This Sunday instead of Thursday we celebrate the feast of the Ascension. It marks the end of the Lord’s public ministry. The work of Christ was indescribably hard and challenging --- to live the ideal life, to serve others, to teach, to suffer and die, and to start and establish the CHURCH. Hence, the theme might well be: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! His Ascension, however, does not mean that Christ is no longer with us. In fact, Matthew, the only evangelist who did not have an account of the Ascension, writes: “I am with you always until the end of the world.” Although Matthew set the scene of the Ascension, he stopped short of actually saying that Jesus ascended. Perhaps this is Matthew’s way of stressing the ‘staying’ of Jesus with us instead of ‘going away’ to heaven. This is calling attention to the Lord’s invisible presence in our midst – his sacramental presence transcending barriers of time and place that’s opposed to the historical, visible presence limited by space and time when he was still in the world.
With this we are confronted with the paradox or mystery that Jesus has gone away but, in another sense, is still with us here on earth. Our Lord’s Ascension to heaven teaches us that our final destiny is not in this world but in the next life. WHERE HE WENT, WE WILL FOLLOW! As important as Christ’s teaching of our heavenly destiny is his abiding presence in our world. Although he had left, he is still very much with us. Thus, the name ‘Emmanuel’ which means “God is with us” (Mt.1, 23). Some people say they find God to be silent and distant, but he is with us though we are not aware of his presence. He is with us when we read his Word in the Scriptures, when we gather together in his name – “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst.”
We experience his "being with us” here and now when we care and minister to the least of our brothers and sisters. When we choose LOVE as a life-principle and motivation, we set up the necessary channel through which God’s grace come streaming into our lives. That’s the meaning of a sign displayed in a home which says: “When we love – God acts”
Finally, as others attest, God is with us when we experience his presence and power in our lives; in peak moments of joy and success as well as in the ebb of life’s trials and difficulties. But what we need are the eyes of faith to see his abiding presence in all the circumstances of our life. Please, never forget this...! The Cost of Discipleship: The Lord’s way is not a way of comfortable living or of what Dietrich Bonhoeffer in ‘The Cost of Discipleship’, scornfully calls “cheap grace.” This is real grace but an illusion. It is what happens when people approach the following of Christ as a way to pleasant experiences and feeling good.
This Sunday is World Communication Day. Monday is our annual Memorial Day. Please, have time to pray for our national heroes who sacrificed their lives for our country. On the 31st, we have the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Never forget to pray the Rosary with the Joyful Mysteries. June 1st is the memorial of St. Justin. We also have the First Friday and First Saturday devotions in this week. Remember your obligations as we prepare the 100 years Anniversary of the Apparition of our Lady of Fatima. Our first Saturday Mass is 9AM. This is all for now, watch for the next bulletin. God Bless!
Your Servant –
Priest and Parochial Administrator,
Fr. Reggie