Cycle C - Year I:

2 June 2019: Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

(Liturgical Color: White)

Readings:

First Reading: Acts 1:1-11

Second Reading: Ephesians 1:17-23

Gospel: Please Read Luke 24:46-53

We are witnesses of the Lord!

The Church celebrates this Sunday the Solemnity of the Lord's Ascension forty days after His Resurrection.

The Lord's Ascension means Christ's temporal life comes to an end, but not life itself. That is to say, Jesus will no longer accompany His Apostles. He will no longer travel with them from one village to the next. Instead, the Lord of life and history will be behind every event in salvation history and within every heart that belongs to Him. Jesus will make His presence felt in every community that worships Him and within every innermost room that holds Him. He will no longer have to travel to meet us. He will be with us, in us, and live through us.

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. The Ascension also makes way for the Holy Spirit to come down to earth and inspires the Apostles to preach the Gospel to every land. Thus, the mystery of Jesus' Ascension is intimately tied with the mystery of the coming of the Advocate.

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)

The Lord's Ascension has become their great hope for the Apostles. It was this encounter with the Resurrected Christ that compelled the Apostles to preach the Gospel without fear, even to the point of shedding their blood as martyrs to testify to this truth.

Now, the Lord's departure and ascension were both the end and the beginning for the Apostles and first disciples. Meaning, 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.

The Gospel account of the Lord's Ascension speaks of His final instructions to the Apostles, traditionally called the "Great Commissioning". This means that although our Lord goes back to the Father, His saving work continues in our world through us followers. Because we are commissioned to labor on Jesus' behalf until He comes again to bring all things to completion at the end of time.

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." (Ll 24:46) Because this is the essence of Christ's mission, and therefore of the Gospel. Everything else --Jesus' teachings, healing, preaching, and miracles He performed-- is to point and prepare for this mission, and have meaning only because of it.

Now we ask ourselves: What do we do after the Lord's Ascension? Well, we do not only wait on the Lord's return. Jesus 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 witnesses by the sacrifice of their very lives.

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

Now as the Lord has given the commission, 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.

53rd World Communication Day: We also celebrate this event this Sunday, with the theme: "We are members one of another: From social network communities to the human community." Let us pray and support each other as one community of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

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

Ad Jesum per Mariam!

Cycle C - Year I:

26 May 2019: Sixth Sunday of Easter

(Liturgical Color: White)

Readings:

First Reading: Acts 15:1-2, 22-29

Second Reading: Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23

Gospel: Please Read John 14:23-29

The Advocate is coming....

Everything in our world is temporary. And yet when it is time to say goodbye it is tough and really sad. But it is consoling when you know that those you'd be leaving behind are in good hands, so to speak.

In this Sunday's Gospel narrative, Jesus is preparing His disciples for His impending departure. Because a week from now we will celebrate the Lord's Ascension.

Now our Lord has given 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.

And now 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 teaching 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.

Now the phrase "keep my word" means that 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 teaching, or interpret them according to what pleases them.

Although He is leaving soon, Jesus promises that He is coming back. And 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)

Now it is clear that 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 our Lord Jesus' saving mission, and so therefore the work of God Himself.

The Holy Spirit never leaves the Church and our community of believers. That is why, 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 for 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."

And so, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself promises to send the Holy Spirit to us as we are, meaning in our own weaknesses and imperfections, to help form us into God's children in our hearts.

In the Eucharist at Mass, let us commit our love for Jesus by keeping His word and witnessing His teaching 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 understand Jesus' teaching through His Church.

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

Ad Jesum per Mariam!

Cycle C - Year I:  

19 May 2019: Fifth Sunday of Easter 

(Liturgical Color: White)

Readings:

First Reading:        Acts 14:21-27

Second Reading:   Revelation 21:1-5a

Gospel:  Please Read  John 13:31-33a, 34-35

The challenge to love!

Why do society enact so many laws and ordinances that only complicate the lives of people?  And the so-called "experts" in the law add to the confusion with their different interpretation of same law. So that in the end we live our lives in fear of transgressing these laws. Such fear takes away the joy of living.

Now our Lord Jesus in this Sunday's Gospel gives us a practical and simple command or law to live a good Christian life. The Gospel reading is part of Jesus' farewell discourse during the last supper with His disciples prior to His passion.

Jesus said to His disciples: "I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you should also love one another." (Jn 13:34)

What is new and unique about Jesus' commandment to love one another?

Well, our Lord speaks of love that is unconditional, without limit, without qualifiers or prerequisites, and totally self-sacrificing. There is no greater proof of God's love for us than the cross of Jesus Christ. Because in the cross we witness a new way of loving, a love that is selfless, sacrificial, forgiving and compassionate beyond comprehension.

In God's kingdom, the definition of love is not "having good feeling about another person." Rather, love is serving others before I serve myself, especially serving those who do not normally get such devotion or do not even deserve to be loved.

That is why when Jesus commands us to love, He asks us to go beyond the normal love of friendship, beyond the love of family members, and beyond the love of a man and a woman.  Jesus asks us to love to the point of suffering, as He has loved us Himself.

Now, it was such kind of love that moved Mother Theresa to reach out to the poor and dying people of Calcutta. And it is this kind of love that moves parents to keep reaching out to their wayward children.

In a very real sense to love is our only mission here on earth. We came from love, we will go home to love, and in between we are called to be people who can give and receive love.

And our love for one another includes not only human beings but the entire creation, like our environment and the rest of our world. Because God entrusts us to be responsible stewards of His creation.

And so loving one another, as Jesus loves us, is our witnessing of God's love itself. And when we love others unconditionally, we love God Himself.

Christian love is the hallmark of Christianity. We see it lived in the witness of the martyrs. We see it in the example of the lives of the saints. We see it in the holy women and men who live and love daily, making small and sacrifices for others.

Finally, let us pray that we remain faithful followers of our risen Lord Jesus Christ by witnessing with our daily lives His command to love one another.  Amen.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!