Sunday, June 2, 2019
Ascension Sunday
1st Reading: Acts 1:1-11
2nd Reading: Heb 9: 24-28; 10: 19-23
Gospel: Luke 24:46-53
Jesus said to the eleven, “You see what was written: the Messiah had to suffer and on the third day rise from the dead. Then repentance and forgiveness in his name would be proclaimed to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. Now you shall be witnesses to this. And this is why I will send you what my Father promised. So remain in the city until you are invested with power from above.”
Jesus led them almost as far as Bethany; then he lifted up his hands and blessed them. And as he blessed them, he withdrew (and was taken to heaven. They worshiped him). They returned to Jerusalem full of joy and were continually in the Temple praising God.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
The Ascension of Jesus to heaven turned from a moment of grief to a moment of excitement when Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit and to be with them until the end of time. Our Catechism enumerates how this promise is fulfilled. It says, “Jesus, (…) is present in many ways to his Church: in his word, in his Church’s prayer, in the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned, in the sacraments of which he is the author, in the sacrifice of the Mass, and in the person of the minister. But “he is present . . . most especially in the Eucharistic species” (CCC, 1373).
The Mass is highest proof that Jesus merely disappeared from human sight at Ascension. Veiled in the accidents of bread and wine, Jesus is present at every Eucharistic Celebration. After Holy Communion, however, he disappears but only to become intimately part of our body system. Something similar happened at Ascension: Jesus disappeared from the eyes of the disciples only to become very close to them as he promised. Sometimes what is important must disappear from the human eyes. “One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye” (Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince, 1943).
Just as at Ascension Jesus asked his disciples to remain open to the Holy Spirit, every Eucharistic celebration is a call to remain open to the Holy Spirit. The Priest Presider concludes the Mass with, “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord”. This echoes Jesus’ parting words before he ascended to heaven urging the disciples to become his witnesses (Luke 24:48). “Each individual layman must stand before the world as a witness to the resurrection and life of the Lord Jesus and a symbol of the living God” (Lumen Gentium, 38). We have to become bread blessed and broken for others. — (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M., MAPM, REB. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.
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