The Assumption
One
Why do we believe in the bodily Assumption of Mary into heaven when it is not recorded in Scripture?
Jesus is the Word of God and everything He wants us to know, which is called the deposit of faith, is handed down by Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium, the teaching authority of the Church.
The constant big “T” Tradition handed down by the Apostles is that Mary lived in Jerusalem until she either fell into a type of deep sleep or coma, this is why they call it the Dormition of Mary, or that she died. The Church has not defined which. Then the Apostles carried her body in a funeral procession to the estate of Gethsemane and buried her in a tomb. They were then witnesses of her bodily assumption into heaven like they had been witnesses to the Ascension of Jesus into heaven. They then handed down their testimony to this event which took place in Jerusalem.
St. Germanus of Constantinople in a homily given in the year 720 states that Mary’s Assumption into heaven was witnessed by the Apostles who then could confirm the truth by their authority. “Your departure did not lack witnesses…Heaven tells the glory of those who ran to meet you then; earth presents the truth about it; the clouds cry out the honor they paid you, and the angels tell of the offering of gifts that was made to you then, when the Apostles were at your side as you passed away above Jerusalem.”
The empty tomb of Mary remains in a very ancient Church next to Gethsemane in Jerusalem. It is one of my favorite places to pray.
Two
Even though Mary was assumed into Heaven body and soul she has not left us orphans. Our Mother is with us.
Mary has been coming to her children with a greater frequency and urgency since 1830 when she gave the Miraculous Medal apparition in Paris. Her appearances have increased in number, length, and urgency from the late 1960s until this day. Her message is very straightforward.
The world has forgotten God and turned away from him in sin. Sin always results in self-destruction for individuals, families, and the world. God doesn’t want this, but he can’t force us to turn back so He sends his mother to call us to convert. She is very worried about her children because every person in the world is her child. She’s calling us to return to God by prayer and the sacrament of Reconciliation.
Wherever you are in your journey, Our Lady is calling you to turn back to God in daily prayer and confession once a month.
Our Lady said, “Monthly Confessions will be a remedy for the church in the west… whole sections of the Church could be cured if the believers would go to Confession once a month.”
Three
Our Lady is calling us to prayer because prayer is the path to conversion.
How is prayer the process to conversion?
She asked us to begin with the rosary. But she wants us to pray with the heart which means the rosary must be a meditation on the word of God, not be a rote saying of words while the mind wanders.
The word of God consists of Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium, that’s why we give you a little piece of the Word of God before every decade so that you can think about it, reflect on it for the span of time during the Our Father Hail Mary and the Glory Be.
As we think about the Word of God we apply it to our lives. Am I living this or not? Then we make a resolution, the choice to live what Jesus is saying today in some small concrete way. That is how we convert, how we grow from vice to virtue.
But without daily meditation and a resolution we won’t change, we won’t convert.
Four
Help your brothers and sisters
Just as solitary embers grow cold alone, so does faith without friendship. We all need a small group of family and friends with whom we share life and faith regularly.
Our Lady has asked specifically that we form Rosary groups. Remember Saint Martha, her sister Mary and her brother Lazarus might never have met Jesus if Martha had not invited Jesus to her house so that they could become friends.
There is a very simple formula, friendship, good conversation, and the Rosary. But someone has to be the Martha and invite others.
I understand we struggle to invite people to our home. But let me assure you, if you leave your house messy you will make everyone feel a lot better about their own imperfection and mess. People don’t want to come to a perfect house or big spread. People are dying of friendship deficit syndrome. They just want to be invited, have someone take interest in them, care about them.
Invite people. Be interested in their lives. Pray the rosary, then ask them what they were reflecting on and have some good conversation. It’s just friendship, good conversation, and the Rosary.
Five
Consecration to Mary
Finally, the feast of the Assumption of Mary calls us to consecrate ourselves to her.
Why consecration to Mary? Because there is always a joint mission of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The mission of Jesus is to give his life through the priesthood and the sacraments and that is the great gift of our parishes. But let’s not forget the mission of the Holy Spirit that is made manifest in Mary especially through the Rosary and deeper prayer to open our soul to receive the life of Jesus given in the sacraments.
In consecration, we give ourselves entirely to Mary so that the Holy Spirit may reveal Jesus to us and dispose our souls to receive Him more fully.
In the 700s, St. John Damascene taught everyone to consecrate themselves to Mary. At the empty Tomb of Mary in Jerusalem where she was assumed into heaven body and soul, John consecrated himself to Mary with this prayer, “We today also remain near you, O Lady. Yes, I repeat, O Lady, Mother of God and Virgin. We bind our souls to your hope, as to a most firm and totally unbreakable anchor, consecrating to you our mind, soul, body and all our being and honoring you as much as we can with psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles.”
So the Church gives us these eight days between August 15th and August 22nd culminating on the feast of the Queenship of Mary to consecrate ourselves more to Mary, to commit to praying the Rosary every day, and to form our Rosary groups so that once She is the Queen of our hearts then Jesus will reign as the King of our heart.