The Assumption and the Immaculate Conception

Abstract

THE ASSUMPTION AND THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION A.ONG the various arguments adduced by theologians to prove the bodily Assumption of the Mother of God and its definability, the argument taken from the Immaculate Conceptfon seems to hold the principal place. All theologians willingly concede the existence of an impressive fittingness between the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption. Not all, however, concede that there is such a necessary connection between these two mysteries that the Assumption proceeds from the Immaculate Conception as an effect from a cause. Yet upon reflection, to deny such a necessary connection seems impossible. If carefully studied, this entire problem is seen to depend on the connection, in the present order, between original sin and death. Concerning this fundamental question, we may distinguish two extreme opinions and three opinions which may be called quasi-means between the two extremes. The two extreme opinions are: I) Death and subsequent bodily corruption, whether in Adam or his descendants, have no connection with sin; they are not a punishment of sin, but are always and only natural events: this is the opinion of the Pelagians; 2) Death and subsequent bodily corruption iri Adam and his descendants are always and only (even in an order diverse from the present) a penalty of sin with which, therefore, it is necessarily connected: thus speak the followers of Baius. Both of these mutually contradictory opinions have been condemned by the Church. Consequently, Catholics unanimously profess that Adam's death and bodily corruption were the penalty of sin. Among Catholics, therefore, the question concerns only the descendants of Adam. With regard to this question there are three opinions which 59 60 GABRIEL M. ROSCHINI mediate between the condemned extremes. These are: 1) Death and the consequent bodily corruption of the descendants of Adam are, in the present order of things,' the punishment for sin, and a natural occurrence only in another possible order diverse from the present; 2) death, if signifying merely the separation of the soul from the body without the subsequent corporeal corruption, is not the punishment for the sin committed by Adam; 3) death or the subsequent decay of the body, considered separately, are in all the descendants of Adam, even in the present order, either merely the condition of human nature or consequent solely upon the sin of Adam (i.e. original sin originantis, not, however, original sin originati or, in other words, personally contracted). This triple opinion concerning the connection between sin and death gives rise to three opinions concerning the connection between the Immaculate Conception (or immunity from fault) and the .:Assumption (or immunity from punishment, i. e., from the dominion of death). The adherents of the first opinion maintain that the Blessed Virgin, by the fact that she had a right to immortality was not subject to death and should not have died. If, de facto, she did die, it was, as in the case of Christ, for the co-redemption of the human race. Consequently the Blessed Virgin, like her Son, ought to have risen from death. This first opinion, therefore, postulates a necessary connection between the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption. The followers of the second opinion claim that the Blessed Virgin, although subject to death, nevertheless should not have been subjected to the corruption and dominion of death (which is, according to them, the true punishment of sin) . Even this opinion retains the necessary connection between the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption. Those who hold the third opinion deny any connection between the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption since they deny any connection either between sin and death or between: sin and subsequent corruption. We adhere to the first opinion which postulates a necessary connection between the Immaculate Conception and the As- THE ASSUMPTION AND THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION 61 sumption. To prove effectively this position we here propose three considerations, namely: (1) a history of this proposition throughout the centuries; (2) the apodictic theological value of this proposition; and (8) the refutation of the principal objections brought against the proposition. The history of the proposition in favor of the Assumption as deduced from the Immaculate Conception may be divided into four periods, namely: (1) the...