Year: 2024

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

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John 16: 20-23

Jesus said to his disciples: 
“Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn,
while the world rejoices;
you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.
When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived;
but when she has given birth to a child,
she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy
that a child has been born into the world.
So you also are now in anguish.
But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice,
and no one will take your joy away from you.
On that day you will not question me about anything.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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When I was a boy, my grandfather was my hero. 

He was six feet tall, had a beard, owned a boat, and bought me ice cream. He might as well have hung the moon and all the stars in the sky.

He died when I was ten.

I suppose my idea of a super hero died then, too. All of a sudden, my giant, hairy, forever generous grandpa was human. Too human. He didn’t hang either the stars or the moon. 

But he did teach me what it felt like to be loved.

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Today we celebrate another hero – my long-standing, saintly hero – Father Damian of Molokai.

Damian was born in 19^th century Belgium. Early in life, he entered the seminary and was ordained a priest. With the gift of his vocation, the Lord also placed a desire in his heart to love the unlovable; to touch the untouchable; to comfort the abandoned.

In particular, to care for lepers.

Leprosy was a mysterious disease that ripped families and entire communities apart. No one knew how it was contracted; only that leprosy disfigured your limbs, boiled your skin, and painfully pulled your body in all directions until it gave up in exhaustion.

There was a leper colony thousands of miles away from Belgium known as Molokai, where communities discarded their lepers. It was a place of incredible darkness, until Damian felt called to be the light.

He set sail, leaving the shores of Europe and made his way to Molokai, where he would spend the rest of his life ministering to those dying in despair.

Over the years, he built a school, celebrated Sunday Mass, grew a church choir, fed the hungry, bandaged wounds covered in pus, and dug over 600 graves by hand.

Damian eventually contracted leprosy himself and died from it, just like those whom he served.

His legacy is that of love. 

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Every time I see his picture, I also see another face looking back at me – Jesus, “who has loved us and given himself for us.”

That’s who heroes reflect, each in their own way, just as my grandfather did. 

Be the face of Christ. 

Love another person and you’ll be a hero, too.

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Image credits: (1) Superhero Wiki, Fandom (2) Catholic World Report, Damian of Molokai (3) Sunshine Child and Family Counseling

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Gospel: John 16: 16-20

Jesus said to his disciples: 
“A little while and you will no longer see me,
and again a little while later and you will see me.”
So some of his disciples said to one another,
“What does this mean that he is saying to us,
‘A little while and you will not see me,
and again a little while and you will see me,’
and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?”
So they said, “What is this ‘little while’ of which he speaks?
We do not know what he means.” 
Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them,
“Are you discussing with one another what I said,
‘A little while and you will not see me,
and again a little while and you will see me’?
Amen, amen, I say to you,
you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices;
you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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I’m sure we all know the story of Cinderella.

After the death of her mother, Cinderella is forced to live with her evil stepsisters, who turn her into a prisoner inside her own home.

They force her to wash their dishes, to scrub the floors, and to polish their shoes. It’s an unbearably sad story if you don’t know the ending, when the prince falls in love with her, turning Cinderella into a princess.

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This story offers an interesting parallel to Christ’s words in today’s Gospel.

“Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will become joy.”

Jesus promises every Christian what Cinderella also received – a storybook ending; a reversal of fortune.

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If we try living out all of his teachings, then at times it may feel like the world is winning, while we are losing.

We forgive our enemies; pray for those who persecute us; turn the other cheek; and love our neighbors without counting the cost.

Sometimes these efforts can leave a bitter taste in our mouth, certainly if we aren’t ready to love, forgive, or surrender ourselves entirely to God’s plan.

But, “your grief will become joy,” the Lord promises. 

Life will have a storybook ending, when your fortune is reversed.

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Image credits: (1) Bible Society (2) Cinderella, Disney (3) Modern Ghana, heaven