I was quite disconcerted today when I read your response regarding the death of Mary.

Dear Father Angelo,

I am a regular visitor to the Dominicans’ website, particularly the section “A Priest Responds,” where I have previously submitted questions to you on several occasions, always receiving prompt and clarifying answers.

However, I was quite disconcerted today when I read your response (question number “1780”), which contains the following statement, which I quote verbatim: “According to common tradition, the Blessed Virgin did not die of any illness, but in an ecstasy of love for God that was so strong that she left her body on earth to go straight to heaven with her soul.”

Forgive me, but did not the Holy Father Pius XII solemnly pronounce ex cathedra on November 1, 1950, as a dogma of faith, that “at the end of her earthly life, Mary Most Holy was assumed into heavenly glory in soul and body”? How is it possible, therefore, to affirm, while remaining within the bounds of Catholic orthodoxy, that Our Lady left her body on earth at the end of her earthly life? Either I do not understand what you are saying, or there is something that does not add up.

I look forward to your clarification.

Vito

The priest’s response

Dear Vito,

Thank you for your diligence and affection in following us.

1. My answer would have been incorrect if I had written that the body of the Virgin Mary remained on earth forever.

Instead, I wrote that “she left her body on earth” because that is what happened at the moment of her death.

Subsequently, through divine intervention, she was assumed into heaven.

2. At the time of the proclamation of the dogma of the Assumption, all theologians agreed that the Virgin Mary had been assumed into heaven in body and soul.

But they differed on one point: whether the Virgin Mary had been assumed into heaven without experiencing death or after her death.

Pius XII did not take a position on this and used an expression that leaves open the possibility of supporting either thesis.

3. John Paul II, in his Magisterium, expressed himself in favor of the second thesis.

In a catechesis dedicated to this very topic, he said:

“1. Regarding the conclusion of Mary’s earthly life, the Council takes up the terms of the Bull of Definition of the Dogma of the Assumption and affirms: ‘The Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory’ (LG, 59)’ . With this formula, the Dogmatic Constitution “Lumen gentium,” following my venerable predecessor Pius XII, does not pronounce on the question of Mary’s death. Pius XII, however, did not intend to deny the fact of death, but only did not consider it appropriate to solemnly affirm, as a truth that had to be accepted by all believers, the death of the Mother of God.

Some theologians, in truth, have argued that the Virgin was exempt from death and passed directly from earthly life to heavenly glory. However, this opinion was unknown until the 17th century, while in reality there is a common tradition that sees Mary’s death as her introduction to heavenly glory.

4. Is it possible that Mary of Nazareth experienced the drama of death in her flesh? Reflecting on Mary’s destiny and her relationship with her divine Son, it seems legitimate to answer in the affirmative: since Christ died, it would be difficult to argue the opposite for his Mother.

This was the reasoning of the Church Fathers, who had no doubts on the matter. (…) St. Modestus of Jerusalem († 634), after speaking at length about the “most blessed dormition of the most glorious Mother of God,” concludes his ‘eulogy’ by extolling the prodigious intervention of Christ who “raised her from the tomb” to take her with him into glory. St. John Damascene († 704), for his part, asks: “How is it that she who in childbirth surpassed all the limits of nature now bows to its laws and her immaculate body is subjected to death? And he answers: “It was certainly necessary that the mortal part be laid aside in order to be clothed with immortality, since even the master of nature did not refuse the experience of death.

He, in fact, dies according to the flesh and with death destroys death, bestows incorruptibility on corruption, and makes dying the source of resurrection.

5. It is true that in Revelation death is presented as punishment for sin. However, the fact that the Church proclaims Mary freed from original sin by a singular divine privilege does not lead to the conclusion that she also received bodily immortality. The Mother is not superior to the Son, who took on death, giving it new meaning and transforming it into an instrument of salvation.

Involved in the work of redemption and associated with Christ’s saving offering, Mary was able to share in suffering and death for the redemption of humanity. What Severus of Antioch says about Christ also applies to her: “Without a preliminary death, how could the resurrection take place?” In order to participate in Christ’s resurrection, Mary had to share in his death first.

6. The New Testament provides no information about the circumstances of Mary’s death. This silence leads us to suppose that it occurred normally, without anything particularly noteworthy. If this had not been the case, how could the news have remained hidden from her contemporaries and not reached us in some way?

As for the causes of Mary’s death, opinions that would exclude natural causes do not seem well-founded. More important is the search for the spiritual attitude of the Virgin at the moment of her departure from this world. In this regard, St. Francis de Sales believes that Mary’s death occurred as a result of a transport of love. He speaks of dying “in love, because of love, and for love,” thus coming to affirm that the Mother of God died of love for her son Jesus. (…)

7. Some Church Fathers describe Jesus himself coming to take his mother at the moment of her death, to bring her into heavenly glory.

They thus present Mary’s death as an event of love that led her to join her divine Son in order to share his immortal life. At the end of her earthly existence, she will have experienced, like Paul and even more than him, the desire to be freed from her body in order to be with Christ forever (cf. Phil 1:23).

The experience of death enriched the person of the Virgin: by passing through the common fate of human beings, she is able to exercise her spiritual motherhood more effectively towards those who are approaching the supreme hour of life” (John Paul II, June 26, 1997).

Your question has given me the opportunity to present once again the thought of John Paul II, which, although not expressed in dogmatic terms, is nevertheless authoritative.

Thank you again for your faithful following. I assure you of my prayers to the Lord and I bless you.

Father Angelo

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