Msg Base:  AREA 5  - ASK FATHER            CIN ECHO   AMDG
  Msg No: 187.  Wed 11-13-91 23:39  (NO KILL)  (MAILED)
    From: Father Mateo
      To: Paul Meiners
 Subject: Assumption of Our Mother Mary

³ I am curious about the idea of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin.  What
³ is the basis for this idea?  Is it a teaching of The Church?
³  
³ Regards,
³ Paul
 
Dear Paul,
 
The Assumption is a dogma of the Church solemnly defined by Pope Pius
XII in 1950.  In the document of definition, MUNIFICENTISSIMUS DEUS.
November 1, 1950 the Pope wrote:
 
"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 that it is 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."
 
"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" (sections
 #4,45).
 
There are two sources of Christian teaching: oral tradition and written
tradition.  Oral tradition of the New Covenant of Jesus Christ dates
from the first Pentecost, early in the 30's of the first century A.D.
Written tradition of the New Covenant begins with the first letter of
Saint Paul to the Thessalonians, in the early 50's of the same century.
 
The two traditions, oral and biblical, are always in harmony.  They
complete each other.  Biblical tradition is fixed: it is found in the
27 books of the New Testament canon, which was laid down by Pope St.
Damasus I and the Bishops of the Council of Rome in the year 382, and
repeated by the Bishops at the Council of Carthage in the year 397.
Oral tradition of its very nature is ongoing because it is the living
faith and preaching of the Church.  It never adds to the substance of
our faith, but as time goes on it deepens our understanding of the
Lord's mysteries and of the Scriptures.
 
Although there is no explicit reference in Scripture to this doctrine,
the Assumption is in deep harmony with Scripture teaching on the
holiness and dignity of the woman who was chosen to be Bride of the
Holy Spirit and Mother of Jesus Christ.
 
Mother of God, she was always sinless by the singular gift of God, who
applied to her in advance the effects of her Son's redeeming sacrifice.
As she was preserved from original and personal sin so as to be always
the worthy mother of her Son, so by a unique privilege she was exempted
from the corruption of the grave, the penalty of human sin.  She gave
bodily birth to Jesus and is with Him bodily in Heaven.  She was Jesus'
first disciple, the first fruits of His redemption, the crown of God's
plan of love for us all.  She is our Mother in Christ and the model of
what we can become in Heaven if we too follow Christ as His disciples.
 
As Lawlor and others write in their "Teaching of Christ", devotion to
Mary in her Assumption is ancient in the Church.  As early as 500 A.D.,
the Eastern Church celebrated on August 15 the feast of Our Lady's
Dormition, her "falling asleep" in the Lord.  By the end of the 8th
century, this feast was celebrated throughout the Western Church.  In
the middle of the 8th century, St. John Damascene in three magnificent
homilies on the Assumption gave eloquent literary witness to the
traditional faith and teaching of the whole Church concerning
Mary's Assumption into heaven.  The Church was thus in peaceful
possession of this doctrine for at least 1200 years when, in 1950, Pope
Pius XII formally defined the doctrine as a dogma revealed by God.
 
I will answer your other questions in the next message.
 
                                Sincerely in Christ,
 
                                Father Mateo