The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
By Marta Alves
May 1, 2013
www.faithleap.org/assumption.htm
Pope Pius XII defined the Dogma of the Assumption of Mary in the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus on November 1, 1950, five years after the end of World War II.
Pope Pius XII had seen the “miracle of the sun” in the Vatican Gardens days before he proclaimed the Dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. - Zenit (Zenit.org) reported on November 4, 2008.
The news report on November 4, 2008, reads as follows:
“According to his own testimony, the Pope who declared the dogma of the Assumption saw the "miracle of the sun" four times.
This information is confirmed by a handwritten, unpublished note from Pope Pius XII….
The papal note says that at 4 p.m. on Oct. 30, 1950, during his "habitual walk in the Vatican Gardens, reading and studying," having arrived to the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes, "toward the top of the hill […] I was awestruck by a phenomenon that before now I had never seen."
"The sun, which was still quite high, looked like a pale, opaque sphere, entirely surrounded by a luminous circle," he recounted. And one could look at the sun, "without the slightest bother. There was a very light little cloud in front of it."
The Holy Father's note goes on to describe "the opaque sphere" that "moved outward slightly, either spinning, or moving from left to right and vice versa. But within the sphere, you could see marked movements with total clarity and without interruption."
Pius XII said he saw the same phenomenon "the 31st of October and Nov. 1, the day of the definition of the dogma of the Assumption, and then again Nov. 8, and after that, no more."
The Pope acknowledged that on other days at about the same hour, he tried to see if the phenomenon would be repeated, "but in vain -- I couldn't fix my gaze [on the sun] for even an instant; my eyes would be dazzled."
On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII declared with Papal infallibility that the Blessed Virgin Mary has assumed body and soul into heaven after her death. He had done that after consulting with the world Bishops[i] and confirming that the belief of the Blessed Virgin Mary Assumption was part of the treasure of traditions of the Holy Catholic Church.
Pope Pius XII was elected Pope on March 2, 1939. That same year Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia and Poland. The previous year Catholic Austria had been overtaken by Germany. In 1939, Europe was in the middle of the turmoil that lead the World War II. I cannot help but think that Pope Pius XII must had spent many hours in prayer for world peace.
On April 15, 1945, as World War II was coming to an end, Pope Pius XII appeals for the people to pray for peace during Mary in his Encyclical Communium Interpretes Dolorum[ii]:
The month of May, sacred in a special way to the Blessed Virgin Mother of God, is approaching. We again exhort all - but especially the very young and innocent children - to humbly entreat the divine Redeemer, through the intercession of Mary, that the peoples who have been forced into discord, contention, and all kinds of misery, may be able to breathe again after their long-lasting distress and sorrow. But since it is our sins[iii] which have turned us away from Him and have immersed us miserably in destruction, it is hardly enough to pour out many prayers to heaven; it is hardly enough to approach the altar of the Blessed Virgin to bring her an offering, flowers, and prayers. Additionally we must use Christian morals to renew both public and private life; in this way, we will lay a solid foundation on which a building of domestic and civil concord, not discord, and a strong, but not a tottering building, can stand. Let all remember those warnings of the sacred prophet and assimilate them in the conduct of their lives: "Turn to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will turn to you".[iv] Also meditate upon those words of the most wise Bishop of Hippo: "Change the heart and the work will be changed. Eradicate cupidity and plant charity."[v] "Do you want peace? Do justice, and you will have peace. Justice and peace kiss one another."[vi] If you do not love justice, you will not have peace, for these two love one another and kiss each other, so that if you practice justice, you will find peace kissing justice. . . . If therefore you desire to come to peace, do justice; avoid evil and do good. This is to love justice; and when you have already avoided evil and done good, seek peace and follow it."[vii]
The writings of Blessed John Paul II, which can be read on the internet at www.vatican.va, give a summary of how Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
On the General Audience of July 2, 1997[viii], Blessed John Paul II explains the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary:
1. Following the Bull Munificentissimus Deus of my venerable Predecessor Pius XII, the Second Vatican Council affirms that the Immaculate Virgin "was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, when her earthly life was over" (Lumen gentium, n. 59).
The Council Fathers wished to stress that Mary, unlike Christians who die in God’s grace, was taken up into the glory of heaven with her body. This age-old old belief is expressed in a long iconographical tradition which shows Mary "entering" heaven with her body.
The dogma of the Assumption affirms that Mary's body was glorified after her death. In fact, while for other human beings the resurrection of the body will take place at the end of the world, for Mary the glorification of her body was anticipated by a special privilege.
2. On 1 November 1950, in defining the dogma of the Assumption, Pius XII avoided using the term "resurrection" and did not take a position on the question of the Blessed Virgin’s death as a truth of faith. The Bull Munificentissimus Deus limits itself to affirming the elevation of Mary’s body to heavenly glory, declaring this truth a "divinely revealed dogma".
How can we not see that the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin has always been part of the faith of the Christian people who, by affirming Mary’s entrance into heavenly glory, have meant to proclaim the glorification of her body?
The first trace of belief in the Virgin's Assumption can be found in the apocryphal accounts entitled Transitus Mariae, whose origin dates to the second and third centuries. These are popular and sometimes romanticized depictions, which in this case, however, pick up an intuition of faith on the part of God's People.
Later, there was a long period of growing reflection on Mary’s destiny in the next world. This gradually led the faithful to believe in the glorious raising of the Mother of Jesus, in body and soul, and to the institution in the East of the liturgical feasts of the Dormition and Assumption of Mary.
Belief in the glorious destiny of the body and soul of the Lord's Mother after her death spread very rapidly from East to West, and has been widespread since the 14th century. In our century, on the eve of the definition of the dogma it was a truth almost universally accepted and professed by the Christian community in every corner of the world.
3. Therefore in May 1946, with the Encyclical Deiparae Virginis Mariae, Pius XII called for a broad consultation, inquiring among the Bishops and, through them, among the clergy and the People of God as to the possibility and opportuneness of defining the bodily assumption of Mary as a dogma of faith. The result was extremely positive: only six answers out of 1,181 showed any reservations about the revealed character of this truth.
Citing this fact, the Bull Munificentissimus Deus states: "From the universal agreement of the Church's ordinary Magisterium we have a certain and firm proof demonstrating that the Blessed Virgin Mary's bodily Assumption into heaven ... is a truth revealed by God and therefore should be firmly and faithfully believed by all the children of the Church" (Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus: AAS 42 [1950], 757).
The definition of the dogma, in conformity with the universal faith of the People of God, definitively excludes every doubt and calls for the express assent of all Christians.
After stressing the Church’s actual belief in the Assumption, the Bull recalls the scriptural basis for this truth.
Although the New Testament does not explictly affirm Mary’s Assumption, it offers a basis for it because it strongly emphasized the Blessed Virgin's perfect union with Jesus’ destiny. This union, which is manifested, from the time of the Saviour's miraculous conception, in the Mother’s participation in her Son’s mission and especially in her association with his redemptive sacrifice, cannot fail to require a continuation after death. Perfectly united with the life and savingwork of Jesus, Mary shares his heavenly destiny in body and soul.
4. The Bull Munificentissimus Deus cited above refers to the participation of the woman of the Proto-gospel in the struggle against the serpent, recognizing Mary as the New Eve, and presents the Assumption as a consequence of Mary’s union with Christ’s saving work. In this regard it says: "Consequently, just as the glorious Resurrection of Christ was an essential part and the final sign of this victory, so that struggle which was common to the Blessed Virgin and her divine Son should be brought to a close by the glorification of her virginal body" (Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus: AAS 42 [1950], 768).
The Assumption is therefore the culmination of the struggle which involved Mary’s generous love in the redemption of humanity and is the fruit of her unique sharing in the victory of the Cross.
In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we can read about the Blessed Virgin Mary in paragraphs #963-975.
In conclusion, we pray humbly,
Hail Mary, Full of Grace, The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of death. Amen.q
[v] St. Aug., Serm. de Script. 72, 4; PL 38, c. 468.
[vii] Idem In Ps. 84. 12; PPL., 37 C. 1078.