Understanding the Dogma of Assumption of Mary into Heaven

Whenever the Church celebrates the feast of The Assumption, the Protestants mock God in Our Lady and the false religion at The Vatican pretends to celebrate it while in actual fact, they believe in no single dogma except for the Dogma of Modernism!

Then millions of people worldwide who fancy themselves as Catholics celebrate the feast without knowing what it means, really.

I remember in those days while a member of Novus Ordo religion a Novus Ordo priest told people, during his “homily” that Mary's Assumption means that there is no tomb of Mary anywhere. He said that Mary’s tomb is not found and so people “assume” she has been taken to heaven! As soon as I heard this, I was convinced that the Novus Ordo religion is a Devil’s religion with its foot soldiers misleading souls!

So this is another opportunity to state the Dogma of Assumption which, if one disbelieves becomes a heretic!

What is meant by Assumption?

The whole Church understands the term Assumption to mean that Blessed Virgin Mary, soon after her death and resurrection, was taken up body and soul into heaven to be forever enthroned above the angels and saints. The word Assumption is used rather than Ascension because unlike Christ who ascended to heaven by His own power, Mary was lifted up by the power of God to the degree for which she had been predestined.

That is really the summary.

Many who deny Assumption, that is Protestants and many members of the Novus Ordo hierarchy relegate Assumption to be a non-historical belief which is nevertheless believed as part of the body of Mariology. This means that they deny a dogma implicitly making them public heretics!

This begs the question: was Assumption capable of being perceived by the senses, in time? And if there were witnesses? The Apostles John for instance who was with Mary at the end? Surely there must have been explicit or implicit revelation given to the Apostles concerning this or at least give to St. John. If not, this dogma wouldn’t have arisen in The church which is guided by the Holy Ghost.

Although it is not possible to prove Assumption directly from the written Tradition, the Bible. But the Oral Tradition which was written down has ample evidence, at least indirect proofs of this dogma.

From the 7th century, almost the whole Church, east and west, celebrated the feast of Assumption on August 15th. Pope Sergius (687-707) ordered a solemn procession in Rome on that day. Many theologians and liturgists contend that the feast existed already before the time of Pope Saint Gregory the Great (died 604AD). Their evidence for this is based on the collect prayer in the Gregorian Sacramentary which was about Assumption.

In the East the historian Nicephorus recounts that Emperor Maurice (582-602) contemporary of Pope Gregory ordered the feast to be celebrated on August 15th.

It was the Patriarch of Jerusalem, St. Modestus who wrote that the Apostles were led to the Blessed Virgin Mary by a Divine Inspiration and were present at the Assumption. After St. Modestus, St. Andrew of Crete (died 720)  wrote about the fact that the Apostles witnessed the Assumption in his book In Dormitionem Deiparae. Also, St. Germanus patriarch of Constantinople (died 733) wrote the same thing in his In Sanctam Dei Genetrics Dormitionem and also St. John Damascene (died 760) wrote it in his In Dormitionem beatae Mariae Virginis.

These illustrious Church fathers bore witness to the apostles being present at the Assumption and since the fathers play a large part in our understanding of the deposit of the faith, we have no reason to suggest that Assumption was not sensibly witnessed by the Apostles and that it was not a historical fact. Indeed from these testimonies and from the fact that the Church guided by the Holy Ghost cannot believe in fantasy!

There is no shortage of further agreement about the historicalness of Assumption among other fathers east or west. Those commonly quotes are Notker of St Gall, Fulbert of Chartres, St. Peter Damien, St. Anselm, Hildebert, Peter Abelard, St. Bernard, Richard of St. Victor, St. Albert the Great, St. Bonaventure, and St. Thomas. These saints and doctors cannot be propagating fantasy with the Church agreeing with them.

The period from the 7th to the 9th century saw a rich development of liturgy, theology, and great preaching about the Assumption. Pope Leo IV instituted the octave of the feast around the year 847.

So the fact that the Church, from the earliest times celebrated the feast universally, in the east and west, usually on August 15th, shows that She considered the privilege of the Assumption to be a certain truth taught by Her ordinary magisterium, that is to say, by her bishops in union with the supreme pastor, the pope. For the faith of the Church is manifested in her prayer: Les orandi, lex credendi. At these earliest times, the dogma of Assumption has not yet been defined, but it was commonly asserted that it would be erroneous to deny it.

Also, we must note that the proto-Evangelion of Gen 3:15 showed that Mary completely defeated Satan whose tools are sin and death. It is sin that leads to death, corruption of the body, and eternal death. By Mary uniting with her Son in the Will is perfect, without any iota of the stain of Satan. So what will make suffer from decay like every other human being?

Nothing.

It was the prerogative of God to exempt Mary from any sin and so why wouldn’t God exempt her from corruption the consequence of sin?

As the centuries passed and the Church was guided by the Holy Ghost moved on in Her mission, it was opportune to solemnly define this already known doctrine.

On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII defined the Dogma of Assumption. The official document defining this dogma was MunificentissimusDeus.

Pope Pius XII succinctly stated that:

Since the universal Church, within which dwells the Spirit of Truth who infallibly directs it toward an evermore perfect knowledge of the revealed truths has expressed its own belief many times over the course of the centuries, and since the bishops of the entire world are almost unanimously petitioning that the truth of the bodily Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven should be defined as a dogma of divine and Catholic faith--this truth which is based on the Sacred Writings, which is thoroughly rooted in the minds of the faithful, which has been approved in ecclesiastical worship from the most remote times, which is completely in harmony with the other revealed truths, and which has been expounded and explained magnificently in the work, the science, and the wisdom of the theologians - we believe that the moment appointed in the plan of divine providence for the solemn proclamation of this outstanding privilege of the Virgin Mary has already arrived. (MD number 41)

Pope Pius XII went ahead to define the Dogma thus:

For which reason, after we have poured forth prayers of supplication again and again to God, and have invoked the light of the Spirit of Truth, for the glory of Almighty God who has lavished his special affection upon the Virgin Mary, for the honor of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages and the Victor over sin and death, for the increase of the glory of that same August Mother, and for the joy and exultation of the entire Church; by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.(MD number 44)

The like All Dogmas, Pope Pius anathematized those who, God forbid, will deny this august dogma:

Hence if anyone, which God forbid, should dare willfully to deny or to call into doubt that which we have defined, let him know that he has fallen away completely from the divine and Catholic Faith. (MD number 45)

So here we have it. The Holy Mother the Church, the Catholic Church believes and declares that the Dogma of Assumption is true and must be believed by ALL who wishes to be saved on the last day.

Presented by Malachy Mary Igwilo, on the Glorious Feast of Assumption, August 15th 2016