Today we celebrate Mother’s Day and I invite all mothers to stand for our applause.
The words mother and mom evoke all kinds of images, including homemaker, teacher, nurse, chauffeur, companion. But whatever the job, a mother shows her children how to choose their better selves She educates them for life.
And what is the most important thing a mother can give her children? Her unconditional love! Our mothers love us, care for us, coach and mentor us, are patient and always ready to listen to us. One thing that we can never fully “measure” is the love of our mothers. They are truly marvelous, great teachers. Here are a few things my mother taught us:
How to appreciate a job well done. For example, she would say to us three boys: “If you’re going to kill each other, do it outside; I just finished cleaning the room!”
Mom taught us logic. For example: “Why do I have to do that? Because I said so, that’s why!”
Mom taught us about envy. She’d say: “Millions of less fortunate kids don’t have the nutritional meal you have!” Do these lessons sound familiar? Thank you, mothers, for all you do.
During these 40-some days following Holy Week and Easter, we are celebrating the paschal or “Passover” mystery of Jesus Christ – a mystery that includes not only his death and resurrection but also his ascension or return to his Father in glory and the descent of the Spirit of God upon the disciples.
These are all different aspects of a singular event: the passage of Jesus from this earthy life through death into a new, transformed, heavenly reality—and this reality anticipates our own future.
The ascension which we celebrate today is Jesus’s final leave-taking from his first community of disciples. Jesus has been appearing suddenly from somewhere and then disappearing suddenly to somewhere. The fact is, Jesus has been appearing in glory to his disciples.
Jesus takes his final leave in his ascension or enthronement as King of the universe so something new can happen: the descent of the Spirit of God upon this small community of disciples in a Jerusalem upper room so that they could be empowered to continue the ministry of Jesus to the people in Jerusalem and beyond. Yes, the disciples proclaim, Jesus Christ is alive and continuing his life-giving ministry through us. He lives and because he lives, we live: God lives in us and we in God.
The author of the Book of the Acts shows us that the Lukan Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles are a two-volume work. The Gospel is about Jesus; the Acts is about early Christianity.
The ascension connects Luke and Acts. It signals the close of Jesus’s earthly ministry and heralds the beginning of the Church’s ministry--proclaiming the Good News “to the ends of the earth.”
Paul in his letter to the Christian community at Ephesus prays that God will bestow his wisdom and enlightenment upon us so that we will see more clearly Jesus Christ as the fulfillment as well as foundation of our hopes. Jesus is indeed the “head” of the “body,” the Church, the people of God. And we with our multi talents are called to build up this Mystical Body of Christ.
In the Gospel according to Mark, Jesus tells the disciples to be missionary disciples, to proclaim the Gospel to every creature. They are now the hands and feet and eyes and ears and voice of the Living Christ until He comes again in glory at the end-time to transform this universe into a new heaven and a new earth.
The living Christ has created new relationships for us—with God and with one another. And in light of these new relationships, I would like to pose three questions:
What make us feel alive? What does it mean to be alive in a new relationship with the living Christ? How really alive in Christ are we?
First, what makes us feel alive? Experiencing the awesomeness of Niagara Falls or Grand Canyon? Watching a space shuttle lift off? Watching our favorite team win an exciting game? Holding a baby in our arms? Accomplishing a challenging task at work? Any of these experiences, and many more, can make us feel alive.
Second, what does it mean to be alive in Christ? God has gifted us with his life in Baptism. In early Christianity, candidates for baptism were often immersed in a pool of water. Water symbolizes life and death. Water can be life-giving if we're thirsty, or death-threatening if it’s a hurricane. And when the baptismal candidate stepped down into a pool of water on the one side and came up on the other side, it symbolized a dying to self-centered life and a rising to new life: an other-centered life.
Yes, Baptism makes us alive in Christ. To understand its significance, we have to appreciate who we are in relation to God. At birth, we lack God’s life. That’s what original sin means: lack of relationship. The Book of Genesis captures this graphically. In the beginning, man and woman walked with God, had friendship with God and one another. Somehow, they lost that. Genesis describes that they “hid” from God, blamed one another and even the earthly elements worked against them.
But God would not leave us to our worse selves. God became flesh in Jesus of Nazareth so that we could have his life. Through the crucified and risen Christ, God re-established his friendship with us, re-connected us to himself. Through baptism we enter into a global community of disciples of Jesus, a fellowship of grace. We are alive in Christ.
The third question is: How really alive in Christ are we? The Spirit of God is within us, to bring about the design of God for the universe. That Spirit calls us to continue the saving work of Jesus Christ until He comes again in glory. We are indeed his “hands and feet and eyes and ears and voice.” And the Spirit of God empowers us to be instruments of faith, hope, love; channels of forgiveness, compassion, truth, fairness; yes channels of hospitality, fidelity, responsibility and self-discipline, in our families, our workplaces and communities.
At this time of year, some of us hear commencement speeches. The best advice I’ve heard was this brief passage from a speaker to the graduates: 25 years or 50 years from now—at home or at work, in the public of your community or in some private place—the quality of your life and your soul’s destiny will be measured by your character: going the extra mile to help someone in need; helping a child realize his/her potential; being faithful in our relationships and responsibilities; working for the common good; trusting always in a good and compassionate God who is ever near to us and who will guide us safely home.
Living that advice, we indeed will continue the saving work of Jesus Christ until He comes in glory at the end-time.
