GOSPEL MATTERS: The final victory of Life over Death
Dr Christine Wood, Director of Evangelisation & Catechesis
“In you the final victory of life over death is already a reality. In you, the most holy Virgin, ‘the Church has already reached the perfection whereby she exists without spot or wrinkle’ (Lumen Gentium, 65).” These words of Pope John Paul II celebrate the magnificent work of God in the Blessed Virgin Mary on the occasion of her Assumption into heaven.
This belief in the Assumption of Mary echoes down the centuries. In the eighth century, St John Damascene declared to Mary, “Your stainless and wholly immaculate body has not been left on earth; the Queen, the Mistress, the Mother of God who has truly given birth to God has been translated to the royal palaces of heaven.”
St John Damascene associated Mary’s bodily assumption into heaven with the fulfillment of the Song of Songs. He said that at her glorious entry into heaven, the angels declared, “Who is she that comes forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, elect like the sun?” (Songs 6:9)
The Blessed Virgin Mary is the eschatological fulfillment of the Church. She shines forth as the perfection of what the entire Church of Christ will become at the end of time.
Just as sailors look for the morning star to navigate the treacherous seas, so too Christians look to Mary, the true Star of the Sea (Stella Maris) on their pilgrimage of faith. As the model of virtues, we look to her for guidance along the right path.
As in the ancient Davidic monarchy, Mary, the true Queen-Mother, is seated at the right hand of the Davidic King, her divine Son, Jesus Christ. This image speaks of her bodily assumption into the heavenly throne room. The Queen-Mother intercedes for her other children before the divine throne of mercy.
The Psalmist says, “Arise, O Lord, into your resting place: you and the ark, which you have sanctified” (Ps 131:8). Ancient authors, like John Damascene, consider this Ark of the Covenant, built of incorruptible wood and placed in the Lord’s temple, as “a type of the most pure body of the Virgin Mary, preserved and exempt from all the corruption of the tomb and raised up to such glory in heaven.”
Catholics believe 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.” This is a foretaste of what God has in store for his faithful children — the triumph of life over death! Let us, then, look to the Blessed Virgin Mary as our spiritual mother, continually asking for her maternal care.