Assumption Dogma

On this date in 1950 my big sister Maureen said, " Well, the Feast of the Assumption is when a lot of Catholics punch their ticket to hell."  I was seven years old at the time and did not understand her.  Not understanding Maureen was typical, as long as I obeyed.  She had been in Catholic school for four years, so I figured she was a theologian by then.  She looked at my blank face and said, "OK, dummy, let me explain."  She continued, "The dogma of Mary being assumed body and soul into heaven has just been proclaimed by the infallible pope.  Today is the first time that we celebrate this feast as a Holy Day of Obligation.  That means you must go to mass or burn.  Did you see how empty the church was yesterday, August 15?"  In fact the church had few people in it.  Maureen was not finished as she added, "It is no excuse that it is summer and people aren't thinking about church or this new feast.  They will still burn if they get hit by a trolley before they confess."  So spoke Maureen the oracle.  It was for me my first experience with this new Holy Day and the actual event of the pope speaking infallibly.  I have spent my life since that day, trying to remember to go to church in the middle of a weekday in the summer, and to understand what the Assumption is all about.  But I think that my big sis probably mellowed as she got older because some of the people she loved did indeed miss a few Assumption masses.  Though the pope may be infallible, I did not think he was very smart to make a Holy Day in the middle of the summer when there was no school.  I liked holy days when school was in session because then you got a day off from school.  This was not a good reason to like holy days.  It is not very pious, so I may have earned some time in purgatory.  Maureen thought there were many other reasons as well for her little brother to burn.  If you missed mass yesterday, avoid trolleys.