August 15
On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII made the following declaration in his Apostolic Constitution, Munificentissimus Deus ,“by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be 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.” Thus, proclaiming the fourth dogma of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
What does this mean for us as members of the Body of Christ? It means that we have hope, we have hope that we too will be taken body and soul into heaven to be with our Lord on the judgement day. In the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, this hope was expressed as follows: “In the interim just as the Mother of Jesus, glorified in body and soul in heaven, is the image and beginning of the Church as it is to be perfected is the world to come, so too does she shine forth on earth, until the day of the Lord shall come,( 2 Pt. 3:10) as a sign of sure hope and solace to the people of God during its sojourn on earth”.
We are a people of hope. We hope in the Word of the Lord. As Jesus told his disciples, before His passion and death on the cross, “and when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also (Jn 14:3)”. On this day we honor the Blessed Virgin Mary who has received her heavenly glory and resides, body and soul, with her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ in heaven. We pray that one day we too, will be with the Blessed Virgin Mary and our Lord Jesus Christ in heaven, body and soul for eternity.