The Assumption of Mary into Heaven

Catholic presentation

The fourth glorious mystery

When Jesus was told His Mother and relatives were standing outside, He said:

Matthew 12:48 ..Who is my mother, and who are my brethren?

49 And stretching forth his hand towards his disciples, he said: Behold my mother and my brethren.

50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father, that is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.

Clearly it was an encouragement to those around Him to do the Father's will.  But also it was a recognition of His Mother.  For she was the first to do the will of our Father in heaven and to give a clear Yes to Jesus:

Luke 1:38 And Mary said: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word...

Not just to say yes, but to follow through all her life long!  Even when it meant suffering as a consequence of Jesus' passion (Luke 2:35).  Of course we Catholics know, what few if any contemporaries of that day knew:  Unlike Jesus, who is our sinless Saviour, and who laid down His innicent life for us, there really was no personal reason for Mary to suffer death as we know it.  Suffering and death came into the world, as a result of sin (Gen 3:3, 3:22).  We know that Mary, being the one who was told to rejoice for enjoying God's favour, was the perfect and royal Mother fit for the Divine King (Luke 1:28).  The true Ark of the new covenant, overshadowed by the Spirit of God and bearing God Himself.

Everyone expected the Messiah to have a palace, and the finest of everything.  They weren't wrong in principle, just in application.  God values spiritual gifts not material ones.  God deserves the absolute best, and what loving father (in heaven) would deny His son the best?  That is the best in the terms that matter to God: spiritual terms!  Mary couldn't provide the finest spiritual context for Jesus by her own efforts.  She hadn't got that way by merely being a good girl and doing good turns from time to time.  She is in a word God's finest work, His finest creature.  And that's why the Angel's address is understood in the deepest sense to say, that Mary really was 'full of Grace'.

Full of grace means that there was no room for sin.  The amazing part was that Mary co-operated with that grace all her life long.  Being sinless to start, she didn't have to stay that way.  Eve hadn't after all.  But God put His trust in Mary and she stayed true to that trust.  So the angel did affirm.

Now if we should die in the freindship of God, doing the Father's will, what might we expect?  A heavenly reward of course!  Not one we earn, but one that flows from the gift of God Himself.  Yet before that is fully accomplished, comes death: a consequence of sin in the world.  Death will not be the end.  Jesus saw to that.  Just a passage into life.  But Mary being without sin, had done nothing to deserve to enter into death.  Nevertheless, sinless though she was, she shared our nature, and death is a package deal.  Of course one might assume, that to be more closely aligned to her son and His saving work, she would have not had it any other way!

So how might it have been?  A regular death - or a miraculous and wondrous sleep?  Did her body grow cold?  Were the material elements stirred up by the spiritual?  Standing by, might you have wondered: is Mary going to heaven or is heaven coming down to her?

Either way, of Mary's body there remains no trace!  With confidence the Church asserts her assumption into heaven by the power of God: both body and soul.  As to the way, it's likely too mysterious for us to understand.  But we believe that she has gone to Her son, and the Father, and the Holy Spirit, to be with the One who is our Lord, the All Three in One.