Without a doubt, love reigns

Thanks to Thomas the Apostle—that so-called “Doubting Thomas”—Catholic tradition has its earliest account of Mary’s Assumption. This tradition holds that, just as Thomas was elsewhere when the other apostles were visited by a resurrected Jesus, he’d likewise been away when Mary, surrounded by the apostles, drew her last earthly breath. As Thomas returned to Jerusalem, three days after Mary’s burial, it is said that he saw her gloriously lifted into the heavens. This time, it was the other apostles’ turn to doubt Thomas. With great skepticism, tradition tells us, they opened her tomb and found it empty. Pope John Paul II, quoting Saint Francis de Sales, insisted that Mary died “in love, from love, and through love.” Love like Mary today.