What is the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary?

This day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary means that Mary was assumed (taken up) into Heaven body and soul.  It is so important for the Church that it is a holy day of obligation, that is, a day on which the whole church comes together in offering the Mass. Even when the feast falls on a weekday, the feast is still a holy day of obligation, and Catholics are required to make the effort to attend Mass on this feast.

In Australia, there are only two holy day of obligations, the assumption being one of them and the other Christmas Day.

Why is this feast so important?  This feast:

1. Is celebrated in the Church because it recognizes the greatest honour that belongs to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and mother of God to be the perfect disciple of Jesus and the most perfect fulfillment of His work of salvation.
2. Has its primary focus on Mary, rather than a secondary one. In other feasts of Mary, the focus is primarily focus on Jesus first and then Mary.
3. Teaches us that 'it is greater thing that Mary be the Lord's disciple than His mother'. We honour hat greatness of Mary as we recognize the full outcome of being the disciple of Jesus: entry into eternal life of the blessed, in the company of all the saints, in the vision of the eternal goodness and beauty of God.
4. Helps us to look forward in faith to the resurrection of the body, in the hope of which we bring all those who have died to the Catholic funeral rites.

The Second Vatican Council, in the Constitution on the Church, reaffirmed the article of faith that 'having completed the course of her early life, Mary was assumed in body and soul to heavenly glory'.In this document Lumen Gentium, the Second Vatican Council reiterated the words of Pope Pius X11 in defining this doctrine as a divinely revealed dogma in 1950.

The document also gave this further explanation about this feast. It says

'In the most holy Virgin the Church has already reached that perfection whereby she exists without spot or wrinkle, and further 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 as a sign of sure hope and comfort for the pilgrim People of God.' (Lumen Gentium 59,65,68)

So these are a few thoughts about this feast of the Assumption.  As you attend Mass today, you may reflect further on this feast and what it means to you.