that these two holy men are in another kind of heaven, where they await the time that God will send them back to the world to lead His people, and to die a human death before the last part of the Apocalypse. Saint Thomas Aquinas claims in his writing:
“Elijah was raised into the aerial, not the empyrean heaven, which is the abode of the Saints, and in like manner Enoch was carried away to a terrestrial paradise, where he and Elijah, it is believed, will live together until the coming of the Antichrist.”
– Summa Theologica, iii, Q. xlix, art. 5
Our Blessed Mother’s Assumption is also remembered in the Holy Rosary as the Fourth Glorious Mystery. Pope Pius XII taught us that God from all eternity regarded Our Lady with a most favorable affection that He desired to grant her every prayer. Thus, we must run to the Holy Mother who is in Heaven in her entire being, by God’s power and grace, that she may intercede for us, and present our prayers before Her Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Mass Readings for the Day:
Revelation 11:19A; 12:1-6A; 10 AB, Psalm 45:10, 11, 12, 16, 1 Corinthians 15:20-27; Luke 1:39-56
My Reflection:
1. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the preview of God’s promise of salvation to the Faithful. It asserts that the souls of those who will be saved shall one day, after the end of the world, be reunited with their bodies and live forever with God, just as Mary is in Heaven now with both her body and soul.
Let us take a moment to reflect on the Readings for the Day in order to better understand our own journey to Heaven and how we may get there someday.
2. In the Second Reading from the Book of Corinthians, Christ is referred to as the “firstfruits” for offering Himself on the Cross and being the first ever to resurrect from the dead. St. Paul explains that Christ’s Resurrection is not the conclusion, but the beginning for all of us. God desires our own resurrection and assumption as the finale of the story of salvation. And it was the Virgin Mary who first shared in the fruit of the Risen Jesus. It is fittingly described in the Responsorial Psalm, “The queen takes her place at your right hand in gold of Ophir.” She was assumed into Heaven even before the end of the world since she was the most united with Our Lord in His life, Passion, Death and Resurrection.
3. We too can share in the promise of eternal life as long as we “belong” to Christ and our bodies, hearts and minds remain “united” with Him. The Saints have already been waiting for their bodies and souls to be reunited in Heaven. Let us aspire to be saints ourselves. We may not fully comprehend now the grandness of God’s Kingdom and the profoundness of an everlasting life, but that should not prevent us from endeavoring to get there and attain it. We can start by constantly praying to God that He allows us to share in the same glory of Christ in His Second Coming.
4. In the First Reading, Revelation 12:1 speaks about “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” This woman is Mary.
5. The next verses in the Book of Revelation describe the woman as having the pangs of childbirth. But we know from Church teaching that in the physical realm, Mary was free of labor pains during the birth of Jesus. That is because the pain of childbirth is a consequence of original sin (Genesis 3:16). Since Mary was conceived without original sin (Catechism of the Catholic Church 490-493), and preserved from any stain of it, she therefore was spared from any labor pains.
6. Why then in Revelation did the woman “[wail] aloud in pain as she labored to give birth?” Here we must do an anagogical interpretation, which is the mystical or spiritual method of interpretation of the verses in the Scripture.
The crown of 12 stars indicates that Mary is also Jerusalem, who labors to bring forth the Messiah (Isaiah 26:17). Mary is also the Mother of the Church from which the children of God are born, baptized and raised. Mary accompanies us God’s children as we go through life pains that result from our own personal inner conflicts, consequences of sins, and attacks of the Devil and evil spirits. Finally, Mary is the Mother of God. While she did not experience childbirth pains, this lowly handmaid endured with Jesus the ‘pangs’ of His Passion and Death at the Calvary, which ultimately gave birth to our Redemption.
7. The First Reading from Revelation also speaks of the “dragon,” which “stood before the woman about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth.” This refers to the Devil, along with his minions- demons and evil spirits.
8. Now, what do all these Mass Readings say about the significance of the Assumption in your life?
We must realize that the Devil has always wanted to hurt the Blessed Mother and the Holy Child. But the Devil could never ever hurt the Blessed Virgin, who was immaculately conceived without sin and remained sinless throughout her life. We read in the Gospel of Luke how God’s grace truly rests in Mary, for as she arrived with her Most Chaste Spouse, Joseph, at the house of Elizabeth, with John the Baptist in her womb, was “filled with the Holy Spirit” and exclaimed in greeting, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb… the mother of my Lord.”
Mary herself acknowledged the favor she had been given by the Lord – “He has looked with favor on his lowly servant.” God would never let the Devil touch and harm her in any way. The Book of Revelation echoed this, saying, “The woman herself fled into the desert where she had a place prepared by God.” We see that the providence and protection of God had been with Mary all along and always will.
9. Since the Beginning, we know that the Devil could also never hurt Jesus, the Son of God. With Satan, frustrated and desperate, unable to hurt the Blessed Mother physically, and by his different tactics, such as making her sin, what’s left for him to do? Answer is – Hurt her Immaculate Heart, by going after her other children – you, me, us – the Church. Just like in the movies wherein the villain often does revenge against the protagonist’s loved ones, especially his or her children, the Devil goes after the rest of us, because we are the sons and daughters of the Blessed Mother; we are the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.
10. In other words, Satan is the threat to our salvation, which means that he endangers our chance of sharing in the Assumption that Mary had. The damned in Hell are going to have an eternal death and can never have their bodies and souls united in Heaven. Since the ultimate goal for the men and women of God is to share in the priceless fruit of the Lord’s Resurrection, we know that Satan would never make it easy for any soul.
11. Due to our sins, inclinations to sin, and human weaknesses, we are vulnerable and prone to the attacks of the Devil who is the real enemy of the children of the Blessed Mother. Evil spirits can attack by ordinary means through temptations to sin, and by extraordinary means through demonic oppression and possession. That is why we are in a spiritual warfare our whole life. Ephesians 6:12 clearly affirms this:
“For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.”
12. Whenever we wonder why this is such a hard life, now we know that it is because of the consequences of our wrongdoings, and at the same time, the spiritual war waged by the Devil against us, the children of the Blessed Mother.
13. But we will be able to quench all the flaming arrows sent to us by the evil one – Ephesians 6:10-17 teaches us what to do. We must draw strength from the mighty power of the Lord, put on the armor of God by holding the truth of the Faith as shield, clothe ourselves with righteousness as our breastplate, stay grounded with readiness for the gospel of peace, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
14. We can do the above by constantly availing all the necessary tools for salvation that our Church has– the Sacraments. The Blessed Mother also said in her Church-approved Apparitions that we must pray the Rosary daily. It is through the help of Mary that we can successfully win every battle thrown against us by the Devil, and even his human followers. The child of the woman in the Book of Revelation clearly would not be able to survive if his mother did not flee to the shelter that God prepared. We too can never survive without the Church and the Blessed Virgin whom God, for all eternity, has chosen for us to be our Mother. If you think that you would be able to do so without her aid, that very thought is an attack of the Devil on you. One thing that is common among all the Saints is their deep love and devotion to the Blessed Mother when they were still alive on earth. I always read that all the Saints concur that we need the help of the Blessed Mother to be able to go to Heaven- because like the child, we need the woman, our Mother, to flee and escape the claws of evil.
15. There may be a time when we feel as if we are almost crushed to the ground and just want to expire. But remember that any pain or suffering only lasts a human lifetime. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin teaches us that our souls will live in Heaven with our glorified bodies forever. That spiritual reward must be our goal. Our good Lord is just and merciful. Mary proclaimed in her Magnificat, “He has mercy on those who fear him in every generation.” That is why we must never give up the fight. Let us pray that at the end of our lives on earth, we can say what Saint Paul the Apostle declares:
“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord the just judge will render to me in that day: and not only to me, but to them also that love his coming. Make haste to come to me quickly.”
– 2 Timothy 4:7-8
I encourage you to love and honor the Blessed Mother by praying her Magnificat, which is also called “The Canticle of Mary,” today, and every day, like I do.
Saint Elizabeth, pray for us!
Saint John the Baptist, pray for us!
Saint Joseph, pray for us!
Mama Mary, pray for us!
Amen.
She graduated cum laude from the University of Santo Tomas, the country's Pontifical and Catholic university, with an AB in Legal Management and minor units in Theology.
As an unmarried woman, prayer holds a central place in her daily life, with a focus on the Rosary and the Divine Office. Embodying her faith, she emphasizes the growth of her inner spiritual life, guided by the wisdom of Carmelite spirituality.
God manifested to her in a unique and radical manner, which made her know Who He truly is and led her to total surrender of her life to Him.
She has studied the Bible with her family, developing a particular fondness for the Old Testament.
Her adorable and intelligent toy poodle is a delightful companion in her daily life, bringing warmth and joy to her home.
Her hobbies include reading about everything, learning Japanese and German, listening to music and playing the flute.
In her leisure time, she enjoys gaming on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch OLED, Nintendo 3DS, iOS and OS, and collecting things related to PlayStation and Nintendo.
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