Even though the privilege of the Assumption is not explicitly mentioned in the New Testament, tradition and solid theological reasoning show that it is implicitly revealed in the scriptures. In the Old Testament, the distinctiveness of Mary as the "woman" was declared (Gen 3:15) as a being through whom the promised redemption would become a reality. The New Testament affirms this fact of God's redemptive plan (Lk 1; 1 Jn 3:9). The Blessed Virgin was "full of grace" and could not be perfect as God had foretold, unless she remained incorruptible (1 Cor 15:54-57), Rightly, then, St Germanus of Constantinople wrote that Mary's virginal body is an altogether holy and chaste dwelling for God and can never know dissolution into dust.
The tradition of the Assumption was already proclaimed as early as the year 749 by St John Damascene. "Mary conceived without detriment to her virginal modesty, brought forth her Son without pain, passed hence without decay, according to the word of the angel, or rather God speaking by the angel, that she might be shown to be full, not half-full, of grace," wrote Pope Alexander III. In 1568, Pope Pius V made the feast of the Assumption a holy day for the entire Church.
The doctrine's development is closely related to a feast devoted to Mary that passed from a general celebration in her honor to one celebrated on 15 August commemorating her dormition, or " falling asleep." When this feast, which originated in the Byzantine Empire, probably in the 5th century, came into the Western Church, the term dormition was replaced by "Assumption." This reflected an increased theological emphasis on the glorification of the complete person of Mary, i.e., of her body as well as her soul, anticipating the state promised to the rest of humankind.
Christians have always held that Mary is God's Mother, that sin had no hold on her from the moment she was born, and that, as God's handmaid, she held the most crucial place in the history of salvation, only second to that of her Son. Indeed, since Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life himself has said, "Where I am, there shall my servant be also" (Jn 12:26). How can his own Mother not share his dwelling place?
Only after obtaining a formal assessment of the sentiments of the people in each diocese from the world's bishops did Pope Pius XII define the dogma of the Assumption as a tenet of faith in his Encyclical, Munificentissimus Deus, on 1 November 1950.
Today, the Church rejoices in the exaltation of the humble handmaid of the Lord. Indeed, God, the Almighty, who has "done great things" for Mary, as declared by her in the Magnificat, has now done the greatest of all great things for her! Truly, the Assumption has been well described as Our Lady's Easter, for on this day, we celebrate not only her passing from this life but also her resurrection and ascension into heavenly glory, whereby she shares fully in the triumph of the Risen Lord! Rightly then, on this feast, the Church Universal, with one voice, joins Mary in exulting: "Holy His Name!"
Almighty ever-living God, who assumed the Immaculate Virgin Mary, the Mother of your Son, into heavenly glory, grant we pray that, always attentive to the things that are above, we may merit to be sharers of her glory. Amen.
Jonathan Fabian Ginunggil,
Most High Servant,
Jesus, Mary, Joseph Ministry of Love
(Blessed and Saints and the Nine Choirs of Angels)
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