Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 8, 2016: May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened...

  May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened…  

  How has the Holy Spirit changed you?  

  

   The Ascension of Jesus, who mounts his throne to shouts of joy (Psalm 47),  is directly preceded by Jesus’ assurance in Luke’s Gospel that the Holy Spirit -- the promise of [the] Father, a kind of garment of power from on high -- will come to dwell with and in the disciples.  Once they have been baptized by the Holy Spirit, as Luke describes their transformation in the Acts of the Apostles, the apostles will be sent forth to become Jesus’ witnesses, in Jerusalem and throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.  They are sent forth, in other words, to proclaim the Good News, to tell the story of the Messiah whose death, Resurrection, and Ascension offer salvation to the entire world.  And so are we.

   Moreover, all of this activity depends, as Paul tells the Ephesians, on the transformation of our innermost being:  may the eyes of your hearts be enlightened by means of the Spirit, whose indwelling Paul associates with wisdom, revelation, and knowledge.  For it is only if we know God’s love revealed in Jesus that we can see with the eyes of faith and speak to the hope that belongs to his call…  Ascension is that call, a call for us to be led by the Spirit into the world to fulfill our own mission, as we hold unwaveringly to the confession that gives us hope, and share the hope with the world.

This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.

Image source:  Wordle

Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 17, 2015: When the Holy Spirit comes upon you...

When the Holy Spirit comes upon you...

Then what?

After many days of intimate contact with his disciples after the Resurrection, Luke tells us in Acts, Jesus ascends to heaven:  he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.  Mark’s version is not all that different:  So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God, fulfilling Psalm 47: God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy, amid trumpet blasts… And then the disciples are left alone.  Or are they?

Jesus’ physical presence on earth did indeed end with the end of his earthly mission.  However, his tangible presence continues through the Church, a Church that is filled with the same Spirit that filled Jesus throughout his life:  you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, he tells the disciples.  Writing to the Ephesians, Paul knows that, although he is a prisoner for the Lord, he continues to live in a manner worthy of the call he has received.  His faith is recognizable; it has an effect.  Like Paul, we too are equipped for the work of ministry, equipped with humility and gentleness and patience, with faith and hope and grace, the hope that belongs to his call.  It is these gifts that allow us to give witness, because the eyes of our hearts are enlightened, so that we might build up the body of Christ.  We are all gifted by Christ so that we might gift the Church, and thereby gift the world, supporting, leading, energizing the entire Church.  If Jesus in his physical body is no longer with us after the Ascension, Christ in the Body of the Church certainly is… He is present, that is, in you and me, and in all who profess the same faith, faith in the one hope of our calling, so that we might be his witnesses… to the ends of the earth.

This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class. 

Image source:  Wordle