Most of our human problems are directly or indirectly related to our human body. Down through the ages, various schools of philosophy and thinkers had varied understanding and opinions on the contested human body. Some of the contrasting ideas are: body as a dirty-matter, source of evil and body as something that needs to be fought with vigorous strength, but at the same time, others glorified it. St. Paul considered the body as ‘the temple of the Holy Spirit’; this thought being the first Christian thought that considered the body as holy and is consecrated for greater things by God himself.
But unfortunately, not all the Christian thinkers continued the thought of St. Paul in the right way. Most Christian thinkers recommend avoiding dualism and learning to integrate our bodies with the spirit. The problems of body and spirit arise when we fail to integrate. The work of integration of our body and spirit is a lifelong project. Without this integration, it is impossible to recognize human dignity and the dignity of the human body .
Human dignity is the recognition that human beings possess a special value intrinsic to their humanity and as such are worthy of respect, basically because they are human beings. Failure to do this leads to many abuses meted out on the human person; this also leads to human right violations. Besides the resurrection of Jesus Christ—a belief that after his suffering and death Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, what is the implication of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s body and soul into heaven? What does it say about the dignity of the human body? What does the feast of Assumption teach the believers today?
Mary is venerated as the embodiment of all human and Christian virtues. Her appearance in the gospel stories present her as a person of integrity who kept her body, mind and soul in purity. This made the Church to proclaim as dogma her conception as immaculate, her motherhood as virgin mother and her death and departure from earth as assumption. Her hymn, Magnificat brings out in prayer her vocation, her cooperation with God and God’s own singular gift to her as Immaculate Mother of his only Son. God was present to her spiritually and physically (bodily).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it well, “The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son’s Resurrection, and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians. (# 966). Mary participates in Jesus’s redemptive work through her Immaculate Conception, and virgin-motherhood of Mary, the Mother of God. All these great truths of our faith involve BODY. Immaculate Conception, Virgin-Motherhood and Assumption of Mary elevate the human body to a sacred level. Mary through her singular grace gives new meaning to our mortal nature.
Therefore, the Feast of Assumption of our Blessed Mother is very important as it teaches us the sacredness of the body and right attitudes to our bodies. Let this feast teach us that we are our bodies and we experience God’s love and blessing in our bodies. May our Immaculate Mother assumed into heaven intercede for us!
By Prof. Michael Ogunu
