Last Thursday, May 9, we marked forty days after the Resurrection. That Holy Day was transferred to this Sunday, the Seventh Sunday of Easter. With our Lord’s mission accomplished, and having appeared to his disciples to show them that he had been raised from the dead, Jesus prepared to return to the Father. But first he had to give his disciples a mission of their own. “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature,” he instructed them. As he commanded his disciples then, he commands us, his disciples now. May we take this to heart, proclaiming the gospel in word and in deed today and every day.
One could hardly blame the disciples for looking longingly toward the sky after Jesus ascended into heaven. No doubt they were saddened that after such a short time he was leaving them once again. But this is life. Our loved ones leave us, whether in a bittersweet way, like children moving out of the family home, or in a devastating way, in death. One way or another, we have to go on living with that absence. So did the apostles.
When Jesus ascended to be with the Father he ascended to a state beyond life and death, beyond sickness and suffering. This is now our hope. We look forward to when we are raised to a place beyond life and death, beyond sickness and suffering, beyond sin and imperfection, beyond hate and evil. This is our hope, and our hope animates our life now. For it is our mission, not to stand around looking at the sky, but to bring that hope to others, to proclaim the Good News, to work to overcome sin and suffering, and hate and evil, thereby showing a bit of that realm we can barely imagine breaking through into our world, a small sign of the Kingdom of God.
Today, in the United States we celebrate Mother’s Day. We take this opportunity on behalf of our staff to extend to all mothers, grandmothers, godmothers, and women caretakers, God’s blessings for health and happiness for all the love and sacrifices that they have made.
Love, Peace, Joy,
Fr. Bob
Comments
There are no comments yet - be the first one to comment: