Praised be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!
This coming Thursday will be the
40th day of Easter and the bible tells us that Christ our Lord
ascended into heaven on that day. Oftentimes, people think of the Ascension as
the farewell of the Lord to his disciples. The Lord says goodbye because he is
leaving them. He is going home to heaven to sit at the right hand of the
Father. However, the gospel today says otherwise.
The Lord is not leaving his
disciples. Rather, he is simply disappearing from the sight of the world. But
this does not mean that he is abandoning his disciples. Remember the story of
the disciples at Emmaus: they recognized Jesus at the breaking of the bread and
then, he vanished from their sight. “He disappeared but he did not abandon
them,” Blessed John Paul would say. The Lord Jesus said in today’s gospel
reading: “In a little while, the world will no longer see me, but you will see
me, because I live and you will live.” The Lord himself assures us that even though
the world does not see him, we will continue to see him living among us. He
will continue to be with us and we will continue to recognize his presence in
our midst. And the one who will help us recognize the Lord Jesus in our midst
will be the Holy Spirit: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another
Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot
accept, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, because he
remains with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come
to you.”
The Lord will not leave us
orphans. He will come to us through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gathers us
and brings about the presence of Jesus who said: “Whenever two or three are
gathered in my name, there I am in their midst.” The Holy Spirit transforms
bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. The Holy Spirit dwelling in
us the baptized gives us the interior witness to Christ. He is the Spirit of
Truth. He teaches us what is true. He teaches us that Jesus is alive and is
among us. The Holy Spirit brings about our communion with the Blessed Trinity:
“On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in
you.” Although he sits at the right hand of the Father, Jesus continues to
remain in us and we continue to remain in him. And the sign that we remain in
Jesus is our obedience to his commandments: “Whoever has my commandments and
observes them is the one who loves me, and whoever loves me will be loved by my
Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” We obey his commandments
not out of fear but out of love. We love the Lord whom we encounter everyday
through the Church and through the Sacraments. The more we love him, the more
we keep his commandments. And the more we keep his commandments, the more he
reveals himself to us. And as he reveals himself to us, our love for him
increases. Thus, we become caught up into the “vicious” cycle of love. We are
caught up into the communion of life and love with the Blessed Trinity.
Therefore, let us strive to
remain in the Lord who promises to remain with us always. “Sanctify Christ as
Lord in your hearts,” said St. Peter in the 2nd reading. Let us
continue to give blameless witness to the Lord by keeping his commandments. Let
us keep our consciences clear. Let us remain in his love.
Jesus, I trust in you! O Mary
conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!
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