Cycle C - Year I:  

9 June 2019: Pentecost Sunday 

(Liturgical Color: Red)

Readings:

First Reading:        Acts 2:1-11

Second Reading:   1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13

Gospel:  Please Read  John 20:19-23

The birth of the Church....

 Today is Pentecost Sunday. The word Pentecost is from the Greek work "pentekoste" and it means "50th day". Because fifty days after Easter Sunday the Church celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and their followers. And this begins their earthly ministry to make disciples of all nations.

The First Reading today describes this great event, thus: "suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues..." (Acts 2:1-4)

On the day of Pentecost when the seven weeks of Easter had come to an end, Christ's Passover is fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, manifested, given, and communicated as a divine person.

Now Pentecost is considered the birthday of the Church because from that point on the Apostles carried the message of Christ to the whole world. The authority that Christ gave His Apostles through the Holy Spirit extends through the bishops today. The Holy Spirit continues to guide the Church. In fact, St. Augustine said that the Holy Spirit was the soul of the Church. Just as the soul gives life to the body, so also the Spirit gives life to the Church.

Typically priests will wear red garments on Pentecost, and the alter cloth is also red, symbolic of the burning fire of God's love  and the tongues of fire that descended on the Apostles.

The evangelist John shares with us the Gospel for this Sunday, which speaks about the first encounter of the risen Lord with His disciples.

When the resurrected Christ appears, He offers proof of His resurrection by showing the disciples the wounds of His passion, His pierced hands and side. Then He calmed their fears and brought them peace, the peace which reconciles sinners and makes one a friend of God.

Then Jesus commissioned His previously weak and timid Apostles to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth. He breathed on them the gift of the Holy Spirit to equip His disciples with power, grace, and strength to accomplish their great mission to the world.

Until today in our generation, we, too, are empowered by the same Holy Spirit to continue the missionary work, to face challenges of our time, especially in matters of faith and morality.

In sum, after Our Lord Jesus' ascension to heaven, it is now the turn of the Holy Spirit to continue His saving work through the disciples and our Holy Mother Church. The Holy Spirit is the one who will gather and unite men and women of every race and tongue in one body and one faith.

Finally, today we greet ourselves and the whole Church a Happy Birthday, or Happy Anniversary, or Happy Foundation Day, as we mark a fresh start for all of us as the New Church, the People of God, in journey toward the Father's house in heaven. Amen.

Happy Pentecost Sunday to everyone. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!

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!