HER GLORIOUS ASSUMPTION
2. The Truth of the Assumption.
The Church has already pronounced herself about its truth for the Assumption is now a dogma of our Faith. But even before the definition pronounced by Pius XII on that glorious first of November, 1950, to oppose it, according to Suarez, would have been to fall into theological error. It would have been rash opposition to the unanimous feeling of the universal Church, a feeling based on one of the most ancient and most constant traditions of the Holy Fathers. The Church celebrates the Assumption of Our Lady as one of Her greatest festivities and prepares for it with fasting and abstinence.
The Ascension of Our Lord into heaven has adirect connection with His passion. In a parallel manner, if the painful passion of Our Lord had its culmination in the glory of His ascension, so Mary, Who always kept so closely united to Her Son on Calvary, crowns Her passion with the victory of Her assumption.
All of us one day will rise and by the grace of God we shall be taken into heaven. But it is not fit and just that Mary should precede us and as a Mother should prepare a home for Her children in heaven? Is She not our captain? Then She must go at the head of Her army. She was the first in grace. She was the first in sanctity, in virginity. Hence it is just that She be also the first in the Resurrection and Ascension.
Were it otherwise, Our Lord could be said to have been unfair to His Mother by refusing an honor that was granted to so many other saints. Indeed, where is the body of Mary, where are Her relics, where is Her magnificent sepulcher, the precious gems, the rich urn which holds Her sacred remains? Nothing of the kind exists. Nor can they exist for our beloved Mother was taken to heaven, body and soul. Thank God for this. Congratulate Our Blessed Lady, since through Her Assumption She occupies the place befitting Her in the Kingdom of God.
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
2. The Truth of the Assumption.
The Church has already pronounced herself about its truth for the Assumption is now a dogma of our Faith. But even before the definition pronounced by Pius XII on that glorious first of November, 1950, to oppose it, according to Suarez, would have been to fall into theological error. It would have been rash opposition to the unanimous feeling of the universal Church, a feeling based on one of the most ancient and most constant traditions of the Holy Fathers. The Church celebrates the Assumption of Our Lady as one of Her greatest festivities and prepares for it with fasting and abstinence.
The Ascension of Our Lord into heaven has adirect connection with His passion. In a parallel manner, if the painful passion of Our Lord had its culmination in the glory of His ascension, so Mary, Who always kept so closely united to Her Son on Calvary, crowns Her passion with the victory of Her assumption.
All of us one day will rise and by the grace of God we shall be taken into heaven. But it is not fit and just that Mary should precede us and as a Mother should prepare a home for Her children in heaven? Is She not our captain? Then She must go at the head of Her army. She was the first in grace. She was the first in sanctity, in virginity. Hence it is just that She be also the first in the Resurrection and Ascension.
Were it otherwise, Our Lord could be said to have been unfair to His Mother by refusing an honor that was granted to so many other saints. Indeed, where is the body of Mary, where are Her relics, where is Her magnificent sepulcher, the precious gems, the rich urn which holds Her sacred remains? Nothing of the kind exists. Nor can they exist for our beloved Mother was taken to heaven, body and soul. Thank God for this. Congratulate Our Blessed Lady, since through Her Assumption She occupies the place befitting Her in the Kingdom of God.
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
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