At the First Vatican Council which started in 1869 defined
papal infallibility. It has since been
invoked explicitly in 2 instances. One
of the instances was in 1950 when Pope Pius the 12th wrote the
encyclical Munificentimus deus which infallibly declared that the Blessed
Mother was assumed body and soul into heaven.
Why just in 1950, almost 1900 years after the event took
place? I would like to read just an
excerpt from his encyclical
"The holy Fathers and the great Doctors, in the homilies and
sermons they gave the people on this feast day, did not draw their teaching
from the feast itself as from a primary source, but rather they spoke of this
doctrine as something already known and accepted by Christ's faithful. They
presented it more clearly. They offered more profound explanations of its
meaning and nature, bringing out into sharper light the fact that this feast
shows, not only that the dead body of the Blessed Virgin Mary remained
incorrupt, but that she gained a triumph out of death, her heavenly
glorification after the example of her only begotten Son, Jesus Christ-truths
that the liturgical books had frequently touched upon concisely and briefly.
Thus St. John Damascene, an outstanding herald of this
traditional truth, spoke out with powerful eloquence when he compared the
bodily Assumption of the loving Mother of God with her other prerogatives and
privileges. "It was fitting that she, who had kept her virginity intact in
childbirth, should keep her own body free from all corruption even after death.
It was fitting that she, who had carried the Creator as a child at her breast,
should dwell in the divine tabernacles. It was fitting that the spouse, whom the
Father had taken to himself, should live in the divine mansions. It was fitting
that she, who had seen her Son upon the cross and who had thereby received into
her heart the sword of sorrow which she had escaped in the act of giving birth
to him, should look upon him as he sits with the Father. It was fitting that
God's Mother should possess what belongs to her Son, and that she should be
honored by every creature as the Mother and as the handmaid of God."(17)
These words of St. John Damascene agree perfectly with
what others have taught on this same subject.
We give thanks that we have a person who was only a human
being already in Heaven, body and soul to intercede for us. Mary please pray for us and for your whole
Church!
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