EMPOWERED, NOT ABANDONED! (ASCENSION SUNDAY)
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UP TO HEAVEN; OUT INTO THE WORLD!
Ascension Sunday June 1, 2015 UP TO HEAVEN; OUT INTO THE WORLD Parents who work day in and day out have to leave their dear children everyday. For many young Filipino parents, one or both of them even have to go abroad to earn a living. For the rest who work here, they leave beloved toddlers and young children to either their yaya or their own parents, the grandparents. I talk about leaving because that is precisely what the Ascension of the Lord is NOT about. This is also true of Filipino parents who leave home either on the long or short haul. They don’t leave home to be away. They leave home or country to be more effectively present in shaping the future of their children. Ascension is not about Christ leaving us to go home and away from us. Ascension is all about Christ being glorified and going home to the Father, but not to be away from His flock. Go back to the gospel of Matthew today and see if I don’t make sen...
HE, GOING AWAY; WE, KEEPING TO HIS WAY!
Ascension Sunday May 12, 2013 HE, GOING AWAY; WE, KEEPING TO HIS WAY! From the human viewpoint, Jesus’ death was a failure, a defeat. But God’s viewpoint, not ours, had the final say in the end. He rose from the dead. Today, God puts a definite period to this saga of seeming defeat. He ascends into heaven. In glory. In triumph. In joy. The Gospel of today tells us thus: “They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God.” (Lk 24:53) This image of disciples going their merry, grateful way is a far cry from the two disciples dejected and destined toward their Emmaus of despondency, no more than 40 days before. I would like to think of the Ascension of the Lord, among other things, as an image of the Lord’s going away … He takes leave of his beloved disciples. Physically, that is, not not much more. He says good-bye to them, but this is one good-bye that is not assoc...
WITH HEARTS ENLIGHTENED, GO INTO THE WHOLE WORLD!
Solemnity of the Ascension (B) May 20, 2012 The first entry of the Lord to the city of Jerusalem during Palm Sunday was no less than triumphant, no doubt. They did all they could, and used whatever was handy, and within arms’ length to give him a welcome fit for a king … cloaks, branches, palm fronds, whatever! The people were enlightened, sort of! Or were they? History teaches us a whole lot of lessons. One of them is the need for us to be prudent and suspend judgment at least until the dust has settled and the bigger picture has come out in bold relief. Hitler started out as salvation in progress, a charismatic leader who was expected to lead Germany out of obscurity and relative powerlessness, by any standard … economic, political, etc. But so was Mussolini! Hordes of young Italians rallied behind him! I am sure Alexander the Great had his moment of jubilation for a time, as he marched home bringing the spoils of war, to shouts of victory and adulation of ...
THE HOPE THAT BELONGS TO HIS CALL
Ascension Sunday(A) June 5, 2011 I vividly remember a nightmare I had as a child. No, it did not have anything to do with monsters and goblins and ghouls, and ghosts. It had to do with the terror of being hopelessly alone, in the dark, with no one within arm’s length, no one to hear my silent screams. Being alone is not a very bright prospect. It could be unnerving, if not, terrifying. In this postmodern world of internet and media connectivity, via social networking sites and all, being alone is a curse. It is very reassuring to hear the Lord once more remind us: “I am with you always, until the end of the age.” This is what ascension Sunday is all about. It is about taking leave, but promising abiding presence. Almost sounding contradictory, it is about the Lord saying “good-bye” but assuring us that he will, in the end, be always with us. But more than leaving and being present, the mystery of the Ascension of the Lord, is really a huge reminder of something truly i...
SETTING ONE’S SIGHTS ON WHAT IS ABOVE
Catholic Homily / Sunday Reflection 7th Sunday of Easter / Ascension of the Lord - Year C May 16, 2010 N.B. I offer a conflated reflection for both the 7th Sunday of Easter and the Ascension Sunday for the simple reason that in the US, what is celebrated on May 16 is the 7th Sunday, while in many other places, the Ascension Sunday is celebrated. The liturgies of the Ascension of the Lord and the 7th Sunday of Easter both have to do with going beyond, with transcending the reality of the here and now, and with moving onto a realm qualitatively and patently different from current mundane experience. They both speak of the ultimate reasons and foundations of our earthly hope – the glorification of the Risen Lord, a promise and foretaste of what God, in His love and wisdom, also has assured us in His Son, Jesus Christ. Yes, the fact that “God mounts His throne to shouts of joy,” and that “the Lord is king, the most high over all the earth,” ought to make us pause in hope and ...
EMPOWERED, NOT ABANDONED!
Catholic Homily / Sunday Reflection Ascension Sunday, Year B May 24, 2009 It is easy to fall into the temptation of thinking that the Ascension of the Lord has to do with good-byes, with departures, with going away, with disappearance of someone we hold dear – never to be seen anymore. It is easy to think that such a departure means loss, a certain deprivation, an impoverishment. Such a thought would be a perfect story line for telenovelas, perfect for a society like ours, which, owing to labor migration, may be said to be a people in diaspora, ever on the move, ever in search for greener pastures, for whom physical separation counts among our set of daily experiences. Who among us does not at least have a relative, close or distant, who is not in some distant country in this shrinking world? Departures connote disappearance from sight, and disappearance entails sadness. But today’s solemnity has nothing to do with either of the two. Ascension is not about disappearance from sight, bu...
JUST AS WE HAVE SEEN HIM ASCEND
Catholic Homily/Sunday Reflection Ascension of the Lord - Year A Power, promise, and presence take center stage in our celebration of the Lord’s ascension today, 40 days after the resurrection (plus two in many dioceses all over the world). That power, referred to by the letter to the Ephesians as “the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe, in accord with the exercise of his great might, which he worked in Christ, raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens,” (2nd reading) is echoed by our response after the first reading: “God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.” That power, however, is born of a promise. It is not power for its own sake bestowed on oneself; not worldly and political power; not military might, nor power that accrues from a deep need to lord it over others, but a power proffered from above – a power for a purpose … “he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promis...