Pentecost: Come Holy Spirit Come

 

Last Sunday we celebrated Pentecost.   Father Joe shared a pray which is one of my favorites:

Come Holy Spirit Come

Fill the hearts of your faithful

And enkindle in them the fire of your love

Send forth your spirit and they shall be created

And you will renew the face of the earth

This is a prayer that I pray quite often before proclaiming the Gospel, preaching homilies, and many

times when I am entering situations where I just need some guidance on the right words to say in a challenging situation.  Sometimes it’s only the first verse.   But I am really amazed at what happens many times.  It’s only possible through the Holy Spirit working in me.

Fr. Joe mentioned some challenging situations we all have in our lives that may need reconciling.   Don’t go alone in these situations.  Call on the assistance of the Holy Spirit for help. 

Come Holy Spirit come.

Deacon Steve's Homily - Jesus shows us the way, Ascension of The Lord

Today is the feast of the Ascension and we celebrate Jesusascending into heaven.

On this day, nearly 2000 years ago, the historical Jesus,the resurrected Jesus, leaves this earth.

We just read that Jesus was with his apostles when he ascended.  

Imagine what it must have been like to be there.

Imagine what must have gone through their minds when they witnessed this event.

We know that some of the apostles had their doubts when they arrive at the mountain.

We just read in Matthew’s Gospel:

When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.

They had their doubts before they even arrived.

One would think that watching Jesus being lifted up would erase those doubts.

Soon after, though, they probably had the following feelings and emotions.

They must have been sad knowing that Jesus was gone and they probably weren’t going to see him again.

They must have gone into mourning, as we all do at the loss of a loved one.

Perhaps they were angry.

Perhaps they felt that Jesus had abandoned them and left them to fend for themselves in the world.

And now they were all alone.

 

These are certainly understandable feelings and emotions that they must have experienced.

But we know the ‘rest of the story’.

We know that on Pentecost Sunday, the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit.

Those fears and feelings of anger and abandonmentcertainly went away.

We know that the Church grew and that Jesus became present in the sacramental life of the Church.

We know that Jesus is with us always and that he never abandoned us.

So why do we celebrate the Ascension?

The answer lies in the following words from today'sPreface that Father Joe will pray in a few short minutes:

"Christ... ascended not to distance himself from our lowly state, but that we his members might be confident of following where he, our Head and Founder, has gone before”.

If Jesus had not ascended into heaven we would have nohope or confidence in heaven for ourselves.

The ascension itself gives us that confidence in the reality of heaven for each of us.

My friends, how wonderful is that?

I’d like to share a story that I recently read that seems fitting for this beautiful feast.

Years ago, a Catholic missionary was preaching in the open square of a village in North India. 

As he finished, a Muslim gentleman approached him and said:

"You must admit we have one thing you do not have, and it is better than anything you have."

The missionary smiled and said, "I would be pleased to hear what it is."

The Muslim went on, "You know, that when we go toMecca we find at least a coffin. But when you Christians go to Jerusalem, your Mecca, you find nothing but anempty tomb."

The Missionary replied, "Ah ha! But that's just it, and it makes all the difference. Mohammad, the founder of Islam, is dead, and he is in his coffin. But our Leader hasrisen from the dead and has returned to heaven."

As followers of Christ, we don't just believe in aphilosophy we believe in a person, a Savior.

Each Sunday when we recite our creed we say:

I believe in Jesus Christ who suffered, died, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven.  

In doing so, Jesus took our own human nature with himinto heaven.

And that my friends, is what gives us the confidence that following Jesus will lead us to heaven.

This past week, Pope Francis went on a historicalpilgrimage to the Holy Land.

To see the ground that Jesus himself walked on.

I have never had the good fortune to go to Israel.

I read about an ancient tradition that has preserved amonument on the Mount of Olives.

On the monument it is written that Jesus left his footprintsin the rocks as he ascended into heaven.

That's the point. 

Jesus has gone into heaven, not to abandon us, but to be our hope and to give us confidence.

Jesus has led the way for each and every human being.

Jesus has left us the trail of his footprints so that we can follow him to the joys of eternal life.

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians we just read:

“May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened,
that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call,
what are the riches of glory
in his inheritance among the holy ones…”

When we come forward to receive our Lord in Holy Communion, let’s pray that God will enlighten the eyes of our hearts so that we can better understand the feast of the Ascension and God’s plan for us.

 

May we remember that God himself wants us to spend eternity with him.

May we follow Jesus footsteps as we journey towards His heavenly kingdom.

God bless!

 

Deacon Ron's Homily - Ascension of Jesus: Opening the doorway to heaven

“Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?”     

If I were one of the apostles I’d surely think this was a silly question.   I would have been

totally dumbfounded staring up at the sky as well, thinking what in the world just happened here?  My response to the men would be, “Didn’t you see what just happened here?   Jesus, who had risen from the dead just 40 days ago, after being crucified, has now been taken up out of site into the clouds.  I’m scared, confused, and really don’t know what’s going on.”

 Now fast forward to 2014 and just try to imagine that you are at our fall festival and you see one of your friends talking to Father Vince, and all of the sudden Fr. Vince is lifted up in the clouds and taken from your sight? What would think?   Wouldn’t you be staring up at the sky in the same way thinking? “wow, that must be the new festival ride everyone is talking about.   How do I get signed up for that?”   Just kidding.

Now seriously, you’d probably be just as scared and confused as the apostles were at seeing Jesus taken up in the clouds to heaven.  But these men who spoke were angels sent by God to give the apostles some hope of what was to come. Jesus who was taken up in the clouds would return in the same way as they saw him going into heaven.

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension.   This is a dogma of our faith that we recite weekly in the Nicene Creed,  “He Ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”   What did this mean to the disciples and what does it mean to us today?

Jesus had endured his suffering on the cross, rising from the dead, and had been with the disciples for forty days.   He had appeared showing many time after enduring his suffering and spoke to them about the Kingdom of God.   But the apostles were still focused on the issue of day: to restore the kingdom of Israel.  But Jesus had a greater plan in mind for them.   They were going to be his witness to the ends of the earth about Jesus and coming of the God’s Kingdom.

How was this going to happen:  Through the power of the Holy Spirit.   In order for the Jesus to fully accomplish his plan he had to leave and ascend to the Father in order to send the Holy Spirit.    The apostles had been following Jesus the past three years, but they now had other work to do to spread the Gospel.    If Jesus were still physically present they’d be reliant totally on him.  But by ascending to heaven they’d be given the power to accomplish great things through the Holy Spirit.  

Jesus in his humanity in ascending into heaven also accomplished something else: He opened up the doorway for of heaven to the rest of humanity.   Jesus now is seated at the right hand of the Father, and is a powerful intercessor for humanity to reconcile us with God.   By Jesus opening up this doorway he’s bridging the gap between heaven and earth.   Where do we find that bridge in the world: in the Church.

By Jesus’ ascending the Holy Spirit would be sent to the apostles so they could spread the good news to accomplish his plan: the birth of the Church.  In the book of Acts we hear about the apostles witness about Jesus in their travels far and wide.   They face many trials and tribulations in their travels and even have to flee from one town to another to escape from being killed.   But this again is part of the plan to spread the Gospel and for the Church to grow.  How do they do all this?   Through the power of the Holy Spirit, which is mentioned over 80 times in the book of Acts.  The Holy Spirit enabled the growth of the Church and gave the apostles the power to do great things.

St. Paul tells us that the Father put Jesus above every principality, authority, and dominion and he also gave him the Church as head over all things on the earth.    The Church is Christ’s body and where heaven meets the earth.  What and who is the Church?  It’s each and every one of us, as the body of Christ, trying to do our own part in making heaven and earth meet.  

And how do we do this?  By our actions with others to announce the good news and be Christ like to them.   To strengthen us in this mission we come together as we are today to receive the grace of the Eucharist, hear the Gospel proclaimed, and listen to Holy Spirit inspired preaching.   We also need to take time every day to pray. We have a reminder of this in the prayer of the Our Father when we pray, “Thy kingdom come, they will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”.    We are hopefully bringing about the kingdom of God to make heaven on earth by our actions inspired by the Holy Spirit. 

  

The world today certainly struggles with a lack of heaven on earth.  There is lack of respect for life and dignity of the human person, threats to our religious liberty, and a culture that seems to be turning away from God.  By living out the commission we hear at the end of Mass: Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life or Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord, we can bring a little heaven to earth. Each of us, with the power of the Holy Spirit, can do our part through the people we encounter in our daily lives and by supporting the Church’s ministries.   We can say a kind word to the person who rubs us the wrong way at home or work. Invite a classmate at school to play to that we normally don’t include.  Volunteer our time to go on a mission trip or sacrifice financially to support ministries in our parish, archdiocese, and the global church to care for those who are the most vulnerable. 

Don’t just stand there looking up at the sky.   Take some action to spread the Gospel in word and deed inspired by the Holy Spirit to help carry our Jesus’ plan to bring about the Kingdom of God here on earth.  May God bless you!