Enoch and Elijah

A reader writes:

I have been enjoying your blog for some years now and it has become one of the pleasures of my day to see what you’re up to.

Would you help me with a question I and my wife have been wrestling with? Enoch and Elijah were assumed into Heaven. How is this possible since they were subject to the old covenant, the law, and Christ had not yet died, risen and ascended thereby opennig Heaven to us. Mother Mary was assumed. I thought that she and our Lord are the only ones in Heaven body and soul.

I know that God can do whatever He wants. He can save who He wants but I am curious on your take on this and maybe what the church teaches. Wasn’t Heaven closed to man until Christ made His supreme sacrifce? I have tried to research this myself but got nothing clear and conclusive.

Any help you can offer will be appreciated. Thank you and God bless you, Mark. I thank God for you and your work. Keep fighting the good fight.

Short answer: beats me. I presume that Enoch and Elijah’s “assumptions” are to Our Lady’s Glorious Assumption something like what Lazarus’ resurrection was to Christ’s Glorious Resurrection: the same thing, but in a minor key. Certainly, Elijah’s “assumption” was seen as a sort of Old Testament prefiguration of Mary’s Assumption. But how that all played out in the afterlife, I have no idea and I have no information on what, if anything, the Church has ever had to say about it.

Sorry!