Most of us learn something like this in catechism: At the end of our lives we will all be judged by God.

Depending on the outcome, we will then go to heaven (or heaven on the slow track a la purgatory) or hell, and that's that. Forever.

This version of our eternal fate is true, but it is glaringly incomplete.

Every single Sunday, we Catholics publicly profess that we expect "the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come."

I'll bet that most of us don't spend too much time thinking about what this means.

For Christians, the separation of the soul from the body is unnatural.

God created us as embodied souls, and Christ redeemed our matter and souls by his Incarnation, Passion, Resurrection and Ascension.

God took flesh, God exalted that flesh and he revealed his glorious plan for creation: to share this glory with him.

Heaven and Hell are real, but they aren't the end of the story.

On the last day, we will all rise just as Jesus did.

We will have resurrected bodies: mysterious, powerful, yet material and real like his, and our souls will be reunited with them forever.

Where Christ has led, we too will follow, if we remain faithful to our baptismal call to build his kingdom in anticipation of his return.

Mary, the mother of God, is the first and the best Christian that has ever been or will ever be.

Her entire life is an example for us.

She leads the way to Christ. Mary was just as human as we are; she needed a saviour just like we do.

She struggled to understand God's plan through joys and sorrows just like we do.

At the end of her life, Mary died like Jesus (and like each and every one of us will). Death though, for her (and for us!), did not have the final word.

She was resurrected, and exalted, and she reigns with Christ in the kingdom of God which is bursting forth at the seams all around us.

Thus, the Assumption, just like every Marian Dogma, is really a statement about who Jesus is and who we are as his followers.

The Assumption tells us that Jesus is true to his word, and that he will do for all of us exactly as he promised.

Pius XII himself, in the document which promulgated the dogma of the Assumption wrote, "It is our hope that belief in Mary's bodily Assumption into heaven will make our belief in our own resurrection stronger and render it more effective." Continue reading

Bishop Jean Baptiste Pompallier and the early Marist fathers and brothers first dedicated the mission to New Zealand before they left France.

Then, after arriving, in 1938 they dedicated the country to Mary.

However, during the 2020 COVID lockdowns, many New Zealanders wrote to the Catholic bishops asking for them to dedicate the country to Our Lady.

The bishops' responded by commissioning an artwork of Mary and the child Jesus and agreed to re-dedicate New Zealand to Mary's care.

"There was a strong hint in many of these requests that if we had done this early enough the pandemic would not have even started!' said Cardinal John Dew.

"But, we know that Mary is not a magician!" Dew said on Sunday at the re-dedication Mass.

However, Dew told the standing-room-only St Mary of the Angels congregation, that renewing the country's dedication to Our Lady is about each of us.

"It concerns our future," he said.

"This is a day of hope for humanity.

"Even as we think of many sad situations, we can live in hope and hold out hope to others.

"Think today especially of women overwhelmed by the weight of life and the drama of violence; women who are slaves to the arrogance of the powerful; girls forced into inhumane work; women forced to surrender in both body and spirit to the greed of men.

"Our prayer today is for a life of peace, justice and love to reach these women in expectation of the day in which they finally feel gripped by hands that do not humiliate them, but lead them with tenderness into the presence of God."

At the Mass, a substantial Aotearoa-themed artwork depicting Mary and the child Jesus was unveiled.

Created by Rangiora artist Damien Walke, the artwork has left for Invercargill; the start of a hikoi around the country.'

The hikoi will end with the artwork's return and permanent placement in St Mary of the Angels, which will become a national shrine.

Auckland's Bishop, Patrick Dunn was not well enough to travel.

Source

• New Zealand Catholic Bishops
• Excerpts from Cardinal John Dew's homily (supplied)
• Image supplied