Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

Thoughts for the Week - Fr. R. Taouk 
12th August 2018

The Assumption of Our Lady into Heaven
by Rev. Fr. Joseph Wilhelm D.D., Ph.D.

Mary was exempted from Original Sin, therefore also from its penalty, death. Again, her death cannot be proved as a consequence of her mortal nature, for in her case the claim of nature is superseded by a supernatural claim to immortality. The same would have been true of Adam, had he not sinned. Mary's claim to a life unbroken by death rests upon her Divine Motherhood; but as she is the Mother of Him who died for us, it was fitting that she should die also, lest her and her Son's human natures should be thought unreal, and the Mother privileged above the Son. Mary, then, died because Jesus died; but her death was not necessarily the effect of violence it being undergone neither as an expiation or penalty, nor as the effect of disease from which, like Jesus, she was exempt.

Since the Middle Ages the view prevails that she died of Love, her great desire to be united to her Son either dissolving the ties of body and soul, or prevailing on God to dissolve them. Her "passing away" is a sacrifice of Love completing the dolorous sacrifice of her life; it is the death in the kiss of the Lord, of which the just die.

Death is an evil, not degrading in itself; nay, under certain circumstances it is even honourable. Corruption of the body, on the contrary, is of itself associated with ideas of dishonour: even in the body of the just it is looked upon as a result of God's curse on sin. Hence, corruption of the body is incompatible with the dignity and position of Mary. The body of the Mother of Christ and Bride of the Holy Ghost could not be allowed to fall a prey to vile corruption. To the Virgin, who conceived without knowing man, whose flesh without concupiscence had encompassed Divinity, the words of the Psalmist may be applied: "Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell; nor wilt Thou give Thy holy one to see corruption" (Ps. 15:10).

The Fathers love to connect Mary’s incorruption after death with her virginal integrity during life. A lifeless body, however incorrupt, is still under the dominion of death. If, then, Mary's body was kept intact though dead, it was not under the law of death, its separation from the soul could only last a short time. The words quoted by St. Peter (Acts 2:24) to prove the Resurrection of Christ, have likewise force to prove the resurrection of Mary, inasmuch as she shared with Him the privilege of incorruptibility. As from the beginning she was associated with her Son in the conflict against sin and evil (Gen. 3:15), so must she also be associated with Him in the final victory and triumph. If "husbands must love their wives, as Christ loved the Church" (Eph. 5), and if Mary is the type, and the first member of the Church, and if she enjoys the first and greatest love of the Head of the Church, how can her body be dead to Him? The Commandment to honour father and mother, the fact that Mary's substance formed the substance of her Son, etc., all these require the completest honour to the body of Mary.