IN
THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY
27. In addition, the
scholastic doctors saw the Assumption of the Virgin Mother of God indicated not
only in various figures from the Old Testament, but also in that Lady clothed
with the sun, whom the apostle John contemplated on the island of Patmos (Ap
12, 1s.) In the same way, among the sayings of the New Testament they
considered with particular interest the words "Hail, Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with you, blessed are you among all women" (Lk 1, 28), because
they saw in the mystery of the Assumption a complement to the fullness of grace
granted to the blessed Virgin and a unique blessing, in opposition to the curse
of Eve.
28. For this reason, at the
beginning of scholastic theology, the pious Amadeo, bishop of Lausanne, affirms
that the flesh of the Virgin Mary remained incorrupt ("it cannot be
believed, in effect, that her body saw corruption"), because really her
soul was reunited, and together with her she was enveloped in the highest glory
in the heavenly court. She "was full of grace and blessed among
women" (Lk 1, 28). "She alone deserved to conceive the true God from
the true God, and she gave birth to him as a virgin, she nursed him as a
virgin, holding him close to her bosom, and rendered her holy services and
homages in all of her" (13).
29. Among the sacred writers
who at this time, using scriptural texts or similarity and analogy, illustrated
and confirmed the pious belief in the Assumption, the evangelical doctor San
Antonio de Padua occupies a special position. On the Feast of the Assumption,
commenting on the words of Isaiah "I will glorify the place of my
feet" (Is 60, 13), he confidently affirmed that the divine Redeemer has
exalted his most beloved Mother, from whom he had taken flesh. human.
"From this it clearly follows, says he, that the blessed Virgin Mary was
assumed with the body which had been the place of the Lord's feet." That
is why the psalmist writes: "Come, ¡oh Lord!, to your rest, you and the
Ark of your sanctification". Like Jesus Christ, says the saint, he rose
from the conquered death and ascended to the right hand of his Father,
30. When scholastic theology
reached its maximum splendor in the Middle Ages, Saint Albert the Great, after
having collected, to prove this truth, various arguments based on Sacred
Scripture, tradition, liturgy and theological reason, concluded: " From
these reasons and authorities and from many others it is clear that the most
blessed Mother of God was assumed in body and soul above the choirs of angels.
And we believe this as
absolutely true" (15). And in a speech given on the day of the
Annunciation of Mary, explaining these words of the angel's greeting
"Hail, full of grace...", the Universal Doctor compares the Blessed
Virgin with Eve and expressly says that she was immune from the fourfold curse
to which Eve was subjected (16).
31. The Angelic Doctor,
following the traces of his distinguished teacher, although he never expressly
dealt with the question, nevertheless, whenever he occasionally speaks of it,
he constantly maintains with the Church that together with the soul, the body
of Mary was also a matter of heaven (17).
32. The Seraphic Doctor is of
the same opinion, among many others, who maintains as absolutely certain that
in the same way that God preserved Mary Most Holy from the violation of modesty
and virginal integrity in conception and childbirth, so he did not allow his
body to decay into rot and ash (18). Interpreting and applying to the blessed
Virgin these words of the Sacred Scripture "Who is that that rises from
the desert, full of delights, leaning on her beloved?" (Cant 8, 5), reasons
as follows: "And from this it can be established that he is there (in the
celestial city) bodily... Because, in effect..., happiness would not be
complete if he were not there personally, because the person is not the soul,
but the compound, and it is clear that it is there according to the compound,
that is, with body and soul,
33. In later scholasticism,
that is, in the 15th century, Saint Bernardino of Siena, summarizing everything
that the theologians of the Middle Ages had said and discussed in this regard,
did not limit himself to recalling the main considerations already proposed by
the doctors precedents, but added others. That is to say, the similarity of the
divine Mother with the divine Son, in terms of the nobility and dignity of the
soul and the body -because it cannot be thought that the celestial Queen is
separated from the King of heaven-, openly demands that "Mary should only
be where Christ is" (20); besides, it is reasonable and convenient that
the soul and the body, as well as the man, the woman, are already glorified in
heaven; anyway,
34. In more recent times, the
aforementioned opinions of the Holy Fathers and of the doctors were in common
use. Adhering to the Christian thought transmitted from the past centuries. St.
Roberto Bellarmine exclaims: "And who, ¿I ask, could believe that the ark
of holiness, the domicile of the Word, the temple of the Holy Spirit, ¿has
fallen? My soul hates the mere thought that that virgin flesh that engendered God,
gave birth to it, fed it, carried it, has been reduced to ashes or has been fed
to worms" (22).
35. In the same way, Saint
Francis de Sales, after having affirmed that it is not lawful to doubt that
Jesus Christ has executed in the most perfect way the divine mandate by which
the duty of honoring their own parents is imposed on children, proposes this He
asks: "Who is the son who, if he could, would not call his own mother back
to life and would not take her with him after death to paradise?" (23).
And San Alfonso writes: "Jesus
preserved the body of Mary from corruption, because it redounded to his
dishonor that that virginal flesh with which He had clothed himself should be
eaten from rottenness" (24).
36. Having clarified the
purpose of this festival, there was no lack of doctors who, rather than dealing
with the theological reasons, in which the supreme convenience of the bodily
Assumption of the blessed Virgin Mary into heaven is demonstrated, directed
their attention to the faith of the Church, mystical Bride of Christ, who has
no spot or wrinkle (cf. Eph 5, 27), which is called by the Apostle "pillar
and support of the truth" (1 Tim).
3, 15), and, supported by
this common faith, they maintained that the opposite sentence was reckless, not
to say heretical. Indeed, Saint Peter Canisius, among many others, after having
declared that the term Assumption means glorification not only of the soul, but
also of the body, and after having highlighted that the Church has venerated
and celebrated for many centuries solemnly addressing this Marian mystery,
says: "This sentence has already been accepted for some centuries and in
such a way fixed in the souls of the pious faithful and so accepted throughout
the Church, that those who deny that the body of Mary was a matter for heaven,
they cannot even be listened to patiently, but embarrassed as too stubborn or
altogether reckless and animated with a heretical rather than a Catholic
spirit" (25).
37. At the same time, Doctor
Eximio, established as a rule of Mariology that "the mysteries of grace
that God has wrought in the Virgin are not measured by ordinary laws, but by
the omnipotence of God, assuming the convenience of the thing itself and
excluding any contradiction or repugnance on the part of Sacred Scripture"
(26), basing himself on the faith of the Church in the subject of the
Assumption, he could conclude that this mystery should be believed with the
same firmness of soul with that the Immaculate Conception of the blessed Virgin
should be believed, and even then he maintained that these two truths could be
defined.
38. All these reasons and
considerations of the Holy Fathers and theologians have as their ultimate
foundation Sacred Scripture, which presents us with the soul of the Mother of
God closely united to her Son and always a sharer in his fate. From which it
seems almost impossible to imagine oneself separated from Christ, if not with
the soul, at least with the body, after this life, to the One who conceived
him, gave birth to him, nourished him with her milk, carried him in her arms
and she clutched it to her chest. From the moment that our Redeemer is the son
of Mary, he could not, certainly, as a most perfect observer of the divine law,
honor less, in addition to the Eternal Father, also his beloved Mother. Being
able, then, to give her Mother so much honor by preserving her immune from the
corruption of the sepulchre, it must be believed that she really did it.
39. But it has already been
especially remembered that since the second century the Virgin Mary is
presented by the Holy Fathers as the new Eve closely united to the new Adam,
although subject to him, in that fight against the infernal enemy that, as
foretold in the protoevangelium (Gn 3, 15), would have ended with the most
complete victory over sin and death, always united in the writings of the
Apostle to the Gentiles (cf. Rom cap. 5 et 6; 1 Cor 15, 21-26; 54-57).
Therefore, as the glorious resurrection of Christ was an essential part and
final sign of this victory, so also for Mary the common struggle had to
conclude with the glorification of her virginal body; because, as the same
Apostle says, "when... this mortal body is clothed with immortality, then
what was written will happen:
40. In this way, the august
Mother of God, arcanely united to Jesus Christ from all eternity "with the
same decree" (27) of predestination, immaculate in her conception, Virgin
without stain in her divine maternity, generous Partner of the divine Redeemer
, who obtained full triumph over sin and its consequences, finally, as the
supreme crowning of her privileges, was preserved from the corruption of the
grave and defeated death, as before by her Son, she was elevated in soul and
body to the glory of heaven, where she shines as Queen at the right hand of her
Son, immortal King of the centuries (cf. 1 Tim 1, 17).
41. And like the universal
Church, in which the Spirit of Truth lives, who leads her infallibly to the
knowledge of revealed truths, in the course of the centuries she has manifested
her faith in many ways, and like the bishops of the Catholic world, With almost
unanimous consent, they ask that the truth of the bodily Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven be defined as a dogma of divine and Catholic
faith. -truth founded on Sacred Scripture, deeply rooted in the soul of the
faithful, confirmed by ecclesiastical worship since ancient times, highly in
line with other revealed truths, splendidly illustrated and explained by the
study of science and the wisdom of theologians- We believe that the time
pre-established by God's providence has come to solemnly proclaim this
privilege of the Virgin Mary.
42. We, who have placed our
pontificate under the special patronage of the Blessed Virgin, to whom we have
turned in so many sad contingencies; We, who with a public rite have
consecrated the entire human race to her Immaculate Heart and have repeatedly experienced
her valid protection, have firm confidence that this solemn proclamation and
definition of the Assumption will be of great benefit to all Humanity, because
it will give glory to the Most Holy Trinity, to which the Virgin Mother of God
is linked by unique ties. It is indeed to be hoped that all Christians will be
stimulated to a greater devotion to the Heavenly Mother and that the hearts of
all those who glory of the Christian name is moved to desire union with the
Mystical Body of Jesus Christ and the increase of one's own love towards the
One who has maternal entrails for all the members of that august Body. It is
also to be hoped that all those who meditate on the glorious examples of Mary
will become more and more convinced of the value of human life, if it is given
totally to the execution of the will of the Heavenly Father and for the good of
our neighbors; that, while materialism and the corruption of the customs
derived from it threaten to submerge all virtue and wreak havoc in human lives,
causing wars, the exalted purpose of bodies and souls is placed before the eyes
of all; Finally, faith in the bodily Assumption of Mary into heaven makes faith
in our resurrection firmer and more active.
43. The providential
coincidence of this solemn event with the Holy Year that is unfolding is
particularly pleasing to us; because this allows us to adorn the forehead of
the Virgin Mother of God with this brilliant pearl, while celebrating the
maximum jubilee, and to leave a perennial monument of our ardent piety towards
the Mother of God.
44. Therefore, after raising
many and repeated prayers to God and invoking the light of the Spirit of Truth,
to the glory of Almighty God, who granted the Virgin Mary his peculiar
benevolence; for the honor of her Son, immortal King of the centuries and
victor of sin and death; In order to increase the glory of this very august
Mother and for the joy and happiness of the whole Church, by the authority of
Our Lord Jesus Christ, of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul and by ours, we
pronounce, declare and define to be a dogma of divine revelation that The
Immaculate Mother of God, ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her
earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.
45. Therefore, if anyone, God
forbid, dares to voluntarily deny or question what has been defined by Us, know
that they have fallen from the divine and Catholic faith.
46. In order for our
definition of the bodily Assumption of the Virgin Mary into heaven to be
brought to the knowledge of the universal Church, we have wanted this our
apostolic letter to be on record for perpetual memory; ordering that their
copies and copies, even printed, signed by the hand of any notary public and
adorned with the seal of any person constituted in ecclesiastical dignity, be
absolutely given by all the same faith that would be given to the present if it
were exhibited or shown .
47. No one, then, is lawful
to violate this our declaration, proclamation and definition or to oppose or
contravene it. If anyone dares to try it, know that he will incur the
indignation of Almighty God and his holy apostles Peter and Paul.
We, PIO, Bishop of the
Catholic Church, defining it thus, have signed it.
Given
in Rome, together with Saint Peter, the year of the greatest Jubilee of one
thousand nine hundred and fifty, on the first day of the month of November, the
feast of All Saints, the twelfth year of our pontificate.
Grades.
12. Cf. Ioan Damasc.,
Encomium in Dormitionem Dei Genitricis semperque Virginis Mariae, hom. II, 2,
11;
Encomium in Dormitionem, S.
Modesto Hierosol, attributum.
13. Amadeus Lausannensis, De
Beatae Virginis obitu, Assumptione in caelum, exaltatione ad Filii dexteram.
14. Saint Antonius Patav.,
Sunday sermons et in solemnitatibus. In Assumptione S. Mariae Virginit sermo.
15. S. Albertus Magnus,
Mariale sive quaestionet super Evang. Missut est, q. 132.
16. S. Albertus Magnus,
Sermones de sanctis, sermon 15: In Anuntiatione B. Mariae, cfr. Etiam Mariale,
Q. 132.
17. Cf. Summa Theol., 3, q.
27, a. 1 C.; ibid., q. 83, a. 5 ad 8, Expositio salutationis angelicae, In
symb.,
Apostolorum expositio, art.
5; In IV Sent., d. 12, Q. 1, art. 3, sun. 3; d: 43, q. 1, art. 3, sun. 1 and 2.
18. Cf. S. Bonaventura, De
Nativitate B. Mariae Virginis, sermon 5.
19. S. Bonaventura, De
Assumptione B. Mariae Virginis, sermon 1.
20. S. Bernardinus Senens.,
In Assumptione BM Virginis, sermon 2.
21. S. Bernardinus Senens.,
In Assumptione BM Virginis, sermon 2.
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