Cycle C - Year II:  

8 May 2016: Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord 

(Liturgical color: White)

Gospel: Please read  Luke 24:46-53

We are witnesses!

This Sunday the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Lord's Ascension, which is forty days after the Lord's Resurrection.

What does our Catechism tell us about this great event in the life of Jesus?

The Lord's Ascension into heaven to the right hand of the Father is among the articles of Faith we profess in the Apostles' Creed. We believe by this mystery that Jesus Christ, in His resurrected body and soul, went up to heaven and took His seat at the right hand of God the Father. Thus, the Ascension makes way for the Holy Spirit to come down to earth and inspires the Apostles to preach the Gospel to every land.

The Church further teaches that when Christ ascended into heaven He did so on His own power and He ascended as true God and true Man. This belief is rooted in the eyewitness testimony of the Apostles themselves. The first reading in the Acts of the Apostles describes this momentous event: "When he (Jesus) had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight." (Acts 1:9)

For the Apostles, the Lord's Ascension becomes their great hope. It was this encounter with the Resurrected One that compelled the Apostles to preach the Gospel without fear, even to the point of shedding their blood as martyrs.

In truth, the Lord's departure and ascension were both and end and the beginning for the first disciples. It was the end of Jesus'  physical presence with them but at the same time it is also the beginning of the Lord's presence in a new way.

Every Gospel account of the Lord's Ascension contains His final instructions to the Apostles, traditionally called the Great Commissioning.

Our Lord  goes back to the Father but His saving work continues in our world through us. We are commissioned to labor on His behalf until He comes again to bring all things to completion.

The Gospel narrative of the Ascension is from St. Luke.  In His final discourse, our Lord begins with a summary of what He accomplished: "Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day." (Lk 24:46) Because this is the essence of His mission, and therefore of the Gospel. Everything else -- His teachings, healing, preaching, and miracles He performed -- is to point and prepare for this mission, and have meaning only because of it.

So now, what do we do after the Lord's ascension? We do not merely wait on the Lord's return. Our Lord Himself makes known the continuing nature of His mission through us, namely, "that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem." (Lk 24:47) Because by His death and resurrection Christ has already won for us heaven and all the graces necessary to get there.

The Church plays a very important role in the work to be done by us, the new disciples. Through the Church the Lord extends Himself to all nations, making present and effective the graces He won for us.

The Lord said to the Apostles: "You are witnesses of these things." (Lk 24:48)  This means that the Apostles are to testify to His truth. And so they did, as they witnessed by the sacrifice of their very lives. 

This Great Commissioning also now applies to all of us in our generation as followers of our Lord Jesus Christ. For we, too, are witnesses. By faith in the Apostles witness we know what they saw with their own eyes. We share in their knowledge of all that Christ said and did. And because we are witnesses, we, like the first Apostles, must also bear witness to the Truth, even with our very lives when necessary.

In sum, as the Lord has given the commission, but He also promises the means to accomplish it: the Holy Spirit. For no one can bear witness to our Lord unless the Holy Spirit enables him or her.

The Church also celebrates this Sunday the 50th World Communication Day with the theme, "Communication and Mercy: A Fruitful Encounter". Let us witness and communicate to the world the Lord's saving work especially in this Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy."

A blessed Ascension Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!

Cycle C - Year II: 

1 May 2016: Sixth Sunday of Easter 

(Liturgical color: White)

Gospel: Please read  John 14:23-29

A life of love, strengthened by the Holy Spirit!

It is hard to say "goodbye", but sometimes the pain eases when you know that those you'd leave behind are in good hands, so to speak.

Jesus is preparing His disciples for his impending departure. A week from now we will celebrate the Lord's Ascension.

Our Lord gave the disciples a new commandment: "Love one

another, as I have loved you." Because by a life of love the world will know that they are His disciples.

Today, Jesus challenges us to commit ourselves deeper in a life of love. He said to the disciples: "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him."

Thus, Jesus urges His disciples to keep His word or his teachings as a concrete expression of their love for Jesus. Because His word, as Jesus Himself explains, is not His own but is from the Father.

The phrase "keep my word" means the we remain faithful to the totality of the message of Jesus, as handed down to us through traditions and the teaching of His Church. This is a timely message today when people call themselves His followers and yet question the validity of His teachings, or interpret them according to what pleases them.

Although He is leaving soon, Jesus promises that He is coming back. But while waiting for that time, "The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything  and remind you of all that I told you." (Jn 14:26)

In other words, the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church is our assurance that her missionary work is not simply a human endeavor but in reality the continuation of Jesus' saving mission, and so therefore the work of God Himself. The Holy Spirit never leaves the Church. So that when we sometimes feel overwhelmed by personal trials, like when we struggle to pray because of so many distractions, or at times when we want to pray but seem not to have the words to express ourselves, it is the Holy Spirit that links us to God and interprets our desire before Him. In the words of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, "It is the Holy Spirit who helps our inability, who enlightens our minds and warms our hearts, guiding us as we turn to God."

In the Eucharist at Mass, let us commit our love for Jesus by keeping His word and witnessing His teachings through our authentic Christian living. So that as Jesus Himself promised, the Father and the Son will abide within us, and the Holy Spirit will make us undertand Jesus' teaching through His Church.

A blessed Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!