On the Feast of the Ascension.
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Gospel: Mark 16: 15-20
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Go into the whole world
and proclaim the gospel to every creature.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved;
whoever does not believe will be condemned.
These signs will accompany those who believe:
in my name they will drive out demons,
they will speak new languages.
They will pick up serpents with their hands,
and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them.
They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
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.
But they went forth and preached everywhere,
while the Lord worked with them
and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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A mother with ten children was once interviewed by an aggressive reporter.
He asked the mother, “Doesn’t every child deserve the full love of its mother?”
“Certainly,” she said.
“Is it possible to love TEN children with all of your heart? At some point, wouldn’t you get spread too thin?”
“No,” she said. “I love all of my children with every beat of my heart.”
“No one can love ten children impartially,” the reporter pushed. “You must have a favorite. Which one do you love the most?”
The mother replied, “The one who is sick, until he gets well; the one who is sad, until she is happy; the one who is away, until he comes home.”
While a mother’s love is impartial, she can also be consumed by her child in greatest need.
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Today we celebrate a double-feast – it’s both Mother’s Day and the Feast of the Ascension, the moment when Christ returns in glory to his Father in heaven.
So, what might these two feasts have in common?
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While here on earth, Jesus demonstrated a maternal love for his flock, seeking out the sick, the sad, and the lost until they were found.
The Lord loved his own with every beat of his heart.
Yet, today he departs.
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At first, the Apostles rejoice.
What they see is greater than anything they’ve ever seen before. Christ’s familiar hands – the hands they touched, the hands that healed, blessed, and forgave, the hands that were nailed to the cross – are now raised in a final blessing.
The Lord’s body begins glowing brightly as it once did on Mount Tabor. Only this time, he vanishes into the fog of the cloud, ending what seemed like a long dream – his ministry and time here on earth too good to be true.
Mark tells us afterward, the disciples, “went forth and preached everywhere.” Luke adds, “They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God.”
Perhaps because they thought Jesus was coming back for them tomorrow… or next Tuesday.
But here we are, still waiting.
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We’ve been celebrating Christ’s ascension for nearly 2,000 years. While it marks his victory over death and his return in glory to his Father, what about the rest of us?
Who really wants to celebrate a day marking God’s departure from our world? Haven’t we all felt the effects of his absence?
It’s that eerie silence in prayer, when it feels like we’re simply talking to ourselves; we sense God isn’t listening. It’s the despair born of witnessing endless cycles of violence toppling people’s homes and dreams.
It’s any form of suffering that leaves us saying, “Lord, where are you? Please, come back!”
At some point, I’m sure the Apostles felt that life would’ve been much easier if they could’ve just boxed Jesus in, or tethered him to their waist, keeping him from disappearing into the clouds.
All they had to show for the last three years of their lives just vanished from their midst!
We want him back no less than they did.
But isn’t this sense of God’s absence what brings us to church week after week? We come in search of his presence, some tangible way to know He is with us. Often, this was the last place we found him.
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The difficult truth is, God is still present in our world, but not in the way that he once was. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit will rush upon the Apostles, filling them with the gift of the Holy Spirit, making them the Body of Christ on earth.
As Saint Paul says, “You are the body of Christ, and individually members of it.”
Suddenly, the students become like their Master; the followers become the leaders; the listeners become the preachers; the converts become the missionaries: those once broken now do the healing.
This is why the Church is affectionately known as, “Mother Church,” because she bears the hands and heart of Christ, extending his maternal love to all in need.
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So, on this double-feast of the Ascension and Mother’s Day, we ask, “How do we honor both our mothers and the Lord?”
Live as “Mother Church.”
Love the one who is sick until he gets well; the one who is sad until she is happy; the one who is lost until they are found.
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Image credits: (1) The Science Academy STEM Magnet (2) The Ascension of Jesus, John Singleton Copley (3) Geeks for Geeks