What is the Assumption of Mary, and is it in the Bible?

The dogma. Pope Pius XII defined in 1950 that "the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory" (Munificentissimus Deus; CCC 966).

Is it in Scripture? Not narrated directly, but Scripture is not the only source of revelation; the apostles handed on both written and oral Tradition (2 Thess 2:15; CCC 80-83). Still, the Bible points to it. Revelation 12 shows "a woman clothed with the sun" who bears the Messiah, in heaven, in glory. Enoch and Elijah were taken bodily to heaven (Gen 5:24; 2 Kgs 2:11), so the idea is not foreign to Scripture. And Psalm 132:8 says, "Arise, Lord, to your resting place, you and the ark of your might," which the Fathers read of Mary, the Ark of the New Covenant.

The witness of Tradition. The Church has celebrated Mary's Dormition (falling asleep) since at least the fifth century. Remarkably, no city ever claimed her body or relics, though the early Church treasured every relic it could find. St. John Damascene (eighth century) said it was fitting that she who kept her virginity intact in childbirth should keep her body free from corruption after death.

The logic. Death and bodily corruption are the wages of sin (Rom 6:23). Mary was preserved from sin, so it was fitting she be preserved from corruption, sharing in her Son's Resurrection ahead of the rest of us. The Assumption is a preview of what every Christian is promised: "the resurrection of the body and life everlasting" (CCC 966, 974). The feast is August 15.