Solemnity
Today, Catholics around the world celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, commemorating the end of her earthly life and her assumption into heaven, body and soul. While the solemnity is relatively new, the dogma of the Assumption of Mary, also called the “Dormition of Mary” in the Eastern Churches, has its roots in the earliest centuries of the Church. While a site outside of Jerusalem was recognized as the tomb of Mary, the earliest Christians maintained that “no one was there.” According to St. John of Damascus, in the 5th century, at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, Roman Emperor Marcian requested the body of Mary, Mother of God. St. Juvenal, who was Bishop of Jerusalem at the time, replied, “that Mary died in the presence of all the Apostles, but that her tomb, when opened upon the request of St. Thomas, was found empty; wherefrom the Apostles concluded that the body was taken up to heaven.”
By the 8th century, around the time of Pope Adrian, the Church began to change its terminology, renaming the feast day of the Memorial of Mary to the Assumption of Mary.
The belief in the Assumption of Mary was a widely held tradition and was a frequent source for meditation in the writings of saints throughout the centuries. However, it was not defined officially until the middle of the last century. In 1950, Pope Pius XII made an infallible, ex-cathedra statement in the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimu Deus officially defining the dogma of the Assumption:
“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 divinely revealed dogma: 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.”
Within the decree, which was circulated beforehand to dioceses around the world, Pius surveys centuries of Christian thought and the writings of a number of saints on the Assumption of Mary. This thread runs throughout the whole of the history of the Church and that thread supports the dogma. The dogma supports the tradition of the Church, but it also supports a coming to a deeper understanding of the teachings of the Church on how we come to rely upon the reflections of some of the greatest minds of our Church. A notable feature of the dogma is that it uses the passive tense, emphasizing that Mary did not ascend into heaven on her own power, as Christ did, but was raised into heaven by God’s grace.
Today, the Solemnity of the Assumption is marked as a major feast day and a public holiday in many countries. In most countries, including the United States, it is a Holy Day of Obligation, a day that Catholics are required to attend Mass. The importance of this feast, and the others that we also commemorate as Holy Days of Obligation, is that the feast is especially vital by emphasizing the necessity of celebrating the Eucharist that day. What is more fitting than on the Assumption of the Blessed Mother to, once again, focus on her Son, celebrating the Eucharist?
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!