Reflection on Mary of the Assumption

August 15, 2026

by MECollingwood

It appears that we are constantly being challenged by someone else’s interpretation of history. The solemnity we celebrate today is no different.

This is a brief history of how Mary’s role was given a place in Church history, as promulgated by the Church.

We know that the Assumption was officially defined as a dogma in the Roman Catholic Church in 1950, by Pope Pius XII in the Apostolic Constitution entitled “Munificentissimus Deus”. With the addition of Mary’s assumption into heaven without sin, this was theologically the last chapter of the Church’s story on her special nature and purpose of her birth. There are many stories surrounding her assumption, many artistic renditions of her assumption, but no historic proof. It is interesting to note that women’s physical deaths were never publicly recorded in that time period either. 

The Church’s teaching is that a person inherits sin through their birth, which is the present original sin understanding, and is therefore predisposed to sinning in their lifetime and would eventually die a human death. Dying was for sinners, not for the sinless. In the case of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, there had to be an explanation of why she was sinless and, therefore, did not deserve to die in that manner. An official dogma that explains this was the Church’s way of constructing a theology on the sinless nature of Mary—and what that implies—that coincided with the pure divinity of Jesus’ birth.   

Church theologians believe that the Son of God could not possibly be conceived through normal human means, as humans were stained by sin and that would defile the nature of God, who is not human, but pure spirit. It is held that dying is the result of a sinful life-- except for Jesus, who was created human through the power of the Holy Spirit, was destined to human death in order to gain atonement for humanity’s sins, and rose from his tomb to reign with God. This is based on Old Testament prophecy that offered the theory of why humanity needed a Messiah—to deliver humanity from sin through the bloody sacrifice of Jesus. The important belief here is that no human being could carry the blemish of sin and still be worthy to birth the Son of God. Scripture writers and the Church set out to prove Mary’ s worthiness as they constructed the stories of her unblemished life.

Genesis tells us that when the man and woman were created, God declared their creation “very good.” And both were blessed by the Creator and were told to reproduce and multiply. Then, sin entered the world through the Garden of Eden myth whereby the couple was cast out and both them and their offspring were subjected to pain and death. Copulation was then understood solely as an act necessary for the furthering of the human species. Although no longer considered a holy act, it cannot be denied that it became very relevant in growing the Jewish and Christian populations.

The Church explains that Mary’s parents, Anne and Joachim, in their very act of intercourse were somehow predestined to be purer than other couples. The tradition holds that Anne and Joachim had gone without conceiving children for many years. As the story unfolds, both were praying fervently for God to grant them a child. And so, it happened. Mary was born from the woman, Anne, who had engaged once again in the conjugal act with her husband, Joachim, for the purpose of having a child as the Creator intended. There is nothing to dispute this fact—no rewriting of history, no historical evidence to the contrary. But there was plenty of imagination theories and ancient Christian lore that developed years after the fact that provided a plethora of explanations of how this all came to be.   

The Hebrew scriptures are filled with longings for a Messiah.  Therefore, the gospel writers composed a story that supported the scriptural tenor and yearnings of the time. The nativity stories in Matthew and Luke were written years beyond the death of Jesus and Mary. They were composed to imagine the birth of the Savior and sow the seeds of Jesus of Nazareth’s special nature as the Messiah.  These stories that were written are considered sacred teachings of the Church.  

Today we have before us the Church’s declared belief that Mary was born sinless from birth, and another belief appearing thousands of years later stating that Mary did not experience a human death, but was assumed into heaven body and soul. The teaching is that she didn’t inherit the original sin, so she could not experience death. Both of these beliefs became a part of Church dogma—laid down by the Church as unquestionably true—centuries after

the fact. 

A Meditation, offering a somewhat different perception or awareness of what the Assumption could mean for us today—from In Pursuit of Peace: A sign of what we can become... by Joan Chittister OSB.

Hopefully, it will expand your horizon on the significance of Mary’s life.

“Psalm 16 sings, “You will not allow the one you love to see the pit… you will reveal the path of life to me, give me unbounded joy in your presence.’ Those whom God loves, the psalm promises, will be raised up above the thousand daily deaths that come into every life. When we raise our hearts and souls to God, the things that drag us down will lose their grip on us. When we refuse to become imprisoned by things and status and ambition and self and greed, our souls are set free and our bodies are unburdened. Life becomes livable again. Enough becomes enough. God becomes God again. 

But where can we possibly go to find someone whose life is not tethered to the earth to the point of death? What proof do we have that anyone can rise above what we want—to what we can become? The answer surely is Mary of the Assumption whose love of God lifted her far above the goals and gains of those who had never really seen the Christ for what he was, because their mind’s eye was taken up totally with what they were themselves.

Mary of the Assumption teaches us to keep our eyes on the things of heaven; to free ourselves from the fetters of anything lesser; to develop a vision outside of ourselves; and to allow ourselves to be lifted up beyond the petty and the transient to the eternal and the unalloyed. Mary of the Assumption is a sign of what we can become if we are willing to let go of what we have planned for ourselves.”

May it be so.