The other window in our church dedicated to Mary is the window closest to the south altar. In this window Mary stands alone, almost as if floating in air. Perhaps the artist meant to remind us of Mary's Assumption into heaven. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, "Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death."Note that Mary did not ascend by her own power as Jesus did, but God took her up. We are prepared for just such a blessed event by two similar occurrences in the Old Testament. Genesis 5:24 tells us that "Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him." In 2 Kings 2:11 Elisha and Elijah were walking together when suddenly "... a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven."
Did Mary die before her body and soul were assumed? The Church has never formally answered that question. In 1950 Pope Pius XII wrote in Munificentissimus Deus (The Most Generous God) that Mary "after the completion of her earthy life was assumed body and soul into the glory of heaven." Notice he did not say whether she died or not. Because of her Immaculate Conception, Mary was preserved free from original sin and thus from the consequences of sin, yet Pope John Paul II pointed out that because Mary suffered while her Son Jesus suffered through His Passion and His Death on the cross, it might be logical to conclude that Mary died as her Son did.
Another point sometimes mentioned when Mary's Assumption is discussed: Mary was, as her kinswoman Elizabeth declares in Luke 1:42, "Blessed...among women," so wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that as the early Christians guarded the relics of Peter and Paul and others, they would most certainly preserve Mary's remains? Yet no one ever claimed to possess or to know where Mary's body was. The Church has declared that there were no remains to preserve and venerate because Mary was assumed--body and soul--into heaven.
