Did Mary rise to heaven by her own power, the way Jesus did?

🔥The question: “Are the Ascension of Jesus and the Assumption of Mary the same event under two names?”

🛡️The Church's answer: They are not the same. Jesus ascended as the risen Lord, by his own divine power. Mary, once her earthly life was over, was taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven by God. So the Assumption is not an event that displays Mary's own strength; it is the singular fruit the resurrection of Christ bore in her.

The Assumption also runs against the idea that you have to shed the body to get closer to God. God created the human person as one of body and soul, and Mary's body too was a temple of the Holy Spirit, the body that carried the body of the Son. Her glory is a sign of hope that shows in advance the resurrection of the body every Christian awaits on the last day.

🧐If they press further: “Has the Church defined whether Mary died or not?” — the formal wording of the dogma says that Mary was taken up into heavenly glory in body and soul ‘when the course of her earthly life was finished.’ The dogma settles nothing more about exactly how that last moment went, so imagined details are never made a condition of faith.

✨In one sentence: “Jesus ascended as Lord, and Mary was taken up body and soul into heaven by God's grace. The Assumption shows us in advance the resurrection we hope for too.”