That is an area still open for debate as far as I know since I haven't found any dogmatic definition that excludes the possibility of the Blessed Mary never dying. As for myself, "I do not know", is my reply. I await the deliberations of theologians and bishops to make a definitive declaration if and when such is deemed as necessary.
Your approach is always wise.
To be clear, I don’t believe she ever died in a spiritual sense of the word, but rather, like all the saints, reposed in the Lord and was alive in Christ from the moment she reposed, even before her body was taken up into heaven.
Specifically, the problem with the denial of the dormition aspect of the Assumption is that at Chalcedon the Patriarch of Jerusalem informed the Emperor, who desired to venerate the relics of the Theotokos, that on the occasion of her death she was attended by all the Apostles, but two weeks later St. Thomas desired her tomb to be opened, and it was found to be empty.
A more detailed account in the Orthodox synaxarium states that the tomb was opened for the benefit of St. Thomas, who, traveling from the East (recall, he founded in the Church in India, and would later receive the crown of martyrdom there in 53 AD, when an angry maharaja threw a javelin at him; the site of his martyrdom is now a Roman Catholic Church and is a candidate for being the oldest church built on the site of a martyrdom in continual use), that St. Thomas did not arrive in time to see the Theotokos repose, and overwhelmed with grief, asked for her tomb to be opened, which the other Apostles agreed to, and they collectively were greatly surprised (that is to say, shocked, awed and delighted) to find the tomb was empty, and it was thus revealed that the Theotokos had been assumed just like St. Moses and St. Elijah were.
Thus we benefit from saying she reposed, both for historical reasons, and also because it proves the means of our own salvation, in that it establishes the promise of Christ to resurrect us is not in vain, for clearly, he has already done this in the case of the Theotokos, having resurrected and taken her up to Heaven, as happened with himself, and also it establishes that Christ was fully human, because if his mother did not repose before being assumed, this could fuel the deadly fires of docetism, the denial of the full humanity of Christ. It must be asserted beyond any doubt that Christ is consubstantial with us, according to the theology of the Councils of Nicaea, Constantinople and Ephesus, in a state of hypostatic union, as taught by St. Cyril (and thus believed by both Eastern and Oriental Orthodox as well as other Chalcedonians) fully human and fully divine, without change, confusion, separation or division between His humanity and divinity.
Now, I am fairly certain, on reflection, this is the Roman Catholic teaching, but would request the help of any of my pious Roman Catholic friends such as
@Michie @RileyG @Valletta @concretecamper and
@chevyontheriver in verifying this, to make sure I’m not in error.
What I did, since I’m not familiar with the Catechism of the Catholic Church or how it is structured, was look to the liturgy, which presumably is doctrinally authoritative, and found from the current version of the Liturgy of the Hours, at the Office of Readings (formerly known as Matins), the Second Reading on the feast of the Assumption:
“Thus Saint John Damascene, preeminent as the great preacher of this truth of tradition, speaks with powerful eloquence when he relates the bodily assumption of the loving Mother of God to her other gifts and privileges: “It was necessary that she who had preserved her virginity inviolate in childbirth should also have her body kept free from all corruption after death. It was necessary that she who had carried the Creator as a child on her breast should dwell in the tabernacles of God. It was necessary that the bride espoused by the Father should make her home in the bridal chambers of heaven. It was necessary that she, who had gazed on her crucified Son and been pierced in the heart by the sword of sorrow which she had escaped in giving him birth, should contemplate him seated with the Father. It was necessary that the Mother of God should share the possessions of her Son, and be venerated by every creature as the Mother and handmaid of God.”
If I’m reading the dogmatic definition of Pope Piux XII correctly, from the second reading of the Office of Readings at the Liturgy of the Hours, it appears that he refers to the body of the Theotokos being taken up into heaven after death:
At Matins for this feast, in the old Divine Office (according to the old Tridentine and Dominican uses), historically the Fourth through Sixth Readings, quoted the aforementioned homily of St. John of Damascus directly:
“Eve, who had said yea to the proposals of the serpent, was condemned to the pains of travail and the punishment of death, and found her place in the bowels of the Netherworld. But this truly blessed being who had inclined her ears to the word of God, whose womb had been filled by the action of the Holy Ghost, who, as soon as she heard the spiritual salutation of the archangel, had conceived the Son of God without any sexual pleasure or carnal knowledge by a man, who had brought forth her Offspring without any the least pang, who had hallowed herself altogether for the service of God how was death ever to feed upon her? how was the grave ever to eat her up? how was corruption to break into that body into which Life had been welcomed? For her there was a straight, smooth, and easy way to heaven. For if Christ, Who is the Life and the Truth, hath said Where I am, there shall also My servant be how much more shall not rather His mother be with Him?”
On a more poetic and beautiful note, the same Assumptions Matins traditionally featured this lovely hymn:
Arise! the cold blasts from earth have receded,
And in the field are lovely flowers smiling,
For thee, O gracious Mother, bearer of Life,
Arise, O Mary!
Beautiful Lily blooming 'mid the brambles,
Death's haughty author thou alone didst conquer,
Plucking life-giving tree of fruits the fathers
By sin did not taste.
Ark of sweet wood not destined for ruin,
Holding the manna, whence springeth forth the power
Summoning forth the bones again arisen
From depths of the tomb.
Thou handmaid, faithful to the Ruler of hearts,
Thy flesh cruel decay could never touch,
Thy soul of Spirit partaking without end,
Hath winged to the stars.
Leaning on thy beloved, arise, go heav'nward!
Accept the crown with stars for thee bedecked,
List to the hymn thy children sing on this day,
Calling thee blessed.
Praise to the Triune Godhead everlasting,
Who hath caused thee, O Virgin, to be crowned,
And providently willed our Queen thou shouldst be
Also our Mother.
Amen.
I would expect to find this hymn in the Orthodox Western Rite liturgy; I shall take a look. It is such a pity so few Roman Catholics are able to easily access the Liturgy of the Hours or older forms of the Divine Office outside of monasteries and some cathedrals. For the most part, priests, friars and tertiaries of religious orders, who are required to pray the Liturgy of the Hours daily, do so privately. This has also become de rigeur in the Maronite Rite, where the Divine Office, which is in a book called the
Shimo, meaning “Simple” became known as the
Fard (meaning “obligation”).
The Byzantine Rite Eastern Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox sing the following hymn at Vespers on the Feast of the Dormition (Assumption), which like in the Latin Rite, is on August 15th*. The version, to be of particular relevance to my Roman Catholic friends, I took from a Byzantine Catholic version of the Menaion**, the book containing the propers for the Divine Office for all fixed feasts, from the Metropolitan Cantor Institute (which serves the Ruthenian Greek Catholic churches):
Menaion - August 15 (MCI)
The holy apostles were taken up from every corner of the world * and carried upon clouds by the command of God. * They gathered around your pure body, O Source of Life, * and kissed it with reverence. * As for the most sublime powers of heaven, * they came with their own leader * to escort and to pay their last respects to the most honorable body * that had contained Life itself. * Filled with awe, they marched together with the apostles in silent majesty, * professing to the princes of heaven in a hushed voice: * Lift up your gates and receive, with becoming majesty, * the Mother of the Light that never fades, * because, through her, salvation was made possible for our human race. * She is the One upon whom no one may gaze, * and to whom no one is able to render sufficient glory; * for the special honor that made her sublime is beyond understanding. * Therefore, O most pure Theotokos, * forever alive with your Son, the Source of Life, * do not cease to intercede with Him * that he may guard and save your people from every trouble; * for you are our intercessor. * To you we sing a hymn of glory * with loud and joyful voices, now and forever.
* in antiquity however, it was historicallly celebrated in January in Egypt and in the Gallican Rite, which was once the main liturgy in France, also a Latin liturgy, but very different from the Roman Rite, most closely related to the Mozarabic RIte, still celebrated in the cathedral of Toledo and a monastery, and the Ambrosian Rite which is used by over a million Catholics in the DIocese of Milan, which is celebrated with great reverence, the main difference being that over the years, the Ambrosian Rite wound up always using the Roman Canon as its Anaphora (although with the post-1969 reforms, it has six Eucharistic Prayers; I have not examined them but my understanding is that one of them is the Roman Canon, and three correspond to Eucharistic Prayers II-IV, and presumably the other two are based on the highly variable traditional Gallican and Mozarabic Eucharistic prayer. Now that I have good access to Italian language resources I should seek to find this out.
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