Newsletter n. 10/22 – Mary Assumed into Heaven
It was November 1, 1950: after a very long and tortuous academic journey, that is of historical and exegetical verification, and after having consulted all the Bishops of the world, Pope Pius XII defined as dogma (revealed truth to be believed for all Catholics who want to be Catholics) the Assumption into Heaven in body and soul of Most Holy Mary, the Mother of Jesus, at the end of her earthly life. In the full spread of Communist materialism, the Pope had the “brash” courage to define the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin into Heaven as an indubitable truth of faith.
Curiously, but not too much, he left theologians to continue studying and deepening the way in which Mary ended her life on earth. And here divisions immediately emerged, which existed before and which are still present: first of all “the immortalist hypothesis”, according to which the heart of Mary never stopped beating, passing directly from earth to heaven; and “the mortal hypothesis”, also known as “dormitio Mariae”, for which the death of Mary was a sweet dying falling asleep in God and then returning to life directly in Heaven. A third hypothesis supposes a kind of ecstatic sleep of Mary, a very prolonged ecstasy and so strong as to separate the soul from her body and then reunite them in the moment of her assumption when her body was carried by the angels.
Maria Valtorta supports the third hypothesis and describes what happened in the three chapters 649-651. The texts are so beautiful that it would be nonsense to summarize them: I leave them for your reading. I will add only a few words of St. John. “You [Mary] were always lily of the valley, sweet rose, specious olive, fruitful vine, holy ear. You have given us your perfumes, and the Oil of life, and the Wine of the strong, and the Bread that preserves the spirit, of those who worthily feed on it, from death” (Gospel 10 p. 496 – Italian edition).
But the most beautiful word the apostle says is, perhaps, after having witnessed the assumption. “You have allowed me to see her again, although She is already so far away, already glorified and glorious, as She was close to me. And seing Jesus again! Oh! most blissful, unexpected, insperable vision! O gift of the gifts of Jesus-God to his John! Supreme grace! Re-viewing my Master and Lord! Seeing Him with the Mother! […] Now everything is done for me too! Now I can go, freely, where the Spirit of God will lead me. To go! Sowing the divine Word that the Master gave me so that I can give it to men. Teaching Love. Teach it so that they believe in Love and its power. […] To make Love loved, so that they believe in It as we have believed and believe in It. Sowing Love so that the harvest and the fishing may be abundant, for the Lord. Love obtains everything, told me Mary in her last speech” (Ibid. pp. 500-501).
In the background, we who read the Gospel accurately must hear the addition that I take from chap. 281/10: “Do this and you will have Eternal Life”.
For this holy feast of the Assumption, the wish from our Foundation for all of you is that Jesus with His almighty word create His love in each of you by pronouncing on your name that beautiful word: “Love me, John” (Gospel 5 p. 296 – Italian edition).