Today is Mother's Day, and I invite all mothers to stand for our applause. Thank you, mothers, for all you do.
Especially on Mother's Day, the words mother and mom evoke all kinds of images to children, e.g., homemaker, teacher, nurse, and so forth. Mothers are always ready to listen. We will never be able to fully “measure” the unconditional love of our mothers. They are truly marvelous mentors.
Here are two things my mother taught me and my siblings:
First, logic. How many have heard: “Because I said so, that’s why!”
And Mom taught us about envy. She would say: “There are millions of less fortunate kids who don’t have the wonderful parents you do!”
Parenting is a holy vocation. Getting children to and from school, doctor’s appointments, rehearsals and practices, budgeting and paying bills, and handling special needs. These are acts of holiness.
The details take on a spiritual dimension when they are seen as the mission of helping a youngster transform into a person of moral character.
This is not ethereal or remote or abstract. The spiritual is acutely real. Holiness is directly connected to mundane human activities. It is doing the ordinary extraordinarily well.
Now the death, resurrection, ascension and pentecost are all aspects of the passage of Jesus from this earthy life into a new, transformed, heavenly reality. This passage of Jesus anticipates our own future.
The ascension which we celebrate today marks Jesus’ final leave-taking from the disciples, so something new can happen: the descent of the Spirit of God on Pentecost. Yes, the living Christ continues among us ever active through the Spirit.
The author of the Book of the Acts clearly indicates that Luke's Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles are a two-volume work. The Gospel is about Jesus; the Acts about early Christianity.
The ascension, connecting Luke and Acts, signals the close of Jesus’ earthly ministry and heralds the beginning of the Church’s ministry: proclaiming the Good News that Jesus Christ is gloriously alive.
Paul in his letter to the Christian community at Ephesus prays that we will grow in wisdom and enlightenment so that we will see more clearly God’s saving work. 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 body.
In the Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples in every age to be persons with a mission, a purpose: to proclaim the Gospel to every creature.
Yes, we are now the “hands and feet and eyes and ears and voice” of the Living Christ until He comes again in great glory and power at the end time to transform this universe into a new, indescribable reality.
The living Christ has created new relationships for us—with God and with one another. In light of this, I pose three questions.
First, what makes us feel alive? Holding a baby? Accomplishing a challenging task? A magnificent sunrise or sunset? The awesomeness of the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls? Watching a space shuttle lift off? Singing? These activities and many more can make us feel alive. What energizes us?
Next question: what does it mean to be alive in Christ? We have been gifted with God’s triune life in baptism, our initiation into a community of disciples. In early Christianity, baptism candidates often stepped down into a pool of water and then emerged, symbolizing a dying to self-centeredness and rising to a new other-centered life. Yes, baptism makes us alive in Christ.
At birth, we lack God’s triune life. The Book of Genesis informs us in the beginning, man and woman had friendship with God and each other. Somehow they lost that, they “hid” from God.
God became flesh in Jesus. God through the crucified and risen Christ by the power of the Spirit re-established our friendship, connected us to the living Christ. Through the rite of baptism the triune God abides in us and we abide in the triune God.
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. That Spirit calls us to continue the saving work of Jesus Christ until He comes again in glory.
The Spirit empowers us to be instruments of faith, hope, love, forgiveness, compassion, truth, fairness, hospitality, fidelity, responsibility and self-discipline.
During this month of May, many of us hear about commencement speeches. The best advice I ever heard in a speech is this:
The quality of our life and our soul’s destiny will be measured by our character: going the extra mile to help someone in need; helping a child realize their 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.
If we follow that advice, we indeed will continue the saving work of Jesus.
