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 Gospel Reflection, June 2, 2019: What is the surpassing greatness of his power...

What is the surpassing greatness of his power?

  When, in the Acts of the Apostles, the apostles want to know if Jesus is going to restore the kingdom to Israel, Jesus tells them to focus their attention elsewhere:  It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established.  In fact, political dominion was never in the cards; Jesus wants Israel to be a strong spiritual entity, grounded in the power that is love, rather in any form of physical force to be reckoned with.  It surely is not what the apostles were expecting.

  The period between the Ascension of Christ and the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost must have been a time of fear and expectation and much prayer for the apostles.  When Jesus ascends, he leaves them physically; now they must learn to rely on his spiritual presence with them.  Before ascending, as described in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus reminds the apostles that they are to preach repentance.  In order to do that, they must first turn to love and allow it to work in them; only then will they be able to preach to all the nations a universal call to repentance, so that his love can come to dwell in all people.  Only then will all be able, as Psalm 47 suggests, to shout to God with cries of gladness.

  If Jesus has his way, the Letter to the Ephesians suggests, the eyes of all hearts will be enlightened; eyes blind to the potential depth of love before the death of Jesus will now see the full measure of love to which they are called.  That love is what the letter calls the surpassing power for those who believe:  when Christ’s love for us enables us to open our eyes to see the love he has for everyone, and for all of creation.  It is this same love to which we are called, if only we can allow Christ to rule our hearts.  His power, that is, his love, is the power we need to share in, that we might see all things as he sees them, love them as he loves them, honor them as he honors them.  This is truly the only possible restoration of the kingdom Jesus imagines for his followers, and it is the kingdom he wishes for us.

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

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 13, 2018: You will be my witnesses...

 You will be my witnesses… 

How do you manifest Christ to the world? 

   When Jesus ascended, the disciples weren’t exactly ready for it:  Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel, they ask him in the Acts of the Apostles, just moments before he is lifted up and taken up into heaven.  The image of ascension to heaven has been prefigured in Psalm 47:  God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy, the psalmist sings, calling upon all nations to shout with cries of gladness.  But the disciples?  They are just confused, staring open-mouthed, looking at the sky…

   Both Acts and Mark’s Gospel before it make it clear:  Jesus rose so that the disciples could at last understand their mission:  Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.  The disciples are to be Jesus’ ongoing physical presence in the world, sharing his salvation, his good news or gospel, with everyone. They are to act in his name, Jesus tells them, because everything done in his name manifests his love, that is, makes his love visible to the world.  They are capable, Jesus is telling them, of extraordinary acts of love through which they will reveal Christ for who he is:  God’s love incarnate. 

   It’s not an easy job, to be sure.  Paul tells the Ephesian community that they must bear with one another through love, that they might build up the body of Christ.  How?  With all humility and gentleness, with patience…  Paul prays that the depth of their awareness of that love might be given through the Spirit:  may the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, he says. If the Ephesian community can come to appreciate all that God has done in Christ, and come to share in all Christ has left them through the Spirit, they will know the hope that belongs to his call, manifesting Jesus’ presence in the world, and building that hope for others.  To be the Church we are called to be requires nothing less.

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

Image source: www.wordle.net

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