Q&A: The Bible is God’s word and nothing is to be added or taken away from it. Our bible study prayer group cannot understand how the Catholic church can speak of the bodily Assumption of Mary since it is nowhere to be found in the Holy Bible. Is The Assumption Found Within Scripture?
Father Gaffney, SMM
The Assumption and Scripture
If you are looking for an explicit text, like “Mary after her death was bodily assumed into heaven,” then it is definitely true that the Assumption is nowhere to be found in the Scriptures.
And the Body of Christ, the Church – “the pillar and ground of truth” – as the Bible explicitly says (1 Tim 3:15), has not based its belief on any single text as conclusive evidence of the Assumption. Rather, the Church looks upon God’s revelation in Scripture. It looks as a whole and sees there an awesome union between the redeemer, the incarnate Word of God, and our sister in the human race, Mary. As the representative of this universe yearning for redemption, she is the one who responds the faith-filled “Yes”. She responds at the annunciation to God’s desire to heal us.
She summarizes us in our acceptance of Jesus. Mary is the Church, the bride, in its marriage to the victorious Lamb who was slain. Will the bridegroom, the risen Lord, withhold the total sharing of his triumphant, glorious life from the bride, personified by Mary?
As the Church teaches, “In the most Holy Virgin the church has already reached that perfection whereby she exists without spot or wrinkle . . . In the bodily and spiritual glory which she possesses in heaven, the Mother of Jesus continues in this present world as the image and first flowering of the Church as it is to be perfected in the world to come. Likewise, Mary shines forth until the day the Lord shall come [2 Pt 3:10] as a sign of sure hope and comfort for the pilgrim People of God” (Vatican Council II, Decree on the Church, 65, 68).
The Assumption Emerges from the Scriptures the More the Word of God is Prayed
The Assumption emerges from the Scriptures the more the word of God is prayed, proclaimed and lived (i.e., Scripture/Tradition). The Liturgy springs from the faith and clarifies it. That is why the Liturgy for so many centuries observed the feast of the Assumption; why the preaching of the church has since the earliest times proclaimed Mary’s unique grandeur in her final destiny. It is why Christians throughout the world have lived this truth in their conviction. Christians believe that each one of us will one day attain to the glory of the risen Lord like Mary.
In Mary assumed, we know our final destiny. With Mary assumed, we know that we are conquerors with Christ. In Mary assumed, we know that nothing whatsoever can keep us from the love and victory of God. Nothing can keep us from the love of Christ Jesus, Our Lord. No matter the troubles, no matter our difficulties, in Mary we see our final goal; Victory in Jesus Christ Risen.
The Assumption emerges from the Scriptures the more the word of God is prayed, proclaimed and lived (i.e., Scripture/Tradition). The Liturgy springs from the faith and clarifies it. That is why the Liturgy for so many centuries observed the feast of the Assumption; why the preaching of the church has since the earliest times proclaimed Mary’s unique grandeur in her final destiny. It is why Christians throughout the world have lived this truth in their conviction. Christians believe that each one of us will one day attain to the glory of the risen Lord like Mary.
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