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THE ASSUMPTION & THE DIGNITY OF THE HUMAN BODY
I ran this column last year on the Sunday before the Solemnity of the Assumption. It bears repeating because of our upcoming "Theology of the Body" Conference on November 9 and 10. Mary's Assumption offers a beautiful reflection on what our human bodies can teach us about our faith. When we recognize the dignity that our bodies have, created in God's image, we come to a greater understanding of what our Church teaches about marriage and sexuality.
The Solemnity of the Assumption celebrates our Catholic belief that, at the end of her life, Mary was taken body and soul into heaven. "The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin," states the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "is a singular participation in her Son's resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians" (CCC #966). Every Sunday in our Creed we profess our belief in the "resurrection of the body and life everlasting." The Blessed Virgin Mary is the first to experience this reality which awaits all who are conformed to Jesus Christ.
This feast, while certainly honoring Mary, also provides to us a timely catechesis on the beauty and dignity of the human body. In our day, we see so many attacks on the God-given splendor of the human body. These attacks are perpetrated with such astonishing frequency that we hardly notice them. But everyday, in images on television, in movies, on the internet, billboards, magazines and newspapers, and in lyrics to popular music, the human body is portrayed as an object to be used, rather than a thing of beauty and respect and an image of God. Instead of the temple of the Holy Spirit, as St. Paul calls it, the human body is depicted as an idol to be adored and used for selfish pleasure and gratification.
The Feast of the Assumption offers us a corrective for this misguided objectification of the human body. Our Catholic Tradition has consistently taught that the human body is to be respected and loved. Anointed for glory in Baptism and Confirmation, our bodies are to be given the respect and honor that is proper to a temple of the Holy Spirit.
This means that we treat our bodies, and those of others, with the honor proper to them. We do not treat them as mere shells that can be abused through alcohol, drugs, promiscuity, over-eating, and the like. Rather, we give them the care that is proper to their dignity. Modesty in dress, healthy eating and drinking, proper exercise, and chastity in the mind and heart by careful discernment of what we see and hear are some ways that we honor our bodies.
Mary's Assumption reminds us that God created the human body to be wonderful. Where Our Lady's pure, sinless body is now, we hope that one day our bodies will also be. The Lord intends our fragile bodies to partake of the everlasting beatitude that our souls will experience in His heavenly kingdom.
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