Saved by Hope

Rembrandt's Ascension

We have been celebrating the Easter Mystery these forty-some days: the death and resurrection of Jesus, today his ascension to our Father in glory, and next Sunday Pentecost or the descent of the Spirit upon the disciples. These are four different aspects of the one Paschal or Easter Mystery.

The ascension is Jesus’s final leave-taking so something awesome can happen. Let us take to heart Jesus’s parting words: “you will be my witnesses … to the ends of the earth” Yes, Jesus leaves to us the mission of continuing God’s work on earth: proclaiming the good news to all.

The ascension connects the Gospel and the book of Acts which heralds the beginning of the church’s ministry.

In the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus tells the disciples that they are to proclaim the good news to all people, and that Jesus, gloriously alive, will send the promise of God, the Spirit, so they can continue his saving ministry until he comes again at the end-time to transform this universe into a new, indescribable reality. And then Jesus was taken up into heaven; and the disciples were filled with hope.

Hope is a confident anticipation of something yet to come. Pope emeritus Benedict XVI captured its meaning magnificently in his encyclical Saved by Hope. This hope looks forward to seeing God as God really is—face-to-face.

Hope looks for the good. Hope discovers what can be done. Hope propels us forward.

History is filled with people of hope. One of my favorites is Helen Keller, who overcame physical obstacles that most of us can’t imagine. Here is a thought of hers that speaks of hope. Helen wrote, “When one door of happiness closes, another opens but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”

Helen Keller also observed, “No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars or sailed to an unchartered land or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.” We too, with a positive can-do spirit, can find a world of possibilities.

Hope points to the future. We are fascinated with the future. What will it be like? We see change everywhere. Some may not like it. But how react?

There is only one Christian response to the future: hope. Images of hope weave in and out of the bible. God by the power of the Spirit transformed the earthly Jesus into a heavenly Jesus. And Christ anticipates God’s future for all of us.

Yes, the universe in which we live has an ultimate purpose. Hope challenges us to do everything we can to usher in the future: always to be in relationship with God and in relationship with one another as compassionate, generous, forgiving and fair human beings. Above all, hope challenges us to reach out to that which alone is of everlasting value—the human person, the image of God, no matter how unkempt the appearance. In the end, all hope will be realized when the risen Christ, by the power of the Spirit, hands over the universe at the end of time to his heavenly Father.

May God fill us with hope this Ascension Day and every day.

Where There's Darkness, Bring Light

Caravaggio's Doubting Thomas

Jesus Christ lives, and because he lives, we live.

We continue to celebrate the Easter miracle.

And we can help create little miracles for others. A depressed person resurrected to hope; an alcoholic resurrected to sobriety; a troubled marriage resurrected to renewed love; an angry man resurrected to forgiveness; an estrangement bridged; an alienated person brought back to faith and kindness. Make miracle an action verb.

In the book of Acts, the disciples work signs and wonders, and a vibrant faith community is emerging and growing. That should inspire us to worship together and share, especially our time and talents in service.

The book of Revelation describes a Christian’s visionary experience of the God-man Jesus, risen and alive. The author encourages readers to persevere in their faith despite hardships, because good ultimately will triumph.

In the Gospel according to John, we have a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus in a Jerusalem house where the disciples hide behind locked doors. Jesus bestows upon the disciples the energizing Spirit, the abiding inner peace, and the overwhelming mercy of God. But the skeptical Thomas wasn’t there. Lo and behold, a week later Jesus appears again. Thomas then makes that awesome declaration of faith “My Lord and my God.”

Thomas the doubter is easily identifiable with many people. They're doubters, questioners; they demand to see compelling evidence that there's a God.

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Every human being is made in the image of God. But we are fallen or flawed human beings.  And that is why we cry out for healing and mercy.

We seek God's mercy and forgiveness, and the forgiveness of one another. Jesus, through the mystery of his dying and rising, freed us from death and nothingness so we can live with God forever. God created us for a purpose; gifted us with life eternal; and reconciled us to Himself.

There are all kinds of indicators pointing to God: the order in the universe presupposes an orderer (e. g., a watch presupposes a watchmaker); hope presupposes a future; moral outrage presupposes a judge; and so forth.

Of course, there are also indicators that there’s no God—for example, evil or senseless violence. But faith in God is a calculated risk. The 17th French mathematician, inventor, and philosopher Blaise Pascal captured this risk in his famous wager or bet.  The bet goes like this:
One doesn't have certainty that God exists.
Not believing in God is bad for one’s eternal soul if God indeed does exist.
Believing in God is of no consequence if God does not exist.
Therefore, it is in my interest to believe in God. Think about that bet.

At a funeral mass, we hear the words, “For those who believe, life is not taken away, life is merely changed.” Let us pray that the gift of faith will empower us, like Thomas, to proclaim every day, “My Lord and my God.”

Jesus Christ Lives and We Live

Rubens' Resurrection of Jesus

Happy Easter! Felices Pascuas! Joyeuses Paques! Buona Pasqua! Frohe Ostern!

We call Easter the Paschal mystery: paschal relates to the “paschal lamb” of Passover, which Jewish communities celebrate during our Easter celebration this year.

Easter is about the daybreak, starting over. Jesus’s resurrection is a new day. This is a time to be joyful, happy, enthusiastic about life. We have so much to be grateful for, especially the gift of faith in Jesus Christ who is our way, our truth and our life.

Every morning, we awaken to begin again. Perhaps the night before, we carried burdens: things undone, bad things said, good things unsaid. In the morning all is possibility, opportunity. Who among us is content with things as they are? Who does not want to be more loving, more generous, more tenderhearted, more thoughtful, more helpful? This Easter, God wakes us up again, to rediscover the extraordinary graces transforming our lives TODAY.

In the Gospel according to John, chapter 20, we hear the story of the resurrection of Jesus. Mary Magdalene finds the tomb empty. Shortly thereafter, Christ appeared to Mary Magdalene outside the tomb, to the disciples in the upper room, and on the road to Emmaus. Jesus is not among the dead. Jesus is risen. He is alive. He has passed through this earthly life – as we do --- and then through the mystery of death into a new, transfigured reality. This heavenly reality is ours as well. That is the Easter message!

Jesus said, I live, and because I live, we also live.

How? We are born in the flesh and reborn in the Spirit. Water is poured upon us in the rite of baptism, and in these waters the Spirit of God is poured upon us, and the triune God lives within us, and we live within the triune God.

As we grow into adolescence, the bishop anoints our forehead with oil in the sign of the cross—and God pours out more fully the gifts of the Spirit so that we might practice more faithfully all of the fruits of the Spirit: patience, generosity, faithfulness and love.

And at the Eucharist, where the living Christ sacramentally presences himself to us in the signs of bread and wine, and becomes one with us in Communion,; the living Christ feeds us with his life so we can continue our journey. If we should stumble on our journey, the living Christ lifts us up in the rite of penance where we celebrate God’s mercy.

Yes, through the sacraments, we experience the living Christ and we go forth to love and serve one another. The exchange of wedding promises, the anointing of the sick, all the sacraments are indeed signs of God’s care.

Eternal life in relationship with God and one another—that is our ultimate purpose. Easter is about getting our priorities straight, about asking, “How can we become more godlike, more loving, more generous, more thoughtful, more helpful?”

Easter is indeed about a new day, a fresh start.  Why. Because Jesus Christ lives. And because He lives, we live.

Facing the Light

Christ Risen

The word of God takes us back to the wisdom literature of ancient Israel. The author speaks about a person who always tries to do the right thing. But how do some react? They want to murder him. “Let’s see whether God will rescue him,” they say.

This raises the eternal problem of evil. Why do bad things happen to good people? The word assures us God is close to us, even during the storms or assaults of life.

The author of the letter of James asks: why do some people choose evil? People indeed at times choose wrong over right, falsehood over truth. Christianity calls this human condition “original sin.” The fall from grace is described in the biblical Book of Genesis: man and woman hid from God.

Jesus, the Word made flesh, through his life-giving ministry and terrible death and glorious resurrection is our healer, our reconciler with God and one another. In baptism, we have become by grace what Jesus is by nature: sons and daughters of God, called to live a life worthy of that calling.

In the Gospel according to Mark, Jesus challenges us to serve one another even if it may cost us dearly.  Jesus predicts his own passion and death and resurrection. This mystery reveals our true destiny: in relationship with God forever in a new, indescribable, transformative life.

Jesus brings us face to face with his and our own death: a fact of life.

Today, some people may die in their 90s or 100s in hospitals or nursing homes or hospices, or alone. The best seller “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End,” by a surgeon, questions when to “let go,” when to stop offering medical treatments that likely don’t work. The doctor asks: why submit the dying to the full panoply of procedures only to see them completely lose their independence.

Many of us know Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s five stages through which many patients and loved ones may pass:
-Denial: “No, not me.”  A typical response if one is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness.
-Anger: “Why me?” God may be a target especially if one is young. But it's ok to be angry with God.
-Bargaining: “Yes me, but.” The patient accepts, but bargains for more time. I'll do this or that if you, God, lengthen my life.
-Depression: “Yes, me.” The person realizes he/she is not getting better. The person regrets things done or not done.
And finally,
- Acceptance: “My time is running out but it’s all right.”

These stages can apply as well to other major life changes.

Dr. Kubler-Ross also wrote “Death: the Final Stage of Growth.” The title leads us to the Christian understanding of death. The foundation is Good Friday/Easter.

The story of Jesus did not end in the tragedy of the cross but in the triumph of the Resurrection, God transformed Jesus into an indescribable heavenly reality. And God also will transform us into a new kind of spiritual embodiment.

Our faith challenges us to remember that the light of our resurrection will shatter the darkness of our own death.