Go and make disciples of all nations (Bishop Robert Barron)

    [In Matthew’s Gospel,] Jesus assures us that he will always remain with us. Only when we realize that our lives are situated in a context of a Life that stretches infinitely beyond them, only when we know that our wills are related to a Will that encompasses and surpasses the whole of the cosmos, are we ready to live. 

     Matthew brings his Gospel to completion with Jesus’ Great Commission: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations. . . . And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” We must come to terms with the fact that our lives are not about us. 

    There is Another who will tie us up and take us where we never imagined we could or would go; there is a Power that is operative in us and accompanies us whether we know it or not and that will accomplish what we, by our own power, could never accomplish. 

--Bishop Robert Barron 

Image source: Frank Salisbury, Ascension, The Victoria & Albert Museum, originally created for Richmond College, Surrey (1932), https://www.facebook.com/groups/303462353173920/posts/2891612621025534/
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To perceive the divine mystery (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

     Love [people] even in [their] sin, for that is the semblance of Divine Love and is the highest love on earth. Love all God’s creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you have perceived it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love. 

—Fyodor Dostoyevsky,
The Brothers Karamazov

Image source: https://tinybuddha.com/blog/understanding-is-love-and-the-world-needs-more-love/
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Starting from the heart (Julian of Norwich / Pope Francis)

All shall be well, and all shall be well,
and all manner of things shall be well…
For there is a force of love
moving through the universe
that holds us fast and will never let us go.

--Julian of Norwich

    It is only by starting from the heart that our communities will succeed in uniting and reconciling differing minds and wills, so that the Spirit can guide us in unity as brothers and sisters. Reconciliation and peace are also born of the heart. The heart of Christ is ‘ecstasy’, openness, gift and encounter. In that heart, we learn to relate to one another in wholesome and happy ways, and to build up in this world God’s kingdom of love and justice. Our hearts, united with the heart of Christ, are capable of working this social miracle. 

--Pope Francis,
Dilexit nos,
Paragraph 28

Image source: https://www.franciscanmedia.org/st-anthony-messenger/sacred-heart-of-jesus-a-symbol-of-love-and-mercy/
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You've got to let go (Rowan Williams)

At his Ascension,
our Lord entered Heaven,
and he keeps the door open
for humanity to enter.

--Oswald Chambers

 

   [At] the Last Supper, when Jesus says, “It is expedient for you that I go away,” as if Jesus is saying, “If I stay around, it’ll be all too easy for you to be comfortable with the assurance of the love of God and the healing power of God that I have embodied for you. But actually, for you to be open to the full range and depth of what God is going to give through the life of the Holy Spirit, then you’ve got to let go of having me around as a best friend. It’s more than that.” 

--Rowan Williams,
Former Archbishop of Canterbury

Image source: Jacques Le Chevalier, Ascension Window, Notre-Dame des Otages, Paris (20e), https://www.mesvitrauxfavoris.eu/Supp_G/vitraux_jacques-le-chevallier.htm
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Sing in jubilee to the glorious Virgin (St. Bonaventure)

      All ye nations, clap your hands: sing in jubilee to the glorious Virgin. For she is the gate of life, the door of salvation, and the way of our reconciliation. The hope of the penitent: the comfort of those that weep: the blessed peace of hearts, and their salvation. 

     Have mercy on me, O Lady, have mercy on me: for thou art the light and the hope of all who trust in thee. By thy salutary fecundity let it please thee: that pardon of my sins may be granted unto me. 

—St. Bonaventure

In May we honor the Blessed Virgin Mary... 

Image source: Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato, The Virgin in Prayer (ca. 1640-1650),  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Virgin_in_Prayer#/media/File:Sassoferrato_-_Jungfrun_i_b%C3%B6n.jpg
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 17, 2026: You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you...

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you…
Are we ready to exercise the power of Christ’s love? 

    We are always in a state of misunderstanding. Faith can and will lead us to understanding, but it is a process, not a fiat. The early Christian community was left with many questions when Jesus ascended to heaven: When will he be back? How will he return? In the Acts of the Apostles, they ask outright, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? Before he ascends, Jesus needs them to finally recognize that his power is not intended to topple regimes but to win hearts. The power Jesus gives his disciples – and that he gives us – is the power to love and to love profoundly, to love past barriers. We are still working toward mastering this power. 

    It helps to remember, as Paul tells the Ephesians, that if the eyes of our hearts are enlightened, then we may know what is the hope that belongs to his call. Christ, in dying and rising, did the one thing that could bring salvation: he offered himself for all humanity, a superlative act of love that made him king eternally, seated at the right hand of God in the heavens. But the throne of which Psalm 47 sings, the throne God mounts to shouts of joy, is also and always, for Christians, the enthronement of Jesus Christ in us, for all eternity. 

    To believe this is to have true knowledge of him, which then empowers us – who, like the eleven disciples in Matthew’s Gospel, worship, though we doubt – to go and make disciples of all nations, revealing his love that we choose to participate in, secure in the love that makes him king of our hearts, with us always, until the end of the age. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture Class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

A union that will reveal You to the world (Erin Flynn)

What use is it if I receive You
and do not bear You to the world?
“Mary went in haste…”
What use is it
if I join myself to You in love
and do not love my brother?
“They’ll know you are my disciples…” 

Is it even possible to be
truly united to Goodness
and not share that goodness?
What kind of union is it,
if I stay my same self thereafter? 

Do not allow me to remain as I am, Jesus.
Help me to prepare my heart
for true union with You,
a union that will reveal You to the world
uniquely through me. 

For what use is it if You come to me
and I refuse You to my neighbor? 
What use is it, Lord, if You fill me
and I do not overflow? 

--Erin Flynn               

Image source: Elizabeth Polfus, Overflowing, https://theologyandchurch.com/2017/09/17/a-prayer-on-sunday-11/overflowing/
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