The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the fourth and the most recent of the Marian Dogmas. In Munificentissimus Deus, the 1950 Apostolic Constitution of Pope Pius XII, the Catholic Church decreed and declared that “the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”
My Reflection:
What The Assumption Means to Every Faithful
1. Mary’s Assumption is hope to every Faithful. It is the preview of God’s work of salvation for His people. As expressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 966), “The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is…an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians.” It thus affirms that someday, the souls of those who faithfully persevered “to the end” shall be reunited with their bodies and live forever with God, just as Mary is in Heaven now with both her body and soul.
2. But many of us forget to ponder and discover in our hearts that deep sense of hope and joyous anticipation that the Assumption brings. And it could be because, in this life journey, we often find ourselves in the opposite state- feeling helpless and stuck with a lot of problems or burdened with a lot of pains.
3. The death of a loved one, for example, can cause terrible pain for those family members who are left behind. Sometimes, they lose the will to live or fall into traps of vice or sin. Although such pain is hard to conquer, those people should try to go on living their lives, sooner or later. Wisdom 3:1-3 offers them comfort in saying, “The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace.”
4. Whatever we are going through, the reason why we must continue living and fighting is because all of us who are still here on earth have our own battles that we must focus on in order to enter Heaven. As we grow older, it seems that time passes us by more and more quickly. And too often, life’s concerns dampen our spiritual desire for the divine and dull our will to ‘fight a good fight.’ But the reality is that our own deaths will come and we shall all stand before God, awaiting judgment- to obtain the joy of Heaven or to be punished with the pains of Hell.
5. What God ultimately desires for us is our own resurrection and assumption to Heaven. He wants it to be the finale of the story of salvation of man, at the end of the world, after the Second Coming of Christ.
6. How do we know that? Scripture assures us that God our Savior, “wills everyone to be saved” (1 Timothy 2:4). When Jesus offered Himself on the Cross and resurrected from the dead, He became the “firstfruits.” As Saint Paul the Apostle explains in the Book of Corinthians, it means that through His Sacrifice, Jesus consecrated to God the entire harvest; “For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life, but each one in proper order: Christ the firstfruits; then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:22-23). It is God’s promise to all of us: Mary proclaims in the Magnificat, “For He has remembered His promise of mercy, the promise He made to our fathers, to Abraham and his children forever” (Luke 1:54-55).
7. And the promise has begun with Mary herself, the first to share in the fruit of the Risen Jesus Christ. She was already assumed into Heaven even before the end of the world, because she was most united with Our Lord in His life, Passion, Death and Resurrection. Mary, through her Assumption, was spared from “corruption of death” (CCC 2853). No matter what our state of life is, the fulfillment of God’s promise in Mary should prompt us to aspire for Heaven, and modeled after the hope of Abraham, to hope against hope (Romans 4:18), until we obtain the joy and glory of God’s Kingdom.
How do we become worthy of obtaining the Promise of eternal life?
In order for us to have a share in God’s promise, that is, to obtain our share in the fruits of Jesus Christ, our bodies, minds and hearts must remain united with Him, like Mary’s. We can unite ourselves with Our Savior, by suffering with Him, just as the sorrowful Blessed Mother, the Saints and the Martyrs of the Church did. We should pray to Our Heavenly Father to give us sufficient grace to willfully accept our personal sufferings and offer them to God.
But why does obtaining the Promised Inheritance of eternal life seem so difficult?
1. The Book of Revelation has an answer for this. Let us explore it a bit. Revelation 12:1-2 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 none other than Mary.
2. According to Revelation, this woman, who we now know is Mary, “[wail] aloud in pain as she labored to give birth.” But the pain of childbirth is a consequence of original sin (Genesis 3:16), and Mary was conceived without original sin (CCC 490-493), and preserved from any stain of it. She therefore was spared from any labor pain. Why did Revelation paint it that way when Mary was free from any pangs of childbirth during the birth of Jesus?
3. We must do an anagogical interpretation, which is the mystical or spiritual method of interpreting the verses in the Sacred Scripture.
The crown of 12 stars indicates that the woman who is Mary is also Jerusalem, who labors to bring forth the Messiah (Isaiah 26:17). While Mary did not experience childbirth pains, this lowly handmaid, as the Mother of God, endured with Jesus the ‘pangs’ of His Passion and Death at the Calvary, which ultimately gave birth to our Redemption. In the same way, Mary is 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 personal inner conflicts, consequences of sins, and attacks of the Devil and evil spirits.
4. Revelation also speaks of the “dragon,” which “stood before the woman about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth.” The dragon is the Devil, along with his minions- demons and evil spirits.
5. The Devil wanted to hurt the Blessed Mother and her Holy Child. But Satan could never ever hurt Jesus, the Son of God. He could not even tempt Him to sin as He fasted forty days and forty nights in the wilderness.
6. The Devil could also never harm the Blessed Virgin since she was immaculately conceived and remained sinless throughout her life. God would never ever let the Devil touch and harm Mary in any way. The Book of Revelation echoes this, saying, “The woman herself fled into the desert where she had a place prepared by God.” It is clear that the providence and protection of God had always been with Mary all along and always will be.
7. Frustrated and desperate, what’s left for Satan to do?
8. Answer: Hurt the Immaculate Heart of Mary, by going after her other children- you, me, us – the Church.
We see in movies and tv series how the villain does his or her revenge against the family, significant other, and especially, the children of the protagonist. As a kid in the Philippines during the 90’s, when there wasn’t much to do yet, that was always the theme of telenovelas that everybody here watched. But long, long ago, before all kinds of media ever existed, the Devil has already had this elaborate plot as his very tactic: the Devil goes after the rest of us for revenge, because we are the sons and daughters of the Blessed Mother; we are the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.
9. In other words, Satan is the threat to our salvation. He is endangering our chance of obtaining the promise of eternal life, of going through our own assumption, of sharing in the glory of the Holy Trinity and the Blessed Virgin in Heaven, body and soul.
10. So why does life seem so difficult, especially for the Faithful? Satan never makes it easy for any soul; never made it easy for every person that ever lived and it goes on with all of us who are still living and trying to accomplish the ultimate goal of sharing in the priceless fruit of the Lord’s Resurrection and Mary’s Glorious Assumption.
11. The real enemy of the children of the Blessed Mother is the Devil and the evil spirits. Combined with our sins, our inclinations to sin, and our human weaknesses, we are prone to the attacks of the demonic. The Devil and his minions attack both by ordinary means through temptations to sin, can be obvious and strong, or subtle but still powerful, and by extraordinary means, such as through demonic oppression and possession.
Know that our spiritual battle in this life is not merely a personal interior struggle, or simply ‘fighting your own inner demons,’ but it is a real, manipulated assault by the Devil to the children of Mary, the Blessed Mother. Ephesians 6:12 clearly recognizes 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. Being weighed down by stuffs of life and problems are sufferings sent to us by God- trials to test us and to purify our souls. But we should also know that some of these are brought about by the attacks and oppression of the Devil against us. Life also becomes harder when we struggle with sins due to our concupiscence, wrongdoings and shortcomings. Sometimes we also experience injustice from other people who are under the influence of the Devil and his minions.
On one hand, if we are too disinterested in living and ready to give up on life, or on the other, if we are too immersed in a worldly life and won’t let go, the evil side could easily sway us into believing their lies: that resurrection and assumption into eternal life is just never attainable and make us feel despair, or that there are people and things in this world that are far more important than Heaven and make us feel proud. Either disposition pulls us away from the heavenly inspiration of Mary and her Assumption.
Conclusion:
1. Lumen Gentium reminds us that Mary, the Mother of God, being glorified body and soul in heaven, is “a sign of sure hope and solace to the people of God during its sojourn on earth.”
2. Keep in mind how Revelation talks about snatching our souls from the Blessed Mother, so as to prevent us from having our own assumption at the end of the world. If we would remind ourselves of this often, we would be guarded. And we would cling ourselves ever so tightly to the protection and the intercession of our Blessed Mother so much more!
3. By the grace of God, and through the help of our Immaculate Mother, when we overcome all the spiritual attacks thrown against us by the Devil, until the end of our life, we will have our own assumption into Heaven, just like how Mary shares in the fruit of the Risen Christ. Mary’s Assumption and triumph over evil as the “New Eve” ‘foreshadows’ the promise of this future glory for the men and women of God against the Devil. What an inexplicable glory awaits the Faithful in Heaven!
4. The grandness of the Kingdom of God and the profoundness of an everlasting life are hard to fathom at this day and moment that we are still ‘attached’ to earth. But if the Saints in Heaven would only be able to speak directly to us right now, they will tell us that all the sufferings, sacrifices, and works we have ever offered in the Name of God will all be worth it, especially once our bodies and souls are fully together in Heaven.
At this point, even the Saints are still waiting for their bodies and souls to reunite after the Final Judgment. Still, they are already enjoying the beatific vision of seeing the Face of God. How we would love to also be given the beatific vision and see the face of our Heavenly Father.
5. The hope of Mary’s Assumption fortifies us physically and spiritually in the journey of our souls.
Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour. Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience makes doubtful what is certain, and turns a very short time into a long one. Dream that the more you struggle, the more you prove the love that you bear your God, and the more you will rejoice one day with your Beloved, in a happiness and rapture that can never end.
– Saint Teresa of Avila
Saint Joseph, pray for us!
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.
Email: [email protected]
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Beautiful! Thank you, I now understand the Feast of the Assumption. Praise God working through you to reach me.