A recent picture in the newspaper of a young woman kneeling in prayer to commemorate the August 6th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought home the sobering reminder that the wounds and scars of war are often long lasting.

Even today, I doubt any one of us is not somehow saddened and disillusioned by the constant images of war and destruction seen through television and other media with respect to the unending violence and wars in such countries as Irag, Palestine, Israel and Liberia. The body count continues to climb, the innocent are caught in the crossfire, and the constant terror threats around the world seem to make us all the more suspicious or fearful. Closer to home, and in only a few short weeks, we shall once again remember the horrific anniversary of September 11th, in which thousands of people seemed to virtually disappear in seconds in a cloud of destruction. One might begin to wonder: is the human person so cruelly expendable? A person can be here one moment and gone the next.

In a prayerful way, one can only be drawn all the more to meditate on the meaning and the dignity of the human person. Are we also that expendable in God's eyes?

It is interesting, and perhaps ironic, that a more hopeful anniversary is also to be celebrated this month: the anniversary of the announcement, in 1950, of the dogma of the Assumption of Mary (celebrated August 15th). It is an intriguing feast, considering what it implies theologically about the human person. It is, perhaps, worth re-considering, especially in these times in which images of destruction and death seem to be constant front-page news. It is interesting, also, that the dogma was originally proclaimed against the backdrop of a world still recovering from the Second World War, in which millions of people lost their lives. How is a dogma abut a woman, called by God to glory, a message of hope to those seeking meaning? Perhaps it might deserve another look.

It is clear that the buildup to the dogma on Mary's Assumption took centuries; however, the long tradition of the Church remained steadfast in believing that something special and miraculous had happened to Mary at the end of her life.

Pope Pius XII, in 1950, in his Apostolic Constitution, "Munificentissismus Deus", defined the bodily assumption of Mary into heaven, in these words, "...it was her crowning glory to be preserved from the corruption of the tomb, and like her Son before her, to conquer death and to be raised body and soul to the glory of heaven..."

This statement or definition flowed from a logical culmination of the traditional belief and teaching of Catholics throughout the centuries. From the earliest of times, there had been a solid and deep-rooted conviction among Christians that something quite extraordinary had befallen Mary at the moment of her departure from this life. This conviction found expression in the writings, sermons, practices of devotion and prayers to Mary.

The dogma of the Assumption also complemented the teaching of the Immaculate Conception (1854) which held that Mary, the Mother of Jesus, was free from original sin from the very moment of her conception. Her special union with God from the beginning of her existence is now fulfilled at the end of her "earthly life".

Once the teaching of the Immaculate Conception was defined (1854), the question of the definability of her Assumption began to be raised with increasing frequency. The Vatican was stormed with petitions from various levels, and the Pope requested consultation from the bishops; naturally, at the peak of Marian devotion, he found a favourable response. It should also be noted that the Pope himself (Pius XII) had a deep devotion to Mary and and so had strong personal reasons for wanting this to be defined.

However, it is interesting that neither scripture nor the dogma of the Assumption speaks to the exact nature of Mary's final moments; there is no mention of the manner of her death. The dogma simply said, "..at the end of her earthly life..." It's message is that God rewarded her and called her to glory. How could God not do something special for the woman who bore Jesus, the woman who opened the way for the Redeemer?

However, there are other theological implications which speak more directly to us.

For many, the timing of the Assumption proclamation could not have come at a better time. The world was still recovering from the tremendous loss of life experienced in the Second World War. Humanity was suddenly vulnerable as never before to being totally annihilated. The Assumption dogma was seen by many as a great gift from God, since it spoke, not only of what God provided for Mary, but what God intended for each one of us. Mary's "Assumption" offered renewed hope to all of us that each human being is not merely a creature whose existence has no meaning. Mary's Assumption pointed us once again to Christ's resurrection; once again, we were invited to remember that God's plan and desire for us is that each one of us will also one day rise to everlasting life.

It is hard to imagine the impact of the proclamation of the Assumption dogma in 1950. I was not born yet. However, I found great inspiration in the words of a person who was alive at the time and who witnessed the moment; his name was Graham Greene, a famous novelist and movie-script writer. So moved was he by the proclamation of the Assumption, that he wrote some thoughts in a brief essay for the Catholic Digest. Perhaps his comments are as relevant in these difficult times as they were in 1950.

"But Catholics today cannot remain quite untouched by the general heresy of our time, the unimportance of the individual. Today, the human body is regarded as expendable material, something to be eliminated wholesale by the atom bomb, a kind of anonymous carrion. After First World War, graves marked the places where the dead lay....But no crosses today mark the common graves into which the dead of London and Berlin were shoveled, and Hiroshima's memorial is the outline of a body photographed by the heat flash of asphalt. The definition of the Assumption proclaims again the doctrine of our resurrection, the eternal destiny of each human body, and again it is the history of Mary which maintains the doctrine in its clarity. The resurrection of Christ can be regarded as the resurrection of a God, but the resurrection of Mary foreshadows the resurrection of each of us." (Catholic Digest, Vol. 15, Nov. 1950, p.19)

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