Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 24, 2020: He was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight...

He was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight…

How are we to connect as Church once Jesus has ascended?

  The beginning of the Acts of the Apostles recounts the end of Jesus’ physical presence on earth; his Ascension is the beginning of the Church that is to carry on Jesus’ presence in the world.  As long as the disciples have Jesus physically present with them, they can’t be Church.  But when he gathers them together one last time, they are confused. Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? they ask.  He does not answer their question directly – it is not for you to know the times or the seasons, he says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.  The disciples’ hearts are not yet open to the full truth, to the fact that Jesus came to ransom us, to open the door to God’s heart, to move us from a life of separation to a life of connection, connection within the Body of Christ.  But they will know that love, and soon…

  In his Letter to the Ephesians, Paul reminds the Christian community that the Spirit promised by Jesus is a Spirit of wisdom and understanding resulting in knowledge of him, a Spirit that draws us closer to God, draws us more profoundly into God’s love for us.  When the eyes of our hearts are enlightened, we can see that love clearly as it is manifested in the surpassing greatness of his power, the power of that being Psalm 47 calls the great king over all the earth:  God’s love is made manifest in the forgiveness of our sins.  Thanks to this forgiveness, we can forgive one another, drawing closer to God and to others, united in the love of Christ.  That love is the source of all human connection; it is a gift of the Spirit that descends as Jesus ascends to God.

  And it is nothing less than this love that effects our ultimate commissioning, as that commissioning began with the eleven disciples at the end of Matthew’s Gospel.  Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, Jesus tells them before he ascends. Go and establish with all people a relationship with Christ, full engagement with the love of God.  Instill that love within them, so they feel the God’s power, God’s love, in their lives.  This was the mission of the original disciples and it remains our mission today:  to fill every heart with the love of God, a love we know because of the Spirit that dwells within us, a love born of forgiveness that leads to connection, to life as Church. 

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

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Scripture Reflection, May 27, 2018: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...

 In the name of the Father, and of the Son,and of the Holy Spirit… 

 What does your relationship with God look like? 

   We understand God to have been, from the beginning of time, relational.  As Psalm 33 reminds us, even in Creation, God was also Word and Spirit:  By the word of the Lord the heavens were made; by the breath of his mouth all their host.  Moreover, we too are called to relationship with God in the psalm, hoping for his kindness, waiting for the Lord, trusting that God is present to us in our every moment.  Moses reminds the people of this relationship in Deuteronomy:  Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live?  Yet, while God does not need our promise in relationship, God would like our participation, and so Moses tells the people that they must keep God’s statutes and commandments as a way of fixing in their hearts that the Lord is God.  This is how God gives identity to his people:  they are called by God who has ongoing care for them and who will keep his promises.

   Jesus will insist on this relationship in new ways at the end of Matthew’s Gospel, after the Resurrection:  I am with you always, until the end of the age, he tells his disciples.  And, because he will dwell in them in the form of the Spirit, they are to go out, aware of that presence within, and draw others in to comprehension and awareness of all God is doing in this world:  Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  This is participation in the relationship Jesus comes to embody, to give body to.

   We are called through baptism and death and resurrection to union with God.  Having, as Paul tells the Romans, received a Spirit of adoption, we are children of God, and can now call God Abba, Father!  If we are one with the Spirit God gave to us, we are children, blessed into a relationship of intimacy, of union with God in all God’s persons, not falling back into fear, but relying on God’s love, fixed in our hearts, God, who is present to us – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – in every moment, as he promised.

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

Image source: www.wordle.net