May the Risen Lord grant you grace and peace. It is 21st May 2023.
We celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. We reflect on Acts 1:1-11; Ephesians 1:17-23; and Matthew 28:16-20.
Learning is power. Authority comes by learning. Learning never ends.
The ascension of the Lord is a learning curve for the disciples. It is the glorification and God’s approval of a meaningful mission of Jesus on earth.
Learning to lean on, wean out, clean up, keep up, talk up, look up, and tone up from the Holy Spirit.
The ‘chronos’ means a flow of time and ‘kairos’ means a decisive time for learning is right now.
Rising above is an experience of the Spirit.
The promise of Holy Spirit by the Lord is the invitation to learn from the Spirit of God to be the witness to the Risen Lord even today.
No one can stop us ascending from the clingy attitude of the world except ourselves.
We are the only obstacles who at times find it challenged, compromised and continue to climb up where God wants us to be.
God invited the people of Israel to the mountain to teach God’s commandments, Jesus wanted the disciples to come to the mountain to learn from the Holy spirit and the Church desires us to transcend our life to the demands of the Gospel.
Learning enables us to lead others by witnessing to the Lord.
God gives power for us to learn and master so as to teach and to be an inspiration to others. Learning can never be delegated.
The responsorial Psalm praises, “God goes up with shouts of joy, the Lord goes up with trumpet blast.” (Ps. 47:5).
The second reading is a reminder and a prayer for the community that is the mystical Body of Christ, the Church needs to learn from the One through the Holy Spirit
The assurance of the teacher being with us is the incentive for further learning and to share what we learnt so far to the rest of the humanity.
“God has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” (Eph.1:23).
The evangelization, the communal life and personal experience of wisdom and revelation are the tools for learning.
The Gospel explains the mind and intention of Jesus revealed to the disciples.
Ascension empowers us to increase the awareness and longing to reach Heaven.
We are all reinforced to assimilate the profound meaning of ascension in rising our thoughts and lives above the peripheral space to permanent gaze of God in the Abode.
The ascension of the Lord is the assurance and promise of the Holy Spirit in our personal and communal life.
Our longing to be in Heaven is triggered by the presence of the Holy Spirit in our life.
“Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Mt.28:20).
This celebration is not merely for Jesus to meet the Father in Heaven alone but for us all who believed in Him to teach, reach and preach the Word of God without counting the cost, benefit, reward here on earth.
Our hope and yearning to have the vision of the Father is tripled by the Ascension, the promise of the Holy Spirit and the presence of Jesus to the end.
It is a reminder for us all who celebrate the Ascension that we are entrusted with a responsibility of sharing our faith, love and hope with all people on earth.
We are entrusted with the mission of Jesus to reach out to all to introduce Jesus, inculcate His values of the Kingdom and expound it with our holy and prudent living.
In every Eucharistic celebration is the meeting moment with God through Jesus on the top of mount Calvary.
Whether it is the Mount Ararat for Noah, or Mount Moriah for Abraham, or Mount Sinai for people of Israel, or Mount Nebo for Moses, or Mount Carmel for the prophet Elijah, or Mount Tabor or Mount of Olives for Jesus, God revealed, revisited, revised, reviewed, restituted, and reimbursed God’s people with teaching, commissioning and entrusting mission.
The Ascension offered the, assurance, exuberance and insurance for the disciples to hold on until we meet Him in Heaven.
We are entrusted with the Person of the Holy Spirit, the Presence of the Lord and the prudent Preaching to all people.
The Catechism teaches us in No. 671, “Since the Ascension God’s plan has entered into its fulfillment. We are already at “the last hour”. “Already the final age of the world is with us, and the renewal of the world is irrevocably under way; it is even now anticipated in a certain real way, for the Church on earth is endowed already with a sanctity that is real but imperfect.” Christ’s kingdom already manifests its presence through the miraculous signs that attend its proclamation by the Church.”
May we ascend our life by constant learning from the Holy Spirit without giving up on any situation or suffering. May you have a day of blessing. God bless you.