The disciples said to Jesus, “Now you are talking plainly, and not in any figure of speech. Now we realize that you know everything and that you do not need to have anyone question you. Because of this we believe that you came from God.” Jesus answered them, “Do you believe now? Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived when each of you will be scattered to his own home and you will leave me alone. But I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Today we gather, seeking the intercession of Our Lady of Fatima, who is not only Mary of the Gospels, the ever-virgin Mother of God, but also our mother… my mother.
Three of Christ’s final words from the Cross affirm this truth. As he says to the Apostle John, the only one of the Twelve not to abandon him in his hour of need:
“Behold, your mother.”
Then, John “took her into his home,” and into his heart, as we are invited to do today.
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On the heels of Mother’s Day weekend, our Blessed Mother appeared with a three-fold message, saying to us what she said to that trio of shepherd children from Portugal in 1917.
When asked, “Who are you?” She responded not by telling them who she was but where she was from:
“I am from heaven,” she said.
Meaning, she is from God and abides in God. Every prayer intention placed in her hands is brought immediately to the attention of Jesus.
Just as no son should deny the request of his mother, so the Lord listens lovingly to each request that comes from his Mother’s Immaculate Heart.
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Secondly, Mary directs the children to pray the rosary daily. “This will bring peace to the world and an end to war.”
Are we not reminded almost daily of the need to pray for peace – in Israel, Gaza, Ukraine, parts of Africa, even in our own hearts?
“Pray the rosary,” she says, for peace.
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Finally, she asked those shepherd children the same question the angel Gabriel once asked her: “Will you offer yourself to God?”
That’s a question each of us must answer – not only in word, but also in deed. Mary did so by offering her body, her marriage, her future, her understanding, essentially each moment of her life to God.
May Our Lady of Fatima intercede for us, that we may do the same.
For such grace today, we pray, Hail Mary…
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Image credits: (1) National Catholic Register (2) Britannica (3) Redbubble
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
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 19th 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
