The Ascension of the Lord

He answered them, "It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight. While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. They said, "Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven."
--Acts 1: 7-11

In my mind, I can picture the Apostles there on the summit of Mount Olivet, standing looking intently at the sky. They had been with Jesus from the beginning, a ragtag collection --a tax collector, farmers and fisherman; they had left everything to follow Jesus, and He told them He would make them fishers of men. They had heard Jesus’ words of truth, seen Him feed the multitudes, cast out demons, cure the sick, and raise the dead! Even then, they did not fully understand, but in their hearts they knew that Jesus was the Way, the Truth and the Life. They had been Blessed to understand that Jesus was the Christ; but Jesus told them that He had come as a suffering servant to be condemned and executed. At the last supper, He washed their feet; then He instituted the Eucharist, giving Himself to us – spiritual food in material form – and He promised the coming of the Holy Spirit as our helper and guide. And then Jesus was arrested and tortured and condemned and crucified – imagine the confusion and horrible grief they felt. Then, on the third day, they found the empty tomb – Jesus had risen! And for forty days He again appeared to them; He walked and ate with them; He taught and He prayed with them. And they followed Jesus up the mountain, and He ascended into the clouds…

Last week, Dusty and Isabella came home from the corner smoothie shop with a couple of helium balloons. They let the balloons get away, and we watched them ascend into the sky. We were able to see them for quite a few minutes as we watched them go higher and higher and get smaller and smaller. Eventually, there came a point when we could no longer see the balloons. We stood there a few moments more, searching the sky to see if we could find the balloons, but they were gone.

I can picture Jesus followers standing on Mount Olivet, looking intently at the sky, looking for Jesus. I can imagine the uncertainty they felt, perhaps wondering to themselves, “What will we do now? How are we to go on without Jesus?” I can just picture them standing there in silence, maybe glancing at one another, not knowing what to say or do, and looking back at the sky. I’ll bet they didn’t want to come down off that mountain…

And then two men dressed in white garments – Angels – appeared beside them and asked them, "Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?” At that point, they still lacked understanding because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon them. But Jesus had given them a mission – “be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth.” And the men in white garments reminded them of this and told them that, "This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”

There’s a lot going on in the world right now that causes many people a lot of fear and anxiety. I think there are a lot of people just waiting for God to do something, a lot like Jesus’ followers standing on the mountain of Olivet – but Jesus gave them a mission, just as He has given us His modern day disciples a mission. Just a few days ago in Aparecida, Brazil, Pope Benedict XVI echoed the words of Jesus – “be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth” -- in giving His Apostles and Disciples their mission: “I remind the lay faithful that they too are the Church, the assembly called together by Christ so as to bring His witness to the whole world.”

The Holy Father also said, “Christians are called to announce the Resurrection with force.” We are not supposed to stand around looking to the heavens waiting for God to act; we are to proclaim the good news boldly! How do we do this? My own personal opinion is that we do this in two ways: first, we profess our faith and we wear it on our sleeves; we let people know who we are and what it is we stand for. We wear the cross of Jesus and we display it prominently in our homes. When others are putting up secular holiday decorations, we decorate with religious Holy Day displays. We look for those who are seeking or troubled, and we ask if they would like to know Jesus. We don’t push ourselves on anyone, but neither do we hide our faith. How will anyone believe in Jesus if they don’t see that we believe in Him?

The second way in which we profess our faith is we believe in that we live it; we not only talk the talk, we walk the walk. We put God in the first place in our lives by believing in family and praying together as a family and making going to church on Sunday the highlight of our week, not something we squeeze into our busy schedules. We do our best to live by God’s Commandments, and when we stumble, when we sin, we acknowledge that it is by our own weaknesses and shortcomings; we do not deny the standard of Truth. When we fall, we seek reconciliation with our God. We seek to follow Jesus, to give as He gave, to forgive as He forgives, and to love as He is Love. This is what it means to believe; this is what it means to live as a Christian. If we truly believe, our works will show it.

If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well," but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
--James 2: 15-17

On May 2, 2007, the Blessed Virgin Mary in Medjugorje gave this message for the world:
"Dear children! Today I come to you with a motherly desire for you to give me your hearts. My children, do this with complete trust and without fear. In your hearts, I will put my Son and His mercy. Then, my children, you will look at the world around you with different eyes. You will see your neighbor. You will feel his pain and suffering. You will not turn your head away from those who suffer, because my Son turns His head away from those who do so. Children, do not hesitate."

Our Lady’s words echo the words of Sacred Scripture.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
--James 1: 27

Our Lord Jesus, the suffering servant who washed the Apostles feet, Himself said,
“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do…”
--John 14: 12

THE CORPORAL WORKS OF MERCY
Feed the hungry.

Give drink to the thirsty.

Give clothing to the naked.

Shelter the homeless.

Care for the sick.

Visit the imprisoned.

Bury the dead.

Hope

Isabella will turn four in two weeks. We went for our walk this morning, and per our usual routine, we stopped at the neighborhood park. I watched my little girl and the other preschoolers playing; already they have a healthy self-interest and a certain rebelliousness, but otherwise they are still pretty innocent at that age. I wondered what kind of people they would grow up to be. We as parents have a sacred duty to teach our children right from wrong and to ensure their religious education. How can our children have faith if they do not see it in their families? While in the past few weeks I have been remembering my own past, I have recognized the same doubts and struggles that I faced reflected in the youth of today’s world.

One young woman has been questioning and seeking. She cries out: “…lately I've been having serious doubts about Christianity and religion…I felt strongly on my heart to try out the Catholic Church. I have been attending the Catholic Church down the road from where I live for only about four weeks. It is the most holy and beautiful place I have ever been. But I'm confused. The Catholics say they are Christ's true Church. But every denomination, religion, etc, are saying the same thing. I've taken this before the Lord many times. I've come to the conclusion that Christ alone is the Truth, and I follow after Him, and seek Him desperately. I end up confused and doubting, sometimes (rarely) even His existence, which I hate to admit. I love Him completely, yet I doubt when He seems out of reach. How do you know? How can you possibly know what is right? It's so frustrating that you cannot know! Where are answers when you seek them with all your heart?”

The people she turned to gave her some very good answers, but in her teenage angst and impatience, after only a few days, she left…

Another young man has been struggling with the conflict between his desire to be a faithful disciple of Jesus and the desires of his own weakness in an unbelieving world. Now he is coming to grips with the consequences of his choices – he has gotten his girlfriend pregnant. He wants to do the right thing, and in this there is hope. I say to him that my own life is a testament that God can bring good out of any situation.

We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
--Romans 8: 28

I am always blown away when I see young people with faith, especially when I consider my own confusion as a young man. It was bad enough thirty years ago, but now the materialism and immorality is so much more blatant. Look at our entertainment. When I was growing up, we watched The Waltons and Little House on the Prairie; now we have shows like Fear Factor, Sex in the City and Jerry Springer. We’ve gone from shows that upheld family, hard work and moral living to shows that glorify promiscuity and violence; the game shows and talk shows seek to strip all dignity from the human person, and our society calls this entertainment. It’s simply amazing that any youth can have faith in today’s world.

Last month I was asked to be part of a prayer team for the monthly meeting of the youth ministry at Arizona State University. It was an incredible evening which included great music by Matt Maher, and concluded with a time of praise and adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. It filled my heart with joy to see several hundred college students on their knees before the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Here is the hope for our future.

In CROSSING THE THRESHOLD OF HOPE, by Pope John Paul II, he states that youth is “…a time given by Providence to every person and given to him as a responsibility. During that time he searches, like the young man in the Gospel, for answers to basic questions; he searches not only for the meaning of life but also for a concrete way to go about living his life…If at every stage of his life man desires to be his own person, to find love, during his youth he desires it even more strongly…After all, young people are always searching for the beauty in love. They want their love to be beautiful. If they give in to weakness, following models of behavior that can rightly be considered a “scandal in the contemporary world”…in the depths of their hearts they still desire a beautiful and pure love…Ultimately, they know that only God can give them this love.”

We had several young engaged couples with us on retreat last weekend. Some of us shared our stories with these young people, and we spoke of the choices that each of us makes every day – whether to follow Jesus or to go our own way – and of the consequences of our choices, for ourselves and for others. My friend Mike told them that much of what he’s seen in the world in the last few years is discouraging, but to see them there together seeking to follow Jesus gives us hope. They are on the right path, and my prayer for them is that they continue on the right path. I encouraged them to put God in the first place in their families, to make prayer a priority in their families, to pray together every day as a family. This is the hope for our world – a generation turning to Jesus.

On October 22, 1978, at his inauguration, Pope John Paul II said to the young people gathered in St. Peter’s square, “You are the hope of the Church and of the world. You are my hope.”

John Paul the Great, pray for us!

Right with God

entropy
“a process of degradation or running down or a trend to disorder”
--Merriam-Webster

I was praying in the chapel the other day before Mass, and the silence was interrupted by someone tapping on a microphone. The choir “loft” in this church is on the left and to the rear -- I could see it directly to the side from where I was kneeling – and I observed a woman going from microphone to microphone and testing them by tapping on them with her finger. I thought to myself how easily I was distracted from Jesus by a little noise, and returned to my prayer. However, the woman continued going from microphone to microphone – tap, tap, tap, tap….tap, tap, tap, tap… -- and I felt compelled to watch her.

The woman tested all the microphones, stopped, looked around, smoothed her dress… and then she began testing microphones again – tap, tap, tap, tap… Finally, apparently satisfied that all the microphones were working, she stopped, smoothed her dress, and surveyed the choir loft. She walked over to one of the music stands, moved it a little, stepped back, and then moved the music stand back to its original position. She smoothed her dress and surveyed the loft again. Next she sat on the piano bench and picked up a stack of song sheets. She counted all the microphones, pointing at each one with her finger, and then she counted the song sheets. She dropped all the song sheets on the floor and then picked them up again. She recounted. The woman stood, collected her shoulder bag, and clutched it tightly to her side. She again surveyed the choir loft, and then stood there, a look of concern on her face, as if wondering what she could possibly have forgotten. Apparently unable to think of anything, she walked off, clutching her bag tightly. She stopped in the doorway, turned and stood looking back at the loft. I bowed my head and returned to the silence.

It occurred to me as I watched this woman, that her desire for everything to be perfect -- her anxiety and her fear -- were a reflection of the world we live in. We are bombarded with messages that we need to have perfect hair and perfect teeth, a perfect house and yard and a perfectly detailed car, the perfect job and perfectly behaved kids. Really, people want to have a perfect life, and when things don’t go right, this causes a lot of fear and anxiety.

This desire for a perfect happy life is really a desire to create heaven on earth, but that’s never going to happen because we live in a fallen world. The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that the universe is moving from a state of order to a state of disorder. I had the realization once that entropy (disorder) came into existence after the fall from grace.

…"Cursed be the ground because of you! In toil shall you eat its yield all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you, as you eat of the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat, until you return to the ground, from which you were taken; for you are dirt, and to dirt you shall return."
--Genesis 3: 17-19

In their disobedience, Adam and Eve brought disorder to the world, and it is the same for us today. A secular and materialistic world tells us to follow our own desires, and when we make choices that are selfish and indifferent to others, we cause pain and bring disorder to the world. When the Earth’s resources are exploited for profit, the environment is ravaged and it wreaks havoc on nature. But when we listen to God, we can find understanding in the disorder; when we seek to follow His ways and make the right choices, then we bring kindness, and love, and hope to the world.

On retreat this weekend, on Sunday morning I walked down to the shrine and sat in front of the statue of St. Joseph and the Child Jesus. I’d brought along my Rosary beads and a little volume by Pope John Paul II, but as I sat in the quiet and peace of the early morning, I felt that little Jesus wanted me to sit and listen. I heard the buzz of wings of the little birds in the oaks, and all around me little tweets and chirps and birdsong, and the gentle whispering of the wind. And in my heart, a still small voice…

I watched beautiful, delicate little yellow birds flitting about the branches. One of the little birds landed on a branch directly over my head, and I remembered once that a pigeon pooped on my head. Then I felt the Spirit speaking to me in my heart: He was telling me that, yes, this is a fallen world and there will be times when the birds poop on your head. We are going to have troubles in this life; it’s a disordered world and things very often aren’t going to go right, but they are small things really, and we can know that Jesus will be right there with us, and we will get through it. There is one thing we have control over: we can choose to be right with God, and if we are seeking righteousness, there is no need for any anxiety or worry or fear.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat (or drink), or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith? So do not worry and say, 'What are we to eat?' or 'What are we to drink?' or 'What are we to wear?' All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom (of God) and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil.”
--Matthew 6: 25-34