So our collective recollections, both secular and religious, in the nine days preceding the Assumption are disturbing in view of the injustice, violence and degradation of the human body that characterize the events which they recall.
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, body and soul, into heaven was celebrated by the Church as early as the fifth century. Commemorated for centuries on Aug. 15, this solemnity ultimately points to the sublime dignity and destiny of the human body. It is meant to turn our eyes to eternal life, life to the fullest that awaits us beyond the grave.
In a sense, the Assumption is the antithesis of somber events both secular and religious, which are recalled annually on the days leading up to the fifteenth.
The anniversaries of the atomic explosions in Japan in 1945 are commemorated on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9. It is estimated that 80,000 people were killed immediately in Hiroshima and 40,000 in Nagasaki. Tens of thousands more perished in the days, months and years after from their injuries and radioactive poisoning.
Aug. 9 is also the memorial of Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Known in the world as Edith Stein, she was a brilliant German-Jewish philosopher who was inspired by the writings of Saint Teresa of Avila to convert to the Catholic faith. Following her spiritual mentor into Carmel, first in Germany and then in Holland, she suffered martyrdom in the gas chamber at Auschwitz because of her Jewish heritage and the hatred for the Catholic faith.
Aug. 14 is the memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe. A Polish Franciscan priest, his ministry was primarily as a journalist and publisher of apologetic material. Considered to be a Catholic intellectual and a threat to the Third Reich, he was arrested in 1941 and sentenced to hard labor at Auschwitz. After a prisoner had escaped from the camp, 10 others were marked for death as retribution. Maximilian volunteered to take the place of one of them and was imprisoned with the rest in an underground pit, where they were to be starved to death. After two weeks, he was still conscious and, on the vigil of the Assumption, he was given a lethal injection to hasten his death. His body, like that of Saint Teresa Benedicta, was disposed of as rubbish.
So our collective recollections, both secular and religious, in the nine days preceding the Assumption are disturbing in view of the injustice, violence and degradation of the human body that characterize the events which they recall.
In 1950, when Pope Pius XII considered the atrocities of the first half of the 20th century caused by Nazism, fascism, communism and two world wars, he believed that, despite the increase of sin, grace abounded all the more (Rom 5:20). He knew that in the midst of a depressing scenario where evil seemed to hold sway, indomitable rays of hope shined forth because Jesus is the Lord of history. He has saved humankind from sin and conquered death by his own Death. Pius XII knew that eternal death had been swallowed up in the victory of Christ crucified.
So in 1950, after consulting with the bishops of the world, the Holy Father solemnly declared the hope we have in eternal life by defining the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This states that Mary, when her earthly life was over, was taken into heaven, body and soul. It was the logical consequence of her Immaculate Conception. Because she was sinless from the moment of her conception – not tainted by original sin – her body would not experience death and decay as we do. Rather, she would have very peacefully transitioned from the earthly to the heavenly realm. This had been the belief of the faithful for centuries, and the Pope simply defined it officially.
The dogma of the Assumption asserts the dignity of the human body in spite of all the atrocities committed against it throughout history from the murder of Abel thousands of years ago to the murder of thousands of pre-born babies in the womb today. It rekindles our faith in the resurrection of the body. Mary is the image now of what we shall become at the end of time.
Hail, holy Queen, our life, our sweetness and our HOPE!
Father Edward Kolla is a retired priest of the Diocese.
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