The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Solemnity of the Assumption of Our Lady celebrates Mary's entry into heaven.
In Irish, it is called Lá Fhéile Naomh Muire san Fhómhar,
that is, "The Feast Day of Our Lady in the Harvest Time".
This theme is
expressed in the liturgy of the day. Eastern theology has tended to
focus on the dormition or "going to sleep" of the mother of God.
(See
image, which shows Mary lying on a bier while Jesus receives receives
her soul into heaven).
A feast on 15th August: the Dormition of the Theotokos
Although
the New Testament does not make any reference to the last days of her
life, legends about Mary's death, called her "Going to sleep" (Greek koimesis / Latin dormitio) began
to appear from the 4th to the 6th centuries. From the 6th century,
the Great Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos was celebrated on 15th
August throughout the Byzantine Empire, probably beginning from
Jerusalem where there was, and still is, a church called the Tomb of
Mary. In the West, the Roman sacramentaries (Gelasian and Gregorian)
have prayers for Masses for the Dormition of Our Lady for the same day,
indicating that the feast was celebrated in Rome during the 7th
century.
Different spiritualities
However, the
spiritualities of East and West had a somewhat different focus. Eastern
spirituality had no doubt that Mary died, that Jesus resurrected her on
the third day and then brought her to heaven. Later Roman Catholic
piety tended to the opinion that, since death is a consequence of sin,
it would have been more fitting, in the case of Our Lady, that her
freedom from original sin and from personal sin would have protected her
from the general law of death (argumentum ex congruentia).
Munificentissimus Deus
On 1 November 1950, Pope Pius XII in the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus, defined
it as a divinely revealed dogma, "that the Immaculate Mother of God,
the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life,
was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory". However, this left open
the question of whether Mary died before her Assumption. But the more
common opinion of the early Fathers was that she did.
Preface of the Mass
The core of Catholic faith is expressed in the Preface of the Mass for Solemnity of the Assumption:
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 way.You would not allow decay to touch her body,
for she had given birth to your Son, the Lord of all life,
in the glory of the incarnation.
The Readings
The first reading for the Solemnity from the Book of Revelation 12:1-6 sees Mary as united with the victory of Christ:
A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, the moon beneath her feet, and a crown of twelve stars on her head.... Victory and power and empire for ever have been won by our god, and all authority for his Christ.
The second reading 1 Cor 12:20-26 explicitly mentions Jesus as the
"first-fruits", giving hope that we will be included in the rest of the
harvest.
Harvest
Traditional Irish piety saw Mary as Queen
of the Harvest. Like her son Jesus, she is a kind of "first-fruits" and
we, the faithful, hopefully are the rest of the harvest. Patrick
Kavanagh gives beautiful expression to how he hoped to participate in
this harvest theme in one of his early poems, entitled I May Reap.
I who have not sown,
I too
By God's grace may come to harvest
And proud
As the bowed
Reapers
At the Assumption
Murmur thanksgiving.
Popular piety
Until recently, in
Ireland and England, traditional pilgrimages to holy wells (Lady's Well)
took place on this day. Perhaps there was a connection with fertility
and the harvest. But more recently the wells have not been tended and
there are warnings not to drink the water.