May 14, 2013 / Maria News

Natural and Spiritual Life

By Deacon Antonio Sandoval

All living creatures “desire” to continue living and resist or flee from anything or anyone that threatens their life.  Humans are no exception to this general rule.  But in addition, humans also know that physical death cannot be avoided.  There are numerous enemies of human life:  abortion, war, accidents, euthanasia, and a host of diseases.  Even if we don’t fall prey to these enemies, with aging, all bodily organs and their vital functions necessary to sustain life decline.  Ultimately, this decline crosses a point of no return where all vital activity ceases.  We die!

Throughout history men have searched for the fountain of perpetual youth.  Some have proposed special diets, regimens of exercise, and exotic dietary supplements, all to no avail.  A universal elixir of natural life doesn’t exist.  By birth we are condemned to die.  It is as if life itself is a terminal illness that ultimately claims all of us as its victims.

To avoid depression and despair we need to be reminded that we are unique amongst all creatures.  We have two forms of life, natural and supernatural, also called spiritual life.

Let us compare.  Natural life begins with conception, and then continuously and irreversibly progresses towards its conclusion, death and decay.  Spiritual life, by Baptism, emerges from the death caused by sin (both original and personal).  It is a life that never ends that even offers the possibility of eternal happiness.

Natural age is the measure of our temporal separation from the source and our beginning of our natural life, namely, conception and birth.  Since time cannot go backwards, we can only grow older.  Spiritual age, on the other hand, is the measure of our separation from the source of our spiritual life, namely, God.  Prior to beginning our spiritual life we are separated from God, but in God’s plan of salvation we are offered spiritual birth and throughout our lives given the opportunity to choose to grow closer to God.  The closer we are to God, the younger we are spiritually.  In perfect union with God we can be forever spiritually young.

The human family had its origin from the unity of one couple, Adam and Eve.  But because of sin, the multitude of individuals that came forth from this couple inherited disunity and enmity towards God and towards one another, beginning with the discord between Cain and Abel.  There was no peace in the world.

Then in the fullness of time the Eternal Word, the only begotten Son of God, became the New Adam by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the New Eve.  Thus began the new creation.  Note that in the old creation Eve was formed from the body of Old Adam.  Now in the new creation the New Adam comes forth from the body of the New Eve.

The mission of the New Adam and the New Eve is to gather all the errant children of the Old Adam and unite them in love into one Mystical Body, the Church, of which the New Adam is the Head and the Holy Spirit is the soul.  The New Eve, by analogy, is said to be the neck of the Mystical Body through whom all the graces from the Sacred Head are distributed to the members of the Body.  Therefore, she is Mediatrix of all graces.

In order to enliven and nourish the members of his Mystical Body, the New Adam gave his Body seven fountains of Life.  These fountains are the seven Sacraments.  If we faithfully avail ourselves of these fountains of Life, we will live forever eternally young.  We will be the recipients of the triumph that the New Adam won over sin and death.

Read More from Deacon Antonio here.

Subscribe to Maria News

May 12, 2013 / Maria News

Pope Francis celebrates Mass, proclaims new saints

(Vatican Radio) - At Mass for the Seventh Sunday of Easter, Pope Francis canonized 800 Martyrs from the Italian city of Otranto, along with two Latin American religious Foundresses, Mother Laura Montoya e Upegui – the first Colombian saint – and Mother Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala, from Mexico.

In his homily, the Holy Father asked us to “look on the new saints in the light of the Word of God proclaimed: a Word that invited us to be faithful to Christ, even unto martyrdom; a word that recalled to us the urgency and the beauty of bringing Christ and his Gospel to everyone; a word that spoke to us about the witness of charity, without which even martyrdom and mission lose their Christian savor.”

Today, he said, “the Church proposes for our veneration a host of martyrs, who were called together to the supreme witness to the Gospel.” The more than 800 Martyrs of Otranto, when faced with the choice of renouncing Christ or death, remained faithful to the Gospel. It is precisely their faith, the Pope said, that gave them the strength to remain faithful. He prayed, “As we venerate the martyrs of Otranto, let us ask God to sustain those many Christians who, in these times and in many parts of the world, right now, still suffer violence, and give them the courage and fidelity to respond to evil with good.”

Pope Francis then turned to Saint Laura Montoya, “an instrument of evangelization, first as teacher and then as the spiritual mother of the indigenous peoples.” He said, “This first saint born on the beautiful Colombian soil, teaches us to be generous [together] with God, not to live the faith alone – as if we could live our faith in isolation – but to communicate, to radiate the joy of the Gospel by word and witness of life in every place we find ourselves.”

He continued, “The martyrs’ faithfulness even unto death, the proclamation of the Gospel are rooted in the love of God that has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit and in the witness we must bear to this love in our daily lives.” Saint Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala, he said, knew this well. She gave up “a comfortable life to follow the call of Jesus, taught people to love poverty, in order the more to love the poor and the sick.” This, the Pope said, “This is what it means to touch the flesh of Christ. The poor, the abandoned, the sick, the marginalized are the flesh of Christ. And Mother Lupita touched the flesh of Christ and taught us this conduct: [to be] unabashed,[to be] unafraid, [to be] not loathe to touch the flesh of Christ. Mother Lupita understood what it means ‘to touch the flesh of Christ’.”

Pope Francis said the saints canonized on Sunday offer us “a shining example” of “fidelity to Christ and his Gospel, in order to proclaim it in word and deed, bearing witness to God’s love with our love, with our charity toward all.” Their example, he said, challenges us: “Let us take this question with us to consider during the day: how am I faithful to Christ? Am I able to ‘show’ my faith with respect, but also with courage? Am I attentive to others, do I recognize when someone is in need, do I see in everyone a brother and a sister to love?”

The Holy Father concluded his homily with a prayer to Mary and to the new saints: “Let us ask that, by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the new saints, the Lord might fill our lives with the joy of His love. Amen.”

Dear brothers and sisters!

In this seventh Sunday of Easter we are gathered to celebrate with joy a feast of holiness. Thanks be to God who has made His glory – the glory of Love – to shine on the Martyrs of Otranto, on Mother Laura Montoya and María Guadalupe García Zavala. I greet all of you who have come to this celebration – from Italy, Colombia, Mexico, from other countries – and I thank you! Let us look on the new saints in the light of the Word of God proclaimed: a Word that invited us to be faithful to Christ, even unto martyrdom; a word that recalled to us the urgency and the beauty of bringing Christ and his Gospel to everyone; a word that spoke to us about the witness of charity, without which even martyrdom and mission lose their Christian savour.

The Acts of the Apostles, when they speak of the Deacon, Stephen, the first martyr, insist on telling us that he was a man “full of the Holy Spirit (6:5, 7:55).” What does this mean? It means that he was full of the love of God, that his whole person, his whole life was animated by the Spirit of the risen Christ, so as to follow Jesus with total fidelity, even unto to the gift of self.

Today the Church proposes for our veneration a host of martyrs, who were called together to the supreme witness to the Gospel in 1480. About eight hundred people, [who], having survived the siege and invasion of Otranto, were beheaded near that city. They refused to renounce their faith and died confessing the risen Christ. Where did they find the strength to remain faithful? Precisely in faith, which allows us to see beyond the limits of our human eyes, beyond the boundaries of earthly life, to contemplate “the heavens opened” – as St. Stephen said – and the living Christ at the right hand of the Father. Dear friends, let us conserve the faith [that] we have received and that is our true treasure, let us renew our fidelity to the Lord, even in the midst of obstacles and misunderstandings; God will never allow us to want [for] strength and serenity. As we venerate the martyrs of Otranto, let us ask God to sustain those many Christians who, in these times and in many parts of the world, right now, still suffer violence, and give them the courage and fidelity to respond to evil with good.

Read full translation here.

Subscribe to Maria News

May 11, 2013 / Maria News

Pope Francis: “True prayer takes us out of ourselves”

news.va - True prayer brings us out of ourselves: it opens us to the Father and to the neediest of our brothers and sisters. This was a central part of Pope Francis’ message to the faithful gathered for Mass on Saturday morning in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae residence at the Vatican, with agents of the Vatican Gendarmerie and a group of Argentine journalists with their families in attendance.

The Pope’s homily focused on the day’s Gospel reading, in which Jesus says, “[I]f you ask the Father any thing in my name, he will give it you.” Discussing Jesus’ words, Pope Francis said, “There’s something new here, something that changes: it is a novelty in prayer. The Father will give us everything, but always in the name of Jesus.” The Lord ascends to the Father, enters “the heavenly Sanctuary,” opens doors and leaves them open because “He Himself is the door,” and “intercedes for us,” as priest, even, “until the end of the world”:

He prays for us before the Father. I always liked that. Jesus, in His resurrection, had a beautiful body: the cuts of the scourging and the crown of thorns are gone, all of them. His bruises from the beatings are healed and gone. But He wanted always to keep His wounds [in His hands, His feet and His side], for those wounds are precisely His prayer of intercession to the Father. [It is as if Jesus were saying,] ‘But … look,’ … this person is asking you this thing in My name, look.’ This is the novelty that Jesus announces to us. He tells us this new thing: to trust in His passion, to trust in His victory over death, to trust in His wounds. He is the priest and this is the sacrifice: his wounds – and this gives us confidence, gives us courage to pray.”

The Pope noted the many times that we get bored in prayer, adding that prayer is not asking for this or that, but it is “the intercession of Jesus, who before the Father bares His wounds for the Father to see:

“Prayer to the Father in the name of Jesus brings us out of ourselves. The prayer that bores us is always within ourselves, as a thought that comes and goes. But true prayer is the turning out of ourselves [and] to the Father in the name of Jesus: [true prayer] is an exodus from ourselves.”

Pope Francis goes on to ask how we can “recognize the wounds of Jesus in heaven,” and, “where the school is,” at which one learns to recognize the wounds of Jesus, these wounds of priestly intercession? Pope Francis said that there there is another exodus out of ourselves, and toward the wounds of our brothers, our brothers and our sisters in need:

“If we are not able to move out of ourselves and toward our brother in need, to the sick, the ignorant, the poor, the exploited – if we are not able to accomplish this exodus from ourselves, and towards those wounds, we shall never learn that freedom, which carries us through that other exodus from ourselves, and toward the wounds of Jesus. There are two exits from ourselves: one to the wounds of Jesus, the other to the wounds of our brothers and sisters. And this is the way that Jesus wants [there to be] in our prayer.”

“This,” concluded Pope Francis, “is the new way to pray: with the confidence, the courage that allows us to know that Jesus is before the Father, showing the Father His wounds, but also with the humility of those who go to learn to recognize, to find the wounds of Jesus in his needy brothers and sisters,” who, “carry the cross and still have not won, as Jesus has.”

Source: http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-francis-at-saturday-mass-true-prayer-takes-us

Subscribe to Maria News

May 10, 2013 / Maria News

Pope Francis welcomes Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros

News.VA – (Vatican Radio) Pope Francis met on Friday with the leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Tawadros II, telling him the future of Egypt and the role of its Christian communities finds a deep echo in the heart of the entire Catholic world.

Pope Tawadros of Alexandria, who heads the largest Christian Church in the Middle East, is currently making a five day visit to Rome, his first outside Egypt since his enthronement last November. He’s due to hold talks with Vatican and Italian officials, as well as celebrating together with the various Coptic communities here in Italy.Friday’s meeting between the Catholic and Oriental Orthodox popes comes 40 years to the day after the first historic encounter between Pope Paul VI and Tawadros’ predecessor, Shenouda III, who signed a joint statement pledging the two Churches to the search for reconciliation and unity.

In his speech to Pope Francis, Tawadros proposed that May 10^th each year should be marked as a day of celebration between the two communities. He also invited the successor of St Peter to visit his Church, founded by St Mark the Evangelist around the middle of the 1^st century.

Following the papal audience, Philippa Hitchen spoke to the Coptic leader and asked for his impressions of the meeting…

Read More: http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-francis-welcomes-egypts-coptic-orthodox-pope

Subscribe to Maria News

The More the World Changes, the More Life Remains the Same for Christians

By Deacon Antonio Sandoval

Nowadays it is commonplace to hear of persecution of Christians in several parts of the world.   Fundamentalist of other religions persecute Christians because they consider Christianity a foreign religion.  In some countries conversion to Christianity is considered a crime.  In other countries Christian churches are bombed. In our own country, the USA, the government wants to force Catholic institutions and some Christian businesses to violate their consciences by providing so called ”health services” to their employees that include abortion, contraception, abortifacients.  This is a form of persecution.

One of the readings entitled “From a letter to Diognetus” from the Divine Office of the Liturgy of the Hours describes “The Christian in the world”. The author of this letter is unknown and the recipient of the letter was a pagan.  The letter was written sometime between the apostolic age and the conversion of Emperor Constantine to Christianity.  It gives us a picture of what I believe is the timeless plight of Christians in the world.  I include the entire letter for the benefit of those who don’t easy access to the Divine Office.

The Christian in the World

Christians are indistinguishable from other men, either by nationality, language or custom.  They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life.  Their teaching is not based upon reveries inspired by the curiosity of men.  Unlike some other people, they champion no purely human doctrine.  With regard to dress, food and manner of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city they happen to be living in, whether it is Greek or foreign.

And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives.  They live in their own countries as though they were only passing through.  They play their full role as citizens, but labor under the disabilities of aliens.  Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, wherever it may be, is a foreign country.  Like others, they marry and have children, but they do not expose them.  They share their meals, but not their wives.  They live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh.  They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven.  Obedient to the laws, they live on a level that transcends the law.

Christians love all men, but all men persecute them.  Condemned because they are not understood, they are put to death, but raised to life again. They live in poverty, but enrich many; they are totally destitute, but possess an abundance of everything.  They suffer dishonor, but that is their glory.  They are defamed, but vindicated.  A blessing is their answer to abuse, deference their response to insult.  For the good they do they receive the punishment of malefactors, but even then they rejoice, as though receiving the gift of life.  They are attacked by Jews as aliens, they are persecuted by the Greeks, yet no one can explain the reason for this hatred.

To speak in general terms, we can say that the Christian is to the world what the soul is to the body.  As the soul is present in every part of the body, while remaining distinct from it, so the Christians are found in all cities of the world, but cannot be identified with the world.  As the visible body contains the invisible soul, so Christians are seen living in the world, but their religious life remains unseen.  The body hates the soul and wars against it, not because of any injury the soul has done it, but because of the restrictions the soul places on its pleasures.  Similarly, the world hates the Christians, not because they have done it any wrong, but because they are opposed to its enjoyments.

Christians love those who hate them just as the soul loves the body and all its members despite the body’s hatred.  It is by the soul enclosed within the body that the body is held together, and similarly, it is by the Christians, detained in the world as in a prison, that the world is held together.  The soul, though immortal, has a mortal dwelling place; and Christians also live for a time amidst perishable things, while awaiting the freedom from change and decay that will be theirs in heaven.  As the soul benefits from the deprivation of food and drink, so the Christians flourish under persecution.  Such is the Christian’s lofty and divinely appointed function, from which he is not permitted to excuse himself.

This is still the timeless plight of Christians today.

Read More from Deacon Antonio here

Subscribe to Maria News

May 6, 2013 / Maria News

Did you know? St. Joseph of Cupertino is the patron saint of pilots and passengers

Maria News – St. Franciscan mystic and the patron saint of pilots and air passengers. He was born in Cupertino, Italy. After several attempts to enter the religious life, he was accepted by the Conventual Franciscans at Grattela, where he received ordination in 1628. He soon demonstrated many gifts, including the ability to fly through the air. In 1639, because of the enmity of his fellow monks, Joseph was sent to Assisi.
In 1653, the Inquisition sent him to a remote friary and then to another house at Pieterossa, because of the popularity and fame attached to his levitation and other gifts. Joseph was also confined to a house in Fossombrofle until 1657. He died at Osimo and was canonized in 1767. Read more: Catholic.org

Related: The Reluctant Saint is an entertaining and inspirational classic film about St. Joseph of Cupertino.

Check it out today by clicking here, or by clicking on the Reluctant Saint picture below.

Subscribe to Maria News

May 4, 2013 / Maria News

The Triumph Premiere Live from Chicago!

Maria News – Live from Chicago, I am writing this report from the Official U.S. Premiere of The Triumph, a documentary that explores the mysteries of Medjugorje.

From Award Winning Director Sean Bloomfield and Executive Producer Zaid Jazrawi, comes a film over 2-years in the making. Filmed primarily in the heart of Bosnia-Herzegovina, The Triumph investigates a modern-day miracle that, if proven authentic, has global implications.

The producers of the film are expected to launch a new crowd-funding initiative live from the Premiere. The goal: to host 1000 screenings of The Triumph world-wide.

“This film has been created as a tool for evangilization,” said Producer Zaid Jazrawi. “Through the Grace of Our Lady we can bring this film to the world and show people the Divine Love of Jesus Christ.”

“There is a huge buzz around this film,” said Director Sean Bloomfield. “From Australia, to the UK and here in the US, we are launching screenings around the world in hopes of inspiring a generation to return to God.”

The film accomplishes the producer’s goal of evangelization by illustrating the love of Christ, the hope for reconciliation, the grace of Our Lady and the power of God’s love. No matter how grave our Sin, the film illustrates that God’s love for us is greater. No matter how lost we are, the film gives us examples of how we can find our way home. This is a must see film.

Nearly 200 invited guests are expected to attend the Premiere in Chicago, being held at the landmark Gene Siskel Film Center.

Learn more about The Triumph at thetriumph.org.

I’ll be tweeting live from the Premiere @RoyceHood. Join me!

Subscribe to Maria News

May 3, 2013 / Maria News

Jesus is the Inspiration for Our Marian Devotion

By Deacon Antonio Sandoval

There is no doubt that Jesus has a profound devotion to his Mother, Mary.  Being True Man he had need of her for his physical and spiritual development, just as any human child has a need for his or her mother.  Mothers, on the other hand, are instinctively predisposed to love and nurture their children.  This is indeed a motive for children to have devotion for their mothers.  So it was with Jesus, a truly human child, who in Mary had a perfect mother.

However, Jesus, also being True God, had another motive for his devotion to Mary.  As True God, he is the author of the Commandments written in every human heart, including the fourth commandment, “Honor your father and mother”.  As True God Jesus could not contradict himself in thought, word, or deed.  Rather, he would obey this commandment with Divine perfection.  For any mother this indeed would be the greatest expression of devotion.

Jesus also taught that honoring your father and mother is proper and necessary.  In Matthew 15: 3 – 6 we read that Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?  For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’, and ‘Whoever curses father and mother shall die’, But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Any support that you might have had from me is dedicated to God”, need not honor his father.  You have nullified the word of God for the sake of your tradition”.

It appears that Jesus is saying that honoring father and mother has a higher priority than dedicating all our time, talent, and treasure to what we deem to be the service of God.

Now the Blessed Virgin Mary is really our spiritual mother, not only because Jesus gave her to us at the foot of the Cross to be our mother, but also because in Baptism we are conformed to Jesus.  We become the adopted sons and daughters of God and of Mary.  We become the brothers and sisters of Jesus.  As such, we owe Mary the same devotion that Jesus has for her.  Jesus is the ideal of how we are to be in relation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, His mother and our mother.

Jesus taught us both with his words and his example.  We note that of his 33 years on earth as the Incarnate Word, he spent 30 years with his mother and only three years in his public ministry (Luke 3: 23).  One might have thought that if Jesus had begun his public ministry earlier in his life, he would have accomplished more.  Apparently Jesus thought that he would teach us something more valuable by being devoted to his mother for 30 years, than by having an extended public ministry.

Our goal in True Devotion to Mary is to love Jesus as Mary loves him and to love Mary as Jesus loves her.  The love of Jesus for Mary is the “gold standard” by which we measure our own devotion to Mary.

Jesus said [to us], “I give you a new commandment:  Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you also should love one another” (John 13: 34).  It is certain that He also wants us to love Mary as he loves her.

Therefore, Jesus, who is the Alpha and the Omega, (Revelation 22: 13), of our spiritual life, and the Way, the Truth, and the Life, (John 14: 6) of our faith journey, has clearly demonstrated by words and example the reverent devotion that we must have towards His most worthy mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Read More: http://marianews.com/wordpress/category/deacon-antonio/

Subscribe to Maria News

April 27, 2013 / Maria News

Husband and Wife United Forever

By Deacon Antonio Sandoval

In a television program on EWTN featuring a priest and couples discussing marriage, the question was asked whether husband and wife would be married in heaven.  The priest answered and said, “Yes, they will be, but not to each other.”  Then it was said that all of us would be the bride of Christ.

I was very dissatisfied with this answer because there is a lot more that needs to be said about the relationship of husband and wife in eternity.  To me, it is unthinkable that the love that husband and wife have for each other on earth will be diminished or their unity disrupted in heaven.  We may not call their relationship in heaven a marriage, but I believe that their love and unity is eternal if they remain faithful to each other while on earth.

At the beginning of her illness, my wife, Maud, who is now in a long-term care facility, would often ask me, “Are we going to be together in heaven?”  I would always say, “Yes, we will be.”, because in the liturgy for the Vigil for the Deceased it says, ‘We believe that all the ties of friendship and affection which knit us as one throughout our lives do not unravel with death’.  Then in a prayer addressed to the Lord our God it says, “But for those who believe in your love, death is not the end, nor does it destroy the bonds that you forge in our lives.”  From these two examples from these prayers it seems clear to me that the love between husband and wife, which has God as its origin, is eternal and that husband and wife will be united forever.

St. John Chrysostom who lived in the fourth century would tell young married couples, “Be united in this life so that you will not be separated in the life that has been promised.”

The unity of husband and wife on earth is based on the complementarity of gender and ordered for the procreation of children.  This will not be the case in heaven, for Jesus said, “At the resurrection they neither marry or are given in marriage, but are like the angels in heaven” (Matthew 22: 30).  This, however, does not preclude the love and unity of husband and wife in heaven because nuptial love will be transformed into angelic-like love, that is, spiritual love.

St. Thomas Aquinas said that love of neighbor would be made perfect only in heaven.  Since for married persons, their nearest neighbor is their spouse, this means that their love for each other will be perfected in heaven.  It then follows that their love and unity in heaven will be far more perfect than it ever could have been on earth.

The more perfect love and unity between husband and wife in heaven is the result of their being purified of all sin and its consequences.  This in turn allows them to abide more fully in God and God in them.  Abiding in God is the key to unity.   Jesus essentially said this in his Last Supper discourse when he prayed for those who would come to believe in him saying, “That they may all be one, as you Father are in me and I am in you, that they also may be one in us…” (John 17:21)

The difference between the love and unity of husband and wife on earth and that in heaven is that on earth spousal love and unity are exclusive. In heaven, on the other hand, husband and wife together and individually will include all others in their sphere of spiritual love.  We will all be united to each other as Bride of Christ in his Mystical Body.

Fellow married couples, let us look forward to our heavenly future with joy, because what God has joined together no human being must separate (Mark 10: 9) and neither will God.  With the “love that never fails” (1 Corinthians 13: 8), we will be more closely united with our beloved spouse in heaven and with Christ than we have been on earth.

Read More by Deacon Antonio

Subscribe to Maria News

April 17, 2013 / Maria News

Pope Francis Tells Faithful, The Crucified, Risen and Ascended Jesus Christ is our Advocate

By Catholic Online

VATICAN CITY (Catholic Online) – (Editors Note: We present for our readers around the globe the encouraging words of reflection, inspiration and insight which our Holy Father Francis shared with over fifty thousand pilgrims who gathered in St Peters Square on Wednesday, April 17, 2013, for his general audience. Once again, the Pope uses his simple, evangelical preaching style, allowing the words of the sacred scripture to speak, pointing the hearers to the Living Word, Jesus, whom they reveal.)

*****

Dear brothers and sisters,

In the Creed, we find the affirmation that Jesus “ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.” The earthly life of Jesus culminates in the event of the Ascension, that is, when he passes from this world to the Father, and is lifted up to His right hand side. What is the significance of this event? What are the consequences for our lives? What does it mean to contemplate Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father? Let us be guided by the Evangelist Luke.

We begin from the moment Jesus decides to embark on his last pilgrimage to Jerusalem. St. Luke notes: ” When the days for his being taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem” (Lk 9:51). While he “ascends” to the Holy City, where his “exodus” from this life will be accomplished, Jesus already sees the goal, Heaven, but he knows that the path that brings him back to the glory of God passes through the Cross, through obedience to the divine plan of love for humanity.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that ” the lifting up of Jesus on the cross signifies and announces his lifting up by his Ascension into heaven, and indeed begins it” (n. 661).

We too must be clear in our Christian life, that to enter into the glory of God requires daily fidelity to His will, even when it requires sacrifice, when at times it requires us to change our plans. The Ascension of Jesus actually happened on the Mount of Olives, near the place where he had retired in prayer before his passion to be in profound union with the Father; once again we see that prayer gives us the grace to faithfully live out God’s project for us.

At the end of his Gospel, St. Luke narrates the event of the Ascension in a very synthetic way. Jesus led the disciples “[out] as far as Bethany, raised his hands, and blessed them. As he blessed them he parted from them and was taken up to heaven. They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God “(24.50 to 53).

I would like to note two elements of the passage. First, during the Ascension Jesus fulfilled the priestly gesture of blessing and certainly the disciples express their faith with prostration, they kneel and bow their heads. This is a first important point: Jesus is the only and eternal Priest, who with his passed through death and the tomb and rose again and ascended into Heaven; He is with God the Father, where he always intercedes in our favor (cf. Heb 9:24). As St John writes in his First Letter, He is our advocate, our advocate with the Father (cf. 2:1-2).

It’s nice to hear this. The first thing we do when we are called by a judge or are called to trial, the first thing we do is look for an advocate to defend us. We have One who always defends us. He defends us from the insidiousness of the Devil, He defends us from ourselves, from our sins. But, dear brothers and sisters, we have this advocate. We must not be afraid to turn to Him, to turn to him with our fears, to ask for his blessing and mercy.

He always forgives us, He is our advocate, He always defends us. We must never forget this. The Ascension of Jesus into heaven then reveals to us this reality that is so comforting for our journey: in Christ, true God and true man, our humanity was brought to God; He has opened the passage up for us, He is like a leader at the head of the rope when you scale a mountain, who has reached the summit and draws us up to him leading us to God. If we entrust our lives to Him, if we let ourselves be guided by Him we are sure to be in safe hands. In the hands of our Savior, our advocate.

A second element: St Luke mentions that the apostles, after seeing Jesus ascending to heaven, returned to Jerusalem “with great joy.” This seems a bit strange. Typically when we are separated from our families, our friends, in a lasting separation, above all because of death, we are naturally sad, because we will no longer see their face, or hear their voice, we will no longer be able to enjoy their affection, their presence.

Instead, the evangelist emphasizes the profound joy of the Apostles. How come? Because, with the eyes of faith, they understand that although subtracted from their eyes, Jesus remains with them forever, He is not abandoning them, and in the glory of the Father, supports them, guides them and intercedes for them.

St. Luke narrates the fact of the Ascension in the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, to emphasize that this event is like the ring that engages and connects the earthly life of Jesus to that of the Church. Here St. Luke also mentions the cloud that took Jesus out of sight of the disciples, who remain to contemplate Christ ascending to God (cf. Acts 1:9-10). Then two men in white robes intervene, urging them not to remain looking at the sky, but to nourish their lives and their witness from the certainty that Jesus will return in the same way they saw him ascend into heaven (Acts 1: 10-11).

It is an invitation to begin from the contemplation of the Lordship of Jesus, to receive from him the strength to carry and bear witness to the Gospel in everyday life: contemplation and action, ora et labora St. Benedict teaches, are both necessary in our lives as Christians

Dear brothers and sisters, the Ascension does not indicate the absence of Jesus, but tells us that He is alive among us in a new way; He is no longer in a definite place in the world as He was before the Ascension; He is now in the lordship of God, present in all space and time, next to each of us.

We are never alone in our lives: We have this advocate who waits for us, we are never alone, ​​the Crucified and Risen Lord guides us, and with us there are many brothers and sisters who in silence and obscurity, in their family life and work, in their problems and difficulties, their joys and hopes, live their faith every day and, together with us, bring to the world the lordship of God’s love.

Subscribe to Maria News