A reader asks:
Why do Catholics believe that Mary ascended to heaven if the Bible mentions that when one dies everything is over? I attend an Adventist church and I do not agree with that. Could you answer my question?
Answer:
Greetings, brother. From your comment, surely you are not Catholic. Thank you for your e-mail.
As Catholics, we firmly believe that Our Mother Mary was assumed or taken up into heaven. That is, she was taken into the presence of God in body and soul.
However, nowadays there are many people who say they are “Christian” and do not believe the same thing. More than that, they ask us and tell us that this is not true. Why do we believe it? This topic is devoted to explaining that, and we have prepared it for you so that you may know something of our foundation and, at the same time, so that Catholics who read it may love the Virgin more and know how to defend their faith (1 Pet 3:15).
A.- Biblical reasons:
First of all, let us go more deeply into Sacred Scripture to see what the Word of God teaches us about this.
The four main biblical points are the following:
1.- God is not God of the dead, but of the living.
There are some separated brethren who do not believe as we do because, according to them, when a person dies everything is over and nothing happens until Jesus returns.
That is false, because the Bible itself clearly tells us that God is not God of the dead but of the living. Let us look at some biblical passages that confirm this for us:
“I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. God is not God of the dead, but of the living.”
Mt 22:32
“I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.”
Phil 1:23
“… Elijah appeared to them with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus.”
Mk 9:1-4
2.- If Christ took the evildoer to paradise “for one minute of faith,” with even greater reason he would take his mother Mary to be with him.
“… And he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ And he said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’”
Lk 23:39-43
That is what happened, dear brother: one of the evildoers had faith at the last moment and repented. One minute was enough for him, and in his great mercy Jesus Christ told him that that very day he would be with him in Paradise. Some say he was such a “good thief” that he stole heaven in one minute.
Therefore, if Jesus took that evildoer with him, with even greater reason he was going to take his holy mother Mary, who was a woman full of Faith, so that she might be with him for all eternity.
How incredible that many Protestant brethren have not discovered this.
3.- Being taken up to heaven in body and soul.
“Then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall always be with the Lord.”
1 Thess 4:17
“And he said to them, ‘Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.’”
Mk 9:1
If Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Elijah and Moses were alive with God, with even greater reason Mary, the handmaid and Mother of God, would also be so.
These verses indicate that Christians who are living in the grace of God and witness the physical coming of Jesus Christ in the last times will not die an earthly death, but will pass directly to heaven in body and soul for all eternity.
And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
Acts 1:9.
This other text teaches us that Jesus Christ ascended in body and soul into heaven.
Composition of texts
Joining together the ideas contained in the previous verses and applying them to Mary, we will say that the historical fact was as follows:
“At the end of her life, the Virgin Mary passed to the next life through an event that cannot be called death as we universally know it, in order to fulfill 1 Thess 4:17. Her person was exceptional in order to fulfill Lk 1:28. And she lives in heaven in body and soul in fulfillment of Lk 1:28 and Acts 1:9.”
The Church calls this “the Assumption of Mary into heaven.”
If the prophet Elijah was taken up toward heaven (2 Kings 2:9-11), with even greater reason this would be so with Mary, mother of Jesus Christ and faithful handmaid of God (Lk 1:28; Lk 1:48).
B.- Logical reasons.
God’s principal objective for humanity is its happiness and salvation. This is gained through repentance for our faults and our obedience as the fruit of our faith.
For the subject we are discussing, the graces we must consider are “being caught up,” “the resurrection before the end of time,” and “living in body and soul in heaven before the universal resurrection.” The persons possessing this and identified in the Bible are: Jesus Christ and an unknown number of people specified in 1 Thess 4:17.
The Virgin Mary, because she was a “vessel of election” and the “Full of Grace” (Lk 1:28), shared with Jesus Christ in his death, resurrection and ascension into heaven, which the Bible calls being “caught up.”
As for ascension, it was necessary that she too should have it, since many will have it when Jesus Christ comes for the second time. Between Mary’s Assumption and the Christians who will be “caught up” in the last times there is no essential difference, but only one of time. Without doubt Jesus Christ would take his mother to be with Him.
* It was defined as dogma by His Holiness Pius XII on December 8, 1950, saying:
“Having no sin and not being subject to the corruption of the tomb, Mary was raised to heaven in body and soul at the end of her passage through this world.”
Author: Martin Zavala M.P.D.
Source: Defiendetufe.org
