Half a century has passed since a vast crowd in St Peter's Square heard Pope Pius XII define the dogma of the Assumption of Our Lady. Of course every Catholic believed in the assumption before Pius XII raised the doctrine to the level of dogma. There was a feast day in the calendar and devotions to Mary assumed into heaven had been common for many centuries. People were used to saying "Blessed be her glorious assumption" in the Divine Praises. In Spanish lands some girls were named "Assunta". But responding to positive reactions from the college of bishops, the Pope chose to honour Mary in the Holy Year 1950 by making an infallible definition. The historical context reveals what may have been one of his other motives.

DEFINITION OF THE DOGMA

It was a gray shabby era. Europe was putting itself together after Hitler's war and many "displaced persons" were still on the move, some of them leaving Europe for other lands such as Australia. In Rome itself dark memories contrasted with Mussolini's pallid marble monuments. The Pope and people in St. Peter's Square knew that over to the East millions of fellow Christians were locked behind the "iron curtain" of communism, prisoners in the occupied satellite nations under the domination of the Soviet Union.

In such an era of tragic memories, sin, death and suffering, the Pope's words of hope resounded:

"..the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen of all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death."

THE MEANING OF THE DOGMA

What does it all mean? Quite simply that Mary of Nazareth passed directly into eternal life in her own body.

This truth first speaks to us of the value of the human body. It was proclaimed a few years after the furnaces of Auschwitz had devoured the bodies of millions of murdered women and men, Mary's people, the Jews. Their ashes rest beneath the fields mingled with those of her champion, Saint Maximilian Kolbe.

Millions of human bodies consigned to Nazi death camps and the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, countless bodies enslaved and abused in Stalin's Gulag, what kind of world was this? Pius XII confronted this world with the triumph of one small person - Mary of Nazareth, a poor Jewish woman. Her small body mattered greatly to God - and so do the bodies and souls of all the "little ones" cast aside by this world. God's keeps his word of hope, his promise of resurrection to the poor and downtrodden: "and I will raise you up on the last day."

HISTORICAL AND THEOLOGICAL BASIS

While there are claimed relics of most saints, and all the apostles, no relics of Mary's body have ever been found. No relics of Mary's body are claimed to exist in any church on earth. This mysterious fact is consistent with the earliest traditions that her tomb was found to be empty after her death.

Mary now eludes our world of time and space. She rises above our Christian sentiment to collect and venerate our heroes' bones. Her body has passed into eternity. Why?

This was the holy flesh that bore God. This was the body of the Immaculate, Theotokos, the God-bearer, Mother of God. This was the pure body of a humble Jewish virgin who lived a hidden life, no worldy empress or queen, yet this woman is the most important human being ever created. She was the chosen tabernacle of God, "overshadowed" by the Holy Spirit (cf. Luke 1: 35) just as the divine glory and presence (Shekinah) overshadowed the tabernacle in the tent of meeting and the temple. The sinless Virgin Mary would not, indeed she could not, "see corruption", i.e her body could not undergo decomposition. In loving his mother by making her the first sharer in his Resurrection, Jesus revealed her sinless and perfect humanity, the "great sign" of hope (cf. Revelation 12).

The Assumption depends on the Resurrection. But it is different insofar as Mary could not raise herself to glory by her own efforts. The Assumption was sheer gift, a grace given her by God, the work of Jesus for her and in her. So while the Assumption celebrates the glory of the humble maiden of Nazareth, it really is a celebration of the saving power of the risen Lord Jesus. In the Assumption he reaches out to his own mother - and to us.

DID MARY DIE AND, IF SO, WHERE?

Does this doctrine mean that Mary never died?

The Church leaves the question open, but the earliest stories of the assumption speak of her "dormition" or falling asleep and Eastern Christians celebrate her assumption in the context of her death, on August 15th. This leads to another question: where did her death and assumption happen?

The last scriptural reference to Mary, in historical terms, finds her in Jerusalem, praying with the apostles before Pentecost (cf. Acts 1: 14). Pilgrims are still shown a "tomb of Mary" in Jerusalem. But there is a stronger tradition that Saint John took her from the dangers of Jerusalem to Ephesus, in what is now Turkey. There is a centre of pilgrimage at Ephesus, the house of the Virgin Mary.

Today the Ephesus tradition is favoured by the Church. In 1979 Pope John Paul himself celebrated Mass in front of the small chapel formed out of the house where Mary secretly lived with John. He was the adopted son entrusted to her by her own Son as he was dying for us all as we read in John 19:26-27. This tradition also indicates that she had no other children because Jesus entrusted her to a man who was not a blood relative.

The exact location of the house of Mary and John at Ephesus rests on unusually precise private revelations given to a mystic. But archaeology confirms that this revealed location was an ancient Christian holy place, locally known as the home of the "All Holy One", that is, Mary. Further work at this site may reveal more details in the future. In 431 AD the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus declared Mary to be the Mother of God. This Council was appropriately held in the city regarded by Christians as her final dwelling place on earth. This is another hint of the historical basis of the event within the dogma.

OUR HOPE OF ETERNAL LIFE

The liturgy of the assumption offers us much food for reflection on this glorious mystery, starting with the Scripture Readings. The Roman Missal published after the Second Vatican Council provides a magnificent new preface of the assumption, to be sung or said by the priest before the eucharistic prayer. In this preface we read that Mary "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."

The preface reveals how this dogma involves us, because it proclaims the close bond between Mary and the Church. We recognize Mary, raised body and soul into glory, as a sign to believers of the goal of our earthly journey - eternal life in a risen body. She is the faithful discople, the first believer to follow Jesus into the full resurrection life he promises to those who love him. Where she has already gone, we will follow, if we live the Spirit's virtues of faith, hope and love.

One of the emphases in a good religious education curriculum is eternal life. Children ponder what happens when we die. They ask questions about dead relatives and friends. They need to be wisely informed about Catholic teaching on the "last things", eschatology. They especially need to value the good news of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus and the Assumption of Our Lady, because today older children and teenagers are targets for New Age errors, such as reincarnation, or they may be prone to aimless despair and anguish.

In a confusing era, Mary's triumphant sharing in the Lord's Resurrection is a sign of hope. It affirms what we profess in the creed "We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come."