So, What's With the Assumption?

EWTN yesterday had a wonderful explanation of the importance of the Assumption. Mary, a human being, was assumed body and soul into heaven at the end of her earthly life. Why not just soul? Why did Jesus not send an apparition of some sort to explain that Mary was definitely in Heaven?

Because human beings are both soul and body. This is where Christianity differs from some eastern religions. (And where Catholicism differs from some Christian sects.) The body itself is not "evil." God created it. God inhabited it in Jesus Christ. The Lord comes to us each day in the Holy Eucharist.

It is sometimes easy these days to explain away our body and our need for it. It seems, after all, that "spirit" is all that is important. Having a body can be a bit of a burden after all.

But, Our Lord created our bodies. At the resurrection at the end of time, we will be reunited body and soul.

Catholics believe that Mary was created without original sin as befitting the Arc of the Covenant which would hold the Word--Christ. She is the prime example of Christian humanity that we are to look towards. She was raised, body and soul and taken into heaven.

Mary is truly "our life, our sweetness and our hope." By the grace of God, we, like her, will rise, body and soul on the last day and be reunited with Christ.