Five Things You Didn't Know About The Assumption
The Assumption of Mary doesn’t mean she never died.
Mary might have died but was still assumed into heaven, body and soul. Many Catholics think she never died at all, but Pope Pius XII made it clear in his encyclical, Munificentissimus Deus, that Mary did, in fact, die.
Jesus wasn’t assumed into heaven.
The Second Glorious Mystery of the Rosary is the Ascension of Jesus and the fourth is the Assumption of Mary. The critical difference between the Ascension and Assumption is that Mary was taken up into Heaven, while Christ ascended by His own Divine power.
Mary actually wasn’t the only person to be assumed into heaven.
At least two other people in Scripture were (besides Mary), are traditionally believed to be assumed into heaven. The Old Testament hints that Enoch was assumed (Genesis 5:24), and the New Testament says so explicitly (Hebrews 11:5). The Old Testament explicitly says that Elijah was assumed (2 Kings 2:11).
The Bible doesn’t say Mary was assumed.
At least, not implicitly. The New Testament hints at Mary’s Assumption, though this dogma was later confirmed by the Church Fathers.
Science tells us Mary was assumed…kind of!
Every time a woman gets pregnant, her child leaves some of his cells in her body, even if the child later dies in the womb. This means that Mary carried the Blood of Christ within her always. We receive the Eucharist, and carry Christ within us temporarily, but Mary was never wholly separated from Him, even physically. Psalm 16:9-10 promises that the Body of Christ will not undergo decay. The Assumption is simply a further completion of that promise.
