Why We Need the Assumption

When we, as Catholics, hear someone refer to the “Assumption”, we may think of that Holyday of Obligation that comes around each year on the 15^th of August.    Or we might remember what we learned about this feast day in our catechism classes. “Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up boy and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might  be the more fully confirmed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.” (Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus, 1950)  How beautiful, we might agree, that the Mother of God herself was lifted up into the Presence of God Himself a the end of her life on earth.  But what does it mean for us today?  It means a great deal and we really need it.  
            
The amazing truth of the Assumption of Our Lady situates her at the very center of the mystery of her Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ.   It makes perfect sense that she who conceived Him, gave birth to Him presenting Him to the world, and being united with Him in His suffering and death, would be intimately bound to Him in the glory of His Resurrection and Ascension into heaven.  The pivotal role that she plays in Christ’s plan of redemption would continue as she would follow where He has gone before and sits at His side in the Kingdom.
            
It also makes perfect sense that her Assumption into heaven would show the world that the suffering and death that surrounds us in this life need not lead us into darkness and despair. Rather, despite the pain and desperation of the human experience, the hope of finding meaning and purpose in life and the joy of being brought into the presence of God is our destiny.
            
The promulgation of the Dogma of the Assumption on November 1, 1950 came at a most providential juncture in history.  It is true that from the early centuries of the Church’s history, belief in the Assumption was held by both faithful and clergy alike.  Saints, popes, bishops and spiritual writers expressed this beloved belief in homilies, documents and spiritual reflections.  But, in 1950, a clear expression of the Assumption of Our Lady was sorely needed.  
            
At this half-way point of the 20^th century hope had to be rekindled in the hearts of people. Two World Wars had seen a loss of well over 100 million lives. The atomic bomb was dropped in 1945 on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. National Socialism (Nazism), in addition to causing the conflagration of the Second World War, had orchestrated the Holocaust, an organized, methodical genocide that murdered over 6 million European Jews, in an effort to exterminate every Jew in Nazi-occupied territory. Because of the strength of Soviet influence at the end of the war, communism dominated Central and Eastern Europe as well as large parts of Asia. This atheistic ideology subjected the human person to the state thereby robbing the person of his or her inherent dignity and destroying the family.  People suffered horribly under these terrible ideologies. What a world of misery!
            
The world needed the proclamation of a spiritual truth that would give hope by manifesting the plan that God had for the human race. For individual persons living in a world that denied God, the inherent worth of human life, and a supernatural view of existence, hope was needed. The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin gave that hope.  By her Assumption, Mary our Mother pointed to the destiny that all should share – entering into the Kingdom that God has prepared for us.
            
Likewise, today , we need the truth of the Assumption of Our Lady to enkindle in our own hearts hope that will renew us.  We live in a world that is polarized, violent, distrustful, isolated and formed by electronic devices that replace normal human interaction.  The rate of depression and suicide is on the rise, especially among the young.  We are faced with wars and the persecution of Christians for their faith around the world.  We are confused about our own identity and often deny the importance of God in our lives.  Now, perhaps more than ever, we need the truth of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a manifestation of hope and a path to follow to God.  
            
The Preface of the Mass for the Feast of the Assumption sums it up well. “For today the Virgin Mother of God was assumed into heaven as the beginning and image of your Church’s coming to perfection and a sign of sure hope and comfort to your people.” The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of the Second Vatican Council (Lumen Gentium, 65,67) beautifully states, “So they (the faithful) lift up their eyes to Mary, shining above the whole community of God’s elect as the pattern of virtue…In the interim, just as the Mother of Jesus, glorified in body and soul in heaven, is the image and the beginning of the Church as it is to be perfected in the world to come, so too does she shine forth on earth, until the day of the Lord shall come (cf. 2Pt 3:10), as a sign of sure hope and solace to the People of God during its sojourn on earth.”
            
So, dear friends, we look to the Assumption of Our Blessed Mother as she shows the way to our final destination, and we entrust ourselves to her maternal love and powerful intercession. This great truth of her Assumption body and soul into heaven is a source of great hope for us today. It tells us that God has a plan for us. It declares that we are to follow the Mother of God into the Kingdom of her Son Jesus Christ.

Most Reverend William J. Waltersheid
Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh