Une Minute avec Marie
Faire connaître et aimer Marie
God wishes to save the whole man, that is, to save soul and body. Jesus rose with the body he had assumed from Mary; and he ascended to the Father with his transfigured humanity; with his body, a body like ours, but transfigured. The Assumption of Mary, a human being, gives us confirmation of what our glorious fate will be.
Greek philosophers had already understood that the soul of man is destined to happiness after death. However, they disregarded the body — considered the prison of the soul — and they did not understand that God had planned for the human body to be joined to the soul in the heavenly beatitude. Our body will be there, transfigured. This — the resurrection of the flesh — is a specific element of Christian revelation, a cornerstone of our faith.
The wondrous reality of the Assumption of Mary reveals and confirms the unity of the human person and reminds us that we are called to serve and glorify God with our whole being, soul and body. To serve God with the body alone would be the action of slaves; to serve him with the soul alone would be counter to our human nature.
Around the year 220, a great Father of the Church, Saint Irenaeus, stated that “the glory of God is a living man; and the life of man consists in beholding God” (Against Heresies, iv, 20, 7). If we live this way, in joyful service to God, which is also expressed in generous service to our brothers and sisters, then on the day of the resurrection our fate will be like that of our heavenly Mother. We must therefore fully dedicate ourselves to accomplishing the exhortation of the Apostle Paul: “glorify God in your body” (1 Cor 6:20), and we shall forever glorify him in heaven.