The Destiny of All Mortal Flesh

08-15-2021Weekly Reflection© J. S. Paluch Company

The celebration of today’s feast on a Sunday is unusual on our Roman Catholic calendar. Our observance of the Lord’s Day is held in such high esteem that few other feasts replace it. Occasionally there is a feast—usually of one of the saints—in which the saving power of God in Christ is so uniquely focused that the Roman rite deems it worthy of celebration on the Lord’s Day.

Today is such a feast. Yet some are surprised at the brevity of the dogma in its entirety: “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 to heavenly glory.” The Roman Catholic Church never defined any specifics or particulars about the event itself. It is not in the scriptures. There are no verifiable eyewitness accounts. At its core, the dogma reveals in Mary the destiny of all mortal flesh, and reinforces our creedal belief in resurrection of the body. This feast strengthens our faith, defined last week in Hebrews as the realization of things hoped for. We find, in Mary, that realization of what we all hope for, what Paul today affirms: “In Christ shall all be brought to life” (1 Corinthians 15:22).