It is of Faith that at the moment of death there comes for us all the Judgment, and that immediately after the Judgment the soul which is in the state of grace -- should there be no need of further purification arising in some way from the sins of its life—possesses the unveiled Sight of God. In Mary's case there could be no delay arising from any sin committed in this life. It is, therefore, of Faith that immediately after death her soul possessed the joy of Heaven, which is the Beatific Vision.
The Church believes that in the case of the Holy Mother of God, the bodily resurrection of all the just has been anticipated, and that she is in Heaven both in body and soul. This is what Catholics mean when they speak of our Lady's Assumption.
I have written already that it is evident that corruption of Mary's Body would have been impossible. I meant that it is evident to those who hold the Catholic Faith. The feeling of Catholics on this subject was well expressed by a writer, of unknown name, whose works are to be found amongst those of St. Augustine :
"That the most sacred body, from which Christ assumed flesh . . . was given over to worms, since I am unable to think it, I shudder to say it (quia sentire non valeo, dicere perhorresco). To suppose that the flesh of Mary was subject to the common lot of corruption and of turning to the dust through the action of worms, is outside the possibilities of thought. The privilege of her incomprehensible grace banishes such a thought to a far distance." (De Assumpt. B.V.M. int. op. S. Augustini, P.L., Tom. VI., p. 1140.)
If any Catholic could allow himself to think—as surely no Catholic has ever thought during the whole course of the Church's history—that our Lord would allow such dishonour to be done to His Mother—to that flesh which in a true sense is His own (The author whom I have just quoted uses the phrase, Caro Christi caro Mariae.) —he would be stayed by the remembrance of Mary's " incomprehensible grace." Mary's sinlessness " banishes such a thought to a far distance." The incorruption of Mary's body after death is the necessary complement of her Immaculate Conception.
"If Eve, the beautiful daughter of God," writes Cardinal Newman, " never would have become dust and ashes unless she had sinned, shall we not say that Mary, having never sinned, retained the grace which Eve, by sinning, lost ? What had Mary done to forfeit the privilege given to our first parents in the beginning ? Was her comeliness to be turned into corruption, and her fine gold to become dim, without reason assigned ?" (Meditations and
Devotions, pp. 93, 94.)
The Second Adam and the Second Eve accepted all those consequences of the Fall of our . first parents—even its penalties—which involved nothing intrinsically unbecoming to the Incarnate God and His Holy Mother—but such consequences only. For example, Jesus and Mary were hungry, often they were weary, they were sad—they died. But concupiscence and corruption of Their sinless Flesh could not come nigh Them.
