Why did the Church take so long to define that Mary was assumed to Heaven?

ASSUMPTION OF OUR BLSSED LADY INTO HEAVEN

– 15 AUGUST

WHY WE SHOULD HAVE RESPECT FOR OUR BODIES

I have often reflected that the doctrine of the Assumption of Our Blessed Lady into Heaven might have been defined centuries earlier.  In fact, it was proclaimed only in 1950.  Why did the Church wait so long?  There must have been a reason.  I would like to suggest that reason today.

In 1950 Pope Pius XII solemnly declared an essential truth of our faith - one that all Catholics must believe - in these words:

“Mary, the Immaculate and ever-virgin Mother of God, when the course of her earthly life was over, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory.”

I was twelve years old at the time, huddled around a wireless set, listening as Pope Pius XII proclaimed this doctrine.  Some of you may remember the outcry and protests it provoked.  Many Christians of other denominations were angry and distressed, believing that the Pope had placed yet another formidable obstacle in the path toward Christian unity.  Sadly, even some Catholics wondered whether such a solemn definition was either necessary or wise.

History has proved them wrong.  From that moment, ecumenical dialogue began to be taken seriously and received fresh impetus.

Still, some might ask: Is the doctrine of Our Lady’s Assumption really that important?  For nearly nineteen centuries the Church survived - indeed flourished - without requiring explicit belief that Mary already shares bodily glory with her Son.  Why, then, define it in 1950?  Were there not more urgent concerns in a wounded world?

To answer that, we must ask what made the first half of the twentieth century so different from all that had gone before.  I suggest two things.

First: never in human history had there been such appalling bloodshed, cruelty, and torture.  In Europe alone, some sixty million men, women, and children died in two World Wars.  Think of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Think of Auschwitz and countless other concentration camps.  Never before, on such a scale, had humanity shown such utter contempt for the human body.

Second: a phenomenon I will simply call glamour - the idolisation of physical beauty, especially the young woman’s body.  In films and television, character is often secondary to appearance.  An entire industry has been built on this worship of the body.

Together these two realities reveal something tragic: the human body was both despised and idolised - treated either as disposable or divine, as a thing to be destroyed or an object to be exploited.

Against this background, Pope Pius XII’s proclamation of the Assumption was a prophetic cry to Church and world alike: both attitudes are intolerably wrong.

Our bodies are neither to be despised nor worshipped.  They are to be treated always with reverence, because they belong to a person created in the image of God.

That is the deep significance of Our Lady’s Assumption.

Mary already shares in what awaits us all: the resurrection of the body.  Our final destiny is not merely spiritual.  We are made for glory - body and soul.

Until that day, our bodies are to be used in the service of God and neighbour.  They may be old, frail, disfigured, or weak - that does not matter.  They may be young, strong, and beautiful - that does not matter either.  What matters is the person within: a soul loved infinitely by God.

We must never belittle the body.  For each of us, it is an essential part of who we are - uniquely you, uniquely me - as we journey toward the resurrection and life everlasting.

If the doctrine of the Assumption was relevant in 1950, it is no less relevant today.  The body continues to be despised through war, abortion, and the growing acceptance of euthanasia.  It is also worshipped through pornography, exploitation, and the tragic scourge of abuse.

May the purity and dignity of Mary, Our Blessed Lady, be a beacon drawing us to a true understanding of ourselves - teaching us to honour our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit, vessels of grace, and sacred companions of the soul.  Amen.

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