The Christian Church has celebrated the Dormition of St
Mary, the Holy Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ from around the 7th
century, which also includes the traditional belief that St Mary was resurrected
on the third day of her passing, and taken up to Heaven by her Son, Jesus, in a
body and soul. (1)
Even though there are not records in Scripture about St
Mary’s death and what happened to her afterwards, the Christian belief that
Mary was resurrected and taken to Glory grew from as early as the 4rd
century and gained acceptance in time. In fact, the Roman Catholic Church
declared it a Dogma of Faith in 1950, under Pope Pius XII. (2)
The Biblical grounds for this belief are taken by some to
be rooted in a mystical interpretation of certain passages of Genesis and
Revelation (Genesis 3:15; Revelation 12:1-6); however most reformed Christians
who consider this teaching (Anglicans and Lutherans), base their consideration
in the fact that other men of God are assumed to have been resurrected and
taken to Glory that had a lesser role than St Mary, like the assumed assumption
of Moses (Judas 1:9), the resurrection of the saints after Jesus’s crucifixion
(Matthew 27:52-53), and the possible translation of John Apostle (Matthew
16:28; John 21:21-23). It is generally assumed that Lord
Jesus would not have
let the holy body of the person who carried Him for nine months in her womb,
and nurtured Him in his infancy, should see material decay, having Him the
power to stop it at will.
WHAT IS TRULY IMPORTANT
The most important aspect of this celebration however,
regardless anyone’s view on the topic, is that in this Feast; Christians commemorate
and imitate the life of St Mary, who being a young girl, accepted willingly the
great responsibility and eternal honour of becoming the Mother of the Son of
God, the Second Person of the Trinity incarnated, the Immanuel, the expected
Messiah, and bravely confronted death and persecution with her baby in her arms,
from Romans, Herodians and Pharisees.
A time to remember her loyalty, when she alone,
accompanied by the brave John Apostle and the two Maries, stood by the foot of
the Cross, enduring the scorn and violence done to her son, our Lord Jesus, at
close proximity. (John 19:25).
A time to remember when the prophecy of Simeon became
fulfilled:
“And a sword will pierce through your own
soul”
Luke 2:35
“For behold, from now on all generations will
call me blessed”
Luke 1:48
(1) Liber
Requiei Mariae (4th-5th Century)
Transitus Mariae (5th
Century)
(2) Munificentissimus
Deus. (1950)
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