God Spell

 (Anglo-Saxon for Good News, root of the English word Gospel)

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Happy Ascension Thursday.

This is one of our truly major feasts—a Solemnity.

It’s one of only six Holy Days of Obligation in the U.S.

Ranking right up there with the Feasts of:

Mary Mother of God, the Assumption, All Saints Day,

The Immaculate Conception, and Christmas.

It’s also the subject of the second Glorious Mystery of the Rosary.

 

According to today’s first reading, from the Acts of the Apostles,

Jesus remained on earth for 40 days after his resurrection.

So, given that guidance, the Church set the celebration of his Ascension into Heaven on the 40^th day after Easter.

And, since Easter is always celebrated on a Sunday,

That 40^th day always falls on a Thursday.

So, for us older folks it was Ascension Thursday most of our lives.

But in 1999, many dioceses moved the celebration to Sunday.

That doesn’t lessen the importance of this Feast in any way.

The Church has always held Sunday to be the holiest day of the week.

 

The Ascension is packed with significance.

It was a moment of transition—major, radical, change.

It was a moment for those disciples, and now for us,

To be flooded with the realization

Of all that Jesus accomplished in his brief ministry.

The teachings, the examples, the miracles, the revelations.

All those things that together form the Good News.

 

We heard not just one, but two, accounts of the Ascension today.

Luke ended his Gospel with his account of the Ascension,

And he began the Acts of the Apostles with a continuation of that,

Which we just heard.

And then, in today’s Gospel, we heard Mark’s account.

 

In both, Jesus is leaving.

He'll no longer be with the disciples in human-body form.

He's tried over the past many months to prepare them for that.

He’s taught them all that they need to know.

He’s boiled down the 600 Jewish laws and the 10 Commandments

To just two Great Commandments.

Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself.

 

He’s revealed to them the inner life of God—the Trinity.

So much of what we know about God was unknown, unknowable,

Until Jesus revealed it. 

He’s proved to them that he and the Father are one—he is God.

He’s shown them the Father, and taught them to pray.

Told them that his Father loves them, just as he himself loves them.

That his Father invites them too, to call him Father—even Daddy.

By his own death, he’s shown them just how much God loves them.

By his resurrection he’s shown them victory over suffering and death.

And assured them that they too can share in that victory.

 

He's told them that he'll come back at the end of time.

He's told them that they'll join him in Heaven.

That his Father's house has many rooms.

 

He’s told them that he'll be with them until the end of the age.

He’ll remain present in the Church—that community that he founded.

He’ll be present with them in the Eucharist that he’s given them.

This is my body, this is my blood, do this in memory of me.

He and the Father will actually dwell within us.

He’ll be present in the Holy Spirit who he’ll send in his place.

(We'll celebrate that next Sunday, Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit.)

 

All of that Good News, and more, is pulled together in the Ascension.

Because Jesus calls all of this to mind,

When he tells his disciples that they are his witnesses.

And  he gives them the Great Commission

To spread the Gospel—all that Good News—

To every creature, throughout the whole world.

 

And as Mark tells us, they did—they went and preached everywhere.

And the Lord worked with them, confirming their words by signs.

That’s how we’ve come to know the Good News.

It was passed down to us in oral and written transmissions,

By billions of believers throughout a hundred generations.

 

As beneficiaries of their witnessing, we’re now called to give witness.

By how we act.

By what we say.

By how we treat others.

 

The world deserves to share in our knowledge of the Good News. 

To know that there truly is an all-powerful God.

An all-loving, all-merciful, all-just, God who loves each of us dearly.

And wants us to share eternal happiness with Him in Heaven.

That’s quite a revelation!

Won’t that all-powerful God get what he wants?

Will he let his Word return to Him empty?

We can’t let ourselves presume that we’ve all got it made.

That we and those we love are all going straight to Heaven.

But, with a God like that, we can certainly have great hope.

 

Let us always look forward to that Heavenly reunion.

And as witnesses, as carriers of the Good News,

Let’s always try to act on our calling.

Let’s Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by our lives.

 

                                                              The Ascension

Mk 16:15-20

  Read this Scripture @usccb.org 

 

 

The Room Where It Happened

 

Photo by Eduard-Militaru  on Unsplash

You are witnesses of these things.

Words from Jesus to his disciples.

Words from The Room Where it Happened.

Words passed on to us by St Luke, the Evangelist.

 

A group of Jesus’ closest disciples are hiding in a locked room.

It must be quite a large room, because many disciples are there.

Ten of the eleven Apostles are there.

Including two more Evangelists—Matthew and John.

(Judas is dead and Thomas is away somewhere.)

Maybe Mary and Mary Magdalene and other women are there.

Other disciples, like the two from the road to Emmaus, are there.

Maybe even another Evangelist—Mark.

 

Jesus has just been killed—within the past few days.

Some thought that would never happen—but it did.

Now, they’re afraid for their own lives.

A mob had turned against Jesus and had him killed.

His closest disciples could be next.

Luke states it all rather calmly and briefly.

If we don’t pause to think about it,

We can miss the deep despair and intensity of that moment.

 

But by now they’ve all heard that Jesus has Risen from the dead.

Whatever that means.

Peter and John had seen the empty tomb—and believed.

Mary Magdalene had actually seen him and spoken with him.

Those two disciples who met him on the road

Had spent the day with him, received revelations from him,

And started a meal with him.

 

But could others really rely on any of those fantastic reports?

Or were those stressed-out reporters imagining things?

Confused, seeing what they wanted to see, accepting the unbelievable.

 

The two who had headed for Emmaus had turned back

And rejoined the group in the locked room.

They were just finishing their story, when suddenly—

There stood Jesus himself.

He’d somehow entered that locked room

And was standing there among them.

 

The disciples were terrified; did being risen mean he was a ghost?

But Jesus proved to them that he was real and that he was alive.

He showed them his wounds.

He let them touch him, see that he was flesh and bone.

He ate some fish—evidently everybody knows ghosts don’t eat fish.

He was a fully living, Glorified-bodied, Resurrected, Jesus.

 

The disciples’ fear and terror turned to joy and amazement.

Now they all believed; but they still didn’t understand.

 

Then, as he had with the two on the road,

He opened all of their minds to understand the Scriptures.

He explained what the Scripture had foretold about him.

How he was the fulfillment of the Scriptures.

 

He told them that they are his witnesses.

They were with him through his teaching, his miracles,

His Passion, and his death.

And now they had proof of his Resurrection.

They were his witnesses to all these things.

 

And as privileged witnesses, they were now called to give witness.

To testify throughout the world.

To spread the Good News.

 

Soon, perhaps that very day, they would receive the Holy Spirit.

To give them greater courage, power, and ability in testifying.

 

Others too, would witness Jesus’ appearances

During his remaining days on earth.

And, as his final earthly event, some would witness his Ascension.

 

Those witnesses from the locked room did as Jesus asked.

They carried his words, his story, his Truth, to all the nations.

They preached, they taught, they gave example by their holy lives.

They passed-along and preserved what they had witnessed.

John and Matthew and Mark presented their own Gospel accounts.

John and Peter and James wrote letters to their Churches.

 

We know of many witness responses because of Luke.

He recorded them in the second volume of his great writings.

After his Gospel, we have his aptly named, Acts of the Apostles.

Vividly recounting the actions of Peter and James and others.

Including others who may not have been in that room

But who were witnesses because of what they’d actually seen.

Or because of what they’d heard and believed.

Like Paul, and maybe Steven and Barnabas and Apollos.

 

Our first reading today came to us from the Acts of the Apostles.

That story of Peter’s fearless and effective preaching.

Our second reading was from John’s letters.

 

And there are more witnesses.

Not first-hand witnesses present in that locked room.

Witnesses not yet born at that time.

But witnesses who have had the Scriptures revealed to them.

Interpreted for them.

Explained and made understandable to them.

Witnesses who have received the Holy Spirit...

Witnesses called to carry the word not only throughout the world,

But also, throughout time.

Us.

 

Witnesses to what we’ve received and learned and believed.

Witnesses who, like those before us, are called to give witness.

Prophets—made prophets by our Baptism.

And called to spread the Good News.

Called to act in kindness and honesty and love of God and neighbor.

To live like we truly believe what we say we believe.

 

Every act we do in that spirit is the act of a true witness and prophet.

Actions drawing others to God, and earning a prophets reward.

  3rd Sunday of Easter

Lk 24:35-48

  Read this Scripture @usccb.org