My wife and I often invite Mormon missionaries into our home. Invariably these clean-shaven young men will show up knocking at our door immaculately adorned in a white dress shirt and tie, a black name tag reading “Elder So-And-So,” and a book bag over their shoulder. They are always genuinely kind and well-mannered. Sometimes they will stay for an hour − sometimes more − and sometimes we will even have them stay for dinner. These encounters consistently prove themselves to be gratifying evangelization experiences – and often it is the missionaries’ first time hearing about Catholicism from a Catholic.
Why do Catholics call their priests “Father” when Jesus says in Matthew’s Gospel:
“Call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in heaven.” (Matt 23:9)
This question can become a point of contention between Catholics and evangelical Christians. Not a few non-Catholics take this verse in its most literal sense, and so they contend that Catholics are acting in disobedience to Jesus by calling their priest named Jim, for example, “Father Jim”.
In objection to this Catholic discipline, Matthew 23:9 is quoted. Of course, Catholics recognize that Jesus is speaking with hyperbole here, and is making it clear that the Almighty Father is the eternal prototype of all fathers, the eternal Giver of Life (Consider also in this passage that Jesus also says to call no man “teacher”, so to be consistent…).
Catholics
hold that God permitted Mary, the mother of Jesus, to be taken up body and soul to heaven. This belief is commonly called the the Assumption of Mary.
On November 1, 1950, Pius XII declared to the entire Christian Church the following statement:
“…by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory” (Munificentissimus Deus)
Hence, the age old Christian tradition of the bodily Assumption of Mary was confirmed infallibly by the successor of St. Peter, head of the apostles.
Now let’s be clear — this date in 1950 did not mark the “invention” of the doctrine. Rather, Pope Pius XII saw a need to make it clear to the faithful what was the constant apostolic teaching and not a doctrine up for a debate. It was a re-affirmation of an antiquity-old doctrine.
But does Pope Pius XII and the rest of the Catholic faithful have reasonable grounds to proclaim such an event as true history? This is what this post is aiming to explore — whether there are any good reasons to believe that Mary was taken up into heaven, body and soul, at the end of her earthly life.
Read More The Assumption of Mary: Is It Reasonable To Believe?
Welcome! I like to ponder what St. John Paul II called "the fundamental questions which pervade human life." Sometimes I write my thoughts down. This blog is where you'll find them.
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