Ascension 2013 Year C

Ascension 2013 (C)

(Acts of the Apostles 1:1-11; Ephesians 1:17-23; Luke 24:46-53)

Our Blessed Lord, appearing to the eleven gathered together in Jerusalem, summarized His own life’s mission and work with these few words:

Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.

And indeed, shortly before that meeting in Jerusalem, He had appeared to two disciples walking to Emmaus and -- although not recognized by them -- joining in their conversation had said:

Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!    Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?  (Luke 24:25-26)

These two statements give us, without any doubt, the essential elements of Jesus’ mission and work: to suffer and to rise from the dead to glory.  Making mention neither of His miracles nor of His preaching, He speaks exclusively of His suffering and death on the Cross followed by His rising on the third day.

Why is this so?  Because of the totality of love with which He undertook and embraced His mission by the Father and the work for our salvation.  Such love which could only be expressed by exhausitng the full compliment of His divinely-human capabilities, powers, and possibilities:

That the world may know that I love the Father; rise let us go from here (the Upper Room of the Last Supper). No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  (John 14:31;  15:13.)

And this He made manifest to all when, immediately before His Passion and Death, He prayed to His Father saying:

I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.     Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began.  (John 17: 4-5)

Speaking of His rising from the dead, He had previously promised His apostles:

I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.  In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live.    On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you.  (John 14:18-20)

Jesus is now in glory at the right hand of His Father, and still the marks of suffering are on His Body precisely because they are signs of His love, memorials -- in His flesh -- of how divine life and love triumphed in Him, God-made-man, over our Satan-spawned sins and death.

As God, so with Jesus, to live means to love, for God is Love; and because Jesus said, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, consequently, for disciples of Jesus, he who loves most is most intensely alive, and the one who hopes for life eternal must aspire, long, and learn to love supremely.  That is why St. Paul showed himself to be a truly sublime disciple of Christ when he expressed his own spiritual aspirations and aims in this passage from his letter to the Philippians:

I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ  and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;  that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. (3:8-11)

Constant, far-flung preaching, detailed organizational care and unceasing solicitude, great learning and epistolary ability, miracles, personal mystical gifts ... all these were his experiences, his duties and obligations, his ever-present and ever-pressing needs, and yet his one personal aim in life, his deepest desire was to be conformed to His (Jesus’) death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. 

As Doctor of the Nations he would encourage his beloved Philippians to walk in this same way:

For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake. (Philippians 1:29)

Likewise, his doctrinal letter to the Romans, where he sets out his divinely authorized proclamation of the Gospel, also emphasizes the same teaching:

The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. (8:16-17)

When speaking to the Eleven in Jerusalem after His Resurrection and before He was taken up into heaven, Jesus had promised them the special Gift of the Holy Spirit Who would enable them to carry out the commission He would soon entrust to them:

Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance and remission of sins would be preached in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  Stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.

Let us, therefore, who also aspire to become true disciples of Jesus -- both suffering and glorious -- learn from St. Paul and indeed all the Apostles how to appreciate, respond to, and appropriate, the glorious mystery of Our Blessed Lord’s Ascension now being joyfully proclamed to all nations by Mother Church.

First, and most fundamental of all for us weak human beings, we must learn to make our own the Christian ethos of joy as we respond to the Good News of Jesus:

They did Him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the Temple praising God. 

For us, that means we should be ever joyful in Jesus (our Temple) as we continually praise God for His own great majesty and power, wondrous beauty and truth, and for His ever-enduring, unfailing, goodness to us in Mother Church and in our individual lives: a paean of praise and thanksgiving!

St. Paul, however, as the apostle specially chosen for us former Gentiles, has more detailed help to offer us in today’s second reading:

May the eyes of (your) hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to His call; what are the riches of glory in His inheritance among the holy ones; and what is the surpassing greatness of His power for us who believe, in accord with the exercise of His great might, which He worked in Christ, raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavens.

That is how Paul himself gradually learned to die to himself in order to grow in the love and service of his Lord and Master; let us retrace his steps:

‘Know what is the hope that belongs to His call’ … each of you has been called, drawn, to Jesus by the Father.  Think on what that means.  Why did the Father call you personally? Why does He still draw you?   Surely, because He loves you!  What did He call you for, what has He in mind for you? … Surely something wonderfully fulfilling and good!  

St. Paul thought about ‘the hope belonging to his own call’ and he tells us (Romans 5:2) that:

            We boast in hope of (seeing and sharing in) the glory of God! 

Advising us to know ‘What are the riches of glory in His inheritance among the the saints’… Paul subsequently prayed on our behalf that we might:  

    

Be strengthened with might through the (Holy) Spirit in the inner man!

Give thanks to the Father Who has qualified us to be partakers of the             inheritance of the saints in light. (Ephesians 3:16; Colossians 1:12)
  
A paean of high hope and humble gratitude, confidence and peace!!

And finally, urging us to ‘ Know What is the surpassing greatness of His power for us who believe’ … St. Paul’s abiding thoughts and prayers on this led him to write these astounding words (Ephesians 2:4-7):

God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ, raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens  that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

And so, St. Paul preaches still to us what he himself practised so whole-heartedly, and his prayer and meditation on the message and ministry of Christ has won Mother Church wonderful letters of instruction and guidance to help her and her children to know, love, and serve Jesus with all our heart.  What he did under the special apostolic Gift of the Holy Spirit from Jesus, we too are able and are encouraged to imitate, thanks to Jesus’ Gift to Mother Church in His Eucharist Sacrifice and Presence. 

Jesus’ Ascension into heaven inaugurated a outpouring of joy, praise, and thanksgiving: first kindled, as you heard, among the Apostles in Jerusalem, still nurtured by faithful souls all over the world, and triumphantly ascending with all the saints to resound eternally among the blessed in heaven.  Rejoice, therefore, in Jesus’ eternal glory, exult in all His mighty works, and meditate on His saving words, for He is your Lord, your Saviour and your Brother, and He is preparing a place for you in  your Father’s house!

           

6th Sunday of Eastertide Year C 2013

6^th. Sunday of Easter (C)

(Acts 15:1-2, 22-29; Rev. 21:10-14, 22-23; John 14:23-29)

Today, dear People of God, let us give careful attention to Our Lord’s words: 

Whoever loves Me will keep My word; 

for they will help us deal with certain difficulties easily arising from experiences in modern society which can, at times, serve to weaken the confidence and lessen the commitment of some Catholics and Christians.

Sometimes, for example, well-intentioned but fragile believers are puzzled by friends and well-known individuals who do not practice any religion and yet consider themselves to be good-living people, and might, indeed, seem to be accepted as such by others who say that it is not necessary to go to Church in order to live a good life.  Such experiences can generate vague feelings of insecurity, sow tiny seeds of anxiety and doubt, in remote corners of the hearts and minds of some believers; and should they, subsequently, encounter others who are positively antagonistic towards religion and scornfully refer to the faithful as "church-goers", deriding them with words such as “hypocrites" and other like terms of disdain or even contempt, then, they can find themselves deprived of a measure of that peace, joy, and confidence which should normally accompany their practice of the faith.

Of course, upset and doubts of that nature arise partly because such believers are perhaps too easily impressed by appearances and popular opinions.   Moreover, it is not infrequently the case that, despite their devotion, these same believers are not sufficiently alive to the implications of their faith, with the result that they have too few personal, solid, convictions and are always catching up, so to speak, with what others are thinking.  In that way they are easily led to accept the world's criteria: taking on, and being influenced by, political correctness and popular trends of thought concerning, for example, what is acceptable speech, and, above all, what are socially approved and correct opinions and behaviour.  

Now, all disciples of Jesus, can and should have sure faith and calm confidence in  His teaching in Mother Church; and that faith and confidence should, in turn, lead them to the clear awareness and firm conviction that only those approved by God, who love Jesus and obey His teaching, will be finally found truly good.  For they become such, not by safely following and hiding behind popular opinion, nor by striking out and winning worldly acclaim for themselves, but by the gift of God’s grace leading them, first of all, to recognize and love the Person of Jesus, and subsequently forming them into His likeness through heart-felt obedience to, and if necessary, suffering for His teaching.

Yet, how can those others, who don't acknowledge God or profess any faith, still seem be so nice, so pleasant, and sometimes so good? 

In order to understand this apparent dilemma we must remember the words of our Lord and Master, Who tells us:

Whoever does not love me does not keep My words; yet the word you hear is not Mine but that of the Father who sent Me. 

To our eyes, these unbelievers do not appear to love evil; and if we have friends among them, we may be inclined to say that they want what seems to be good, or even, sometimes, find ourselves thinking them far better than us. However, those who do not accept Jesus' teaching do not love Him, and cannot love the Father, and consequently may be far different from what appears to our earthly eyes: 

The Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7)

You justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts; for that which is of human esteem is an abomination in the sight of God.  (Luke 16:15)

Ultimately, when confronted with Jesus and His Truth, the Truth He received from the Father Who is God and Lord of all creation, they -- as disbelievers -- prefer themselves and their own thoughts.  They love themselves to such an extent that they are not only content, but even prefer, to follow their own idea of a good life rather than embrace Jesus' teaching.  Indeed, they can have such a low idea of God that they imagine themselves to be in no need whatsoever of a Saviour, considering themselves ready to meet God -- if indeed He does exist -- standing up proudly in His presence, head held high and face to face!  Yes, they are proud: not, indeed, manifestly before us in their observable behaviour, but before God in the hidden depths of their heart’s desires, and in the secret recesses of their minds and the hidden folds of their purposes, where they can be subject to pride in its most insidious and deadly form.  Murderers and rapists, thieves and muggers can, relatively easily, be brought to see the evil of their ways, because such actions are patently much more ugly and inexcusable; but how difficult is it for non-religious people who see themselves as nice and good-living to accept and appreciate that they are in any need of a Saviour before God!

Nevertheless, on the human level the fact still remains, and we can still at times wonder, how irreligious people and indeed, sometimes, openly evil people, can nevertheless, seem to be both charming and attractive.

For the answer to this, we must continue to ponder Our Lord's words, for we have much more to learn from Him that may seem strange to us if our patterns of thought have been over-influenced and formed by commonly held opinions rather than Christian teaching.

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.  

Notice that pronoun "My".  Today, people are very familiar with the supreme Christian prayer, taught by Jesus Himself, which goes: "Our Father, who art in heaven..."   Many call that prayer the "Our Father", but that is not accurate enough, it should be called "The Lord's Prayer" because it was a prayer given by Jesus to His disciples, not to anyone and everyone.   God does indeed love all His creation because He created it; and mankind, the culmination of His creation is especially loved by God: they alone are made in His likeness.  Now, it is just there that we come across the reason why we can, at times, find some non-religious people so puzzlingly attractive: it is because we are still able to see in them aspects of the rich endowment and subtle beauty of God’s crowning creation; and, indeed, the closer we ourselves are drawn to God, the more such people can move us, at times, to gratefully and lovingly appreciate what is; but also, alas, to sorrowfully regret what might well, indeed should, have been.

Of those disciples who learn to love and obey His teaching, we are told that Jesus said, 

My Father will love them.

Now, the Father loves such disciples because of their love for His only begotten, well-beloved Son, He loves them for Jesus’ sake, as His children in Jesus.  And  because of Jesus, the Father endows such disciples with a new and supernatural creation-beauty: a beauty given them as members of the Body of the Risen Christ sharing, even here on earth, in something of His Resurrection beauty and glory.  Now, there is a world of difference between God's love for creation, between God’s love for mankind as the crown and culmination of natural creation, and the Father's love for His supernatural children, born of the Spirit, in Jesus, His only begotten and uniquely beloved Son.

People of God: we can only hope to experience God in this new way, as our heavenly Father, if we prove our love for Jesus by obeying Him.  Such an experience is not something we can grasp or achieve for ourselves, nor is it automatically given, so to speak, to all signed-up members of Jesus’ group; it is a personal gift from God the Father of Jesus, and it is given -- as He wills -- to those whose love and obedience binds them, by the Spirit, to an ever deeper longing and searching for Jesus.  Listen again to Our Lord's words:

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.  

The one who lovingly obeys Jesus, Jesus' Father will love; and not only will Jesus' Father love him, but both He and Jesus will:

Come to him and make Our dwelling with him. 

My dear people, our God is not cheap.  His love is the supreme treasure of our lives, our greatest blessing and God’s most gracious Gift; for when the Father and Son come to us, they bring also with them the Holy Spirit to be our very own Advocate, Counsellor, and Guide:

The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you everything and will remind you of all that I told you. 

When He, the Spirit of Jesus, is present as divine Gift in our lives, guiding, comforting, strengthening, delighting, and inspiring us for Jesus' sake, then, indeed, we can begin to truly experience the presence of God as the heavenly Father's love, as Jesus' companionship, and as the Spirit's own comfort and strength, peace and joy.

Finally, Jesus goes on to say with clear authority, what I have been trying to explain earlier, namely, that His ways are not like the ways of this world:

Not as the world gives do I give peace to you. 

St. Paul, too, made this abundantly clear to his converts in Corinth:

The wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. (1 Cor. 3:19)

As you heard in the first reading, the Christians at Antioch were troubled when they allowed the teaching of unauthorized preachers to influence them in their practice of the faith:

We (the Apostles and elders in Jerusalem) have heard that some of our number who went out without any mandate from us have upset you with their teachings, and disturbed your peace of mind. 

That was, and still is, quite wrong, because it is the last thing Jesus wants for His disciples:

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives do I give it to you.   Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.

In order to experience the Easter fulfilment which Jesus has won for us, we have to allow the love of the Father, the teaching of Jesus, and the guidance and comfort of the Holy Spirit, to enlighten and to rule our whole life, as we heard in the second reading today:

The (holy) city had no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gave it light, and its lamp was the Lamb. 

People of God, you are called, destined, to be citizens of God’s heavenly kingdom, do not therefore, like Lot’s wife, look over-much at the world around you, the world you are leaving behind, but, as one hymn puts it, "Walk, walk, in the light of the Lord" and, indeed, do your very best to walk ever forward with a firm step, a steadfast heart, and in the spirit of pure Easter joy.