It’s a day of obligation and it’s also time to meet people who don’t regularly attend mass. Some Catholics have a narrow understanding of “days of obligation” not realising that every Sunday is also a day of obligation. And, it is often on these “off-Sunday” days of obligation that people come around—like Ascension, today Assumption, All Saints and Christmas. To some people, a larger than usual crowd on these days is a sad commentary of the practice of some Catholics who do not seem to realise the importance of Sunday Mass. But, you know, I think of this phenomenon of a larger crowd on such days of obligation as an expression of “Catholicity” at its best. Why? It is proof that Holy Mother Church is big enough to accommodate the differing degrees of affiliation people have with her. It is like, “Once a Catholic always a Catholic, even if one were a lapsed Catholic”. So in the context of a broader and wider sense of “Catholicity”, I will try to explain (1) why we celebrate the Assumption of Mary and (2) come to appreciate better the meaning of a day of obligation.Firstly, the official teaching on Mary’s Assumption is very recent. It is as recent as 1950. The Pope declared infallibly that “when the course of her earthly life was finished Mary was taken up, body and soul, into the glory of heaven”. But, the commemoration of the Solemnity itself dates back to the 6th Century. In fact, the Orthodox Churches celebrate it as the Dormition—the Sleeping of Mary. Essentially, Mary, the “Theotokos”, the Bearer of Christ who was conceived without Original Sin would undergo a process of death which would be different from those who have been afflicted by Original Sin. Mary after her earthly life entered heaven without the “pains or struggles” associated with death.
Secondly, the term “body and soul” reminds us of Christ in the Eucharist. When we receive Holy Communion, we do not just receive a “piece of Christ” but the whole of Christ. Mary’s Assumption is therefore a reminder that we are not just some kind of entrapped spirits in bodies. Such a philosophy of “entrapped spirits in bodies” has far-reaching consequences. An example of this would be the disregard of the physical world. When we disregard the physical world, redemption or salvation would no longer be “of” the world [matter] but would rather be an “escape” from the world. Thus, Mary’s Assumption into heaven makes it clear to us that “creation” (meaning the world) is central to the idea of Christ’s redemption or salvation. In fact, St Paul in Romans 8:22, speaks of creation (or world) as groaning as it waits for salvation. It follows that if the world or matter is not something to be forsaken but because it has been “saved” or “redeemed” by Christ, it makes sense that the body is treated with great respect when someone has died. We do come across this fanciful idea that after cremation, the ashes can be scattered in the open. Behind this “scattering” hides this sense of “freedom” from the constraints of the world. Well, redemption does not begin when we leave the body, it begins with the body. In fact, an understanding of creation and redemption which is detached from the concern over the physical world has led to the environmental disasters that we are experiencing now.
Thirdly, teaching on Mary’s Assumption is described as infallible. We hear of “Papal Infallibility” but, how did the Pope arrive at this teaching? He actually contacted bishops throughout the world and also consulted theologians to ask if “the Assumption” was sort of believed in by the local Catholic communities. In short, he checked with the “sensus fidelium”—the sense of the faithful. Sensus fidelium is defined as the sensitivity and capacity of all the faithful to appreciate and discern the practical meaning that revelation and the Christian faith has in contemporary world. Sensus fidelium is possible because through baptism we share in the gifts and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Fourthly, as you can see, the exercise of Papal Infallibility was not an exercise of arbitrariness. Instead, the Pope after consultation and with good purpose declared this about 5 years after the end of yet another great war. The 50 years preceding 1950 witnessed amongst other things, the genocide of the Armenians, the death of 6 million Jews at the hands of the Nazis and the start of what we know now as the Nuclear Age. In the midst of the desecration of human bodies, the Pope intended the celebration of the Assumption of Mary to make clear the sacredness and the high destiny of every single human person.
Fifthly, we can say that the Assumption is really an “Iconic” celebration because Mary can be called the “representative” of the Church—the icon of who we are. Listen to what the Preface of the Assumption says, “Today the Virgin Mother of God was taken up into heaven to be the beginning and the pattern of the Church in its perfection and a sign of hope and comfort for your people on their pilgrim way”. In fact, the Preface of the Ascension says: Christ, the mediator between God and man, judge of the world and Lord of all, has passed beyond our sight, not to abandon us but to be our hope. Christ is the beginning, the head of the Church; where he has gone, we hope to follow. So, where Christ is, there the Church will be; where Christ is, there Mary will be and where Christ is; there we will be if we follow him. Assumption is a reminder of our heavenly destiny.
In summary, Assumption may be a day of obligation but perhaps we may better understand that “obligation” is really a sad commentary of how poorly we have received and internalised the salvation that Christ won for us. Maybe, as we come to share Mary’s triumphant entry into the glory of Christ, we may begin to re-engage our faith in a way which sees us moving away from “have to” to “want to”, a conversion from obligation to love.
