Although most dioceses of the United States will celebrate the Ascension on Sunday, May 13, this reflection is provided early for the sake of those observing the traditional date:  that is, the fortieth day of the Easter Season.

The Ascension of the Lord [B]
Acts 1:1-11  +  Eph 1:17-23  +  Mk 16:15-20
May 10, 2018  or  May 13, 2018

“Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved….”

For those who followed Jesus during the first century, the day of Jesus’ Ascension was filled with much fear and anxiety.  After all, the day of Jesus’ Ascension is like Good Friday.  Both days cause us to ask:  why should we celebrate the end of a good thing?  Why do we call the day of Jesus’ death “Good” Friday?  Both days point us to one of the central mysteries of our spiritual life:  those who are bound together by love do not have to grow weaker when they are separated.  When we must leave those we love to follow a higher calling, we have the chance to grow in our capacity to love those from whom we’re separated.

In the life of Christ and His bride, the Church, these two events—Jesus’ Death and His Ascension—were necessary parts of God’s plan of salvation.  However, in truth, God is never truly gone from our midst:  not on Good Friday, and not today as He rises from the midst of His followers.  Though He departs, He means to appear in new ways.

The Ascension of Jesus—His leaving this earth in bodily form—allowed his followers to assume their calling to be the Mystical Body of Christ.  Without Jesus leaving this earth, why would the Church need to be the Body of Christ?  Why would the Church celebrate the Eucharist, to make Christ present sacramentally if He were still on earth in human form?

We have to be willing to look for God’s presence.  Back in Jesus’ day, the people of Israel had been demoralized by the Roman Empire.  The nation of Israel had always prided itself on its military power.  Then their nation was taken over by the Romans.  “Where was God?” they asked themselves.

When Jesus walked this earth, He claimed to answer the question of God’s Presence in the world with two words:  “I AM.”  For this answer, He was put to death by His own people, sentenced by the Roman procurator.  At the top of Calvary, the crowd asked the followers of Jesus:  “Where is your God?”  On the third day Jesus answered their question.  But He gave this answer only to His followers.

Why, after His Resurrection, did the Risen Jesus appear only to His followers?  He did so because He meant for it to be their job to answer the question of God’s presence in the world:  that is, to speak and act in His Name, as one Body.

But for some days after the Ascension, the apostles and disciples weren’t sure about this great commission that Jesus had given them.  They were afraid, and they locked themselves into an upper room.  It wasn’t a coincidence that it was the same upper room where He had given them on Holy Thursday the sacrifice of His Eucharistic Body and Blood.  Ten days after His Ascension, God revealed Himself in a new way:  through His Holy Spirit, God bound the followers of Jesus into the Church.  By the power of the Holy Spirit, God began speaking through the followers of Jesus.

Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Easter
Acts 17:15,22—18:1  +  John 16:12-15
May 9, 2018

“…when He comes, the Spirit of truth, He will guide you to all truth.”

Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman, the nineteenth century convert to the Church from Anglicanism, is renowned for many theological works.  One of the more famous is about the process of the “development of doctrine”.  Newman had from boyhood been a keen student of history, and later in life he said that “to be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant”.

To make an analogy:  as fundamentalist Christians say that God created the universe, Earth, and mankind immediately (that is, within six days), so the same fundamentalists often say that God created the doctrines of the Church immediately.  If a phrase is not found in the Bible—they insist—it cannot be admitted into mind of a Christian.  Therefore, dogmas such as the “Immaculate Conception” and “papal infallibility” are clearly not Christian—they insist—because the apostles who composed the Bible never used these phrases, or spoke about these topics.

However, if beliefs cannot be accepted by Christians if they are not mentioned in the Bible, then these same people cannot profess a belief in the “Trinity”, since this word never appears in the Bible.  “But,” these fundamentalists might argue, “the belief in the Trinity is in the Bible.  It’s the word “Trinity” that came later, in order to dispel false interpretations of the Bible….”  Yet such a defense supports Cardinal Newman’s teaching, which itself is simply an unpacking of Jesus’ words today:  “when He comes, the Spirit of truth, He will guide you to all truth.”

Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter
Acts 16:22-34  +  John 16:5-11
May 8, 2018

“But if I go, I will send Him to you.”

In addition to their divinity, the divine Persons of God the Son and God the Holy Spirit were both sent by God the Father into this world, filled as it is by sin and death.  Their missions differ, yet their missions converge as God’s Providential Will unfolds within salvation history.

Of course, before considering the Son’s and the Holy Spirit’s missions within salvation history, we ought to reflect on their work “in the beginning”.   God the Father created everything in the universe, visible and invisible, through His divine Word, and through the Power of the Holy Spirit.  The creation narratives in Genesis are more suggestive than telling.  Nonetheless, they point us towards contrasts that we ought to reflect upon as we approach Pentecost:  contrasts, that is, between God’s work of creation “in the beginning”, and God’s work of redemption in the fullness of time.

Perhaps the most significant contrast between the missions of the Son and Spirit in creation, and then again their missions in the work of redemption, is that in the latter they manifest themselves incarnately.  Their missions converge within the Mystical Body of Christ.  “In the beginning”, the Word remained the Word.  But in the fullness of time, “the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us”.  “In the beginning”, the Spirit hovered silently over the face of the deep.  But in the fullness of time, He is the soul of the Mystical Body of Christ, animating that Body’s members, so that the Christ’s saving work is carried out “unto the end of the age.”

Monday of the Sixth Week of Easter
Acts 16:11-15  +  John 15:26—16:4
May 7, 2018

“When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify to me.”

Today Jesus—still addressing us from the Cenacle, at the Last Supper—proclaims the coming of the Holy Spirit. We note from Jesus’ words that—as we profess in the Church’s Creed—the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the God the Father and God the Son.  Jesus Himself describes God the Holy Spirit as the One “whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father”.

In the Creed of the First Council of Constantinople (in A.D. 431), the first ecumenical council to describe at any length the nature of God the Holy Spirit, the council Fathers stated that the Holy Spirit is “the Lord, the Giver of Life [and] proceeds from the Father….”  This council did not state that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son.  The phrase “and the Son” (in Latin, filioque) was added by the Church to the Creed later.  Controversy continues to this day as to the propriety of this addition.

Christians of the West accept the dogma of the Holy Spirit’s procession from both the Father and the Son.  We see in the doctrine an expression of the closeness of the Father and the Son, while maintaining their distinction as divine Persons.  God the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son because the Holy Spirit is the Love of the Father and the Son both for each other (not merely the love of one for the other).  Saint Augustine explores the meaning of this great teaching in his very long, profound, and difficult work “On the Trinity” (De Trinitate).  Pray for the Holy Spirit to enter your life more fully, and towards this end, plan to begin a novena to God the Holy Spirit this Thursday.

The Sixth Sunday of Easter [B]
Acts 10:25-26,34-35,44-48  +  1 Jn 4:7-10  +  Jn 15:9-17
May 6, 2018

“In this is love:  not that we have loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son as expiation for our sins.”

Saint John, the Beloved Disciple, in his scriptural writings fleshes out his description of God as “love”.  In the last sentence of today’s Second Reading St. John does so very poignantly, telling us that “In this is love:  not that we have loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son as expiation for our sins.”

The first part of St. John’s description insists on the primacy of God’s love.  God doesn’t wait to love you until He determines whether you have loved Him enough, or whether you will love Him in the future as He hopes.  God doesn’t stop loving you if you stop loving Him.  In a word, God’s Love is primary.  Our love for Him can only be a response, and any response from us cannot diminish His love for us.

But we all know from experience that confusion arises here.  Human beings feel at times as if God does not love them.  One reason for this feeling is that love—at least, divine love—is itself not a feeling.  When people expect God to make them feel good about themselves, or for that matter about Him, they can easily become confused about God’s Presence.  This doesn’t mean that our feelings are illusory, or that God cannot manifest Himself through emotions:  it’s to say that divine Love is not identical with positive emotions.

The second main reason that someone might feel that God no longer loves him is the fact that it’s not unusual for God to be absent from the human soul.  Yet God being absent from someone’s soul does not mean that God does not love that person.  There can be very different reasons for this absence, one negative and one positive.

On the one hand, the absence of God from a human soul can be the result of mortal sin.  A serious moral wrong that’s freely and knowingly chosen causes all grace to leave that soul.  What’s more, the presence of a mortal sin is like a force field surrounding one’s soul, blocking God’s love from penetrating the human soul.  Ironic though it may seem, it’s a sign of God’s love that He endows the human person with a free will strong enough to keep His own love at bay.

On the other hand, the absence of God from someone’s soul can be a sign of immanent growth.  Saints such as St. John of the Cross teach us how God spurs the disciple towards growth by removing Himself from the human soul, in order to increase the disciple’s longing for Him.  This teaches the human person to live for God alone, which means to live for authentic love alone.

Charity—the love of Christ—urges us forward throughout the course of earthly life:  to high school, to college, to our first full-time job, into our vocation, to further growth in holiness, even to death and Heaven’s gates.  It’s to convince us of this simple truth that we hear Jesus today:  “I command you:  love one another.”

Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Acts 16:1-10  +  John 15:18-21
May 5, 2018

“I have chosen you out of the world….”

In this Easter season, we continue to hear in the First Reading about the flurry of apostolic activity that spread through the world following the first Christian Pentecost.  But what of Mary, the lowly Virgin, mother of the child who grew in this world in order to offer His life in sacrifice for our sins?  What about the mother of Him who is the Good News spread by the apostles throughout the world?  Where is Mary at Pentecost?

We might forget that she is the Mother of God, the Mother of Him through whom all things were made.  We might forget that she, too, was present in that upper room.  Why is she there?  She surely had no need to receive that fullness of the Holy Spirit who descended at Pentecost.  Her Pentecost—her Confirmation, so to speak—took place at the Annunciation, when the power of the Holy Spirit overshadowed her who had been sinless from the moment of her conception in the womb of Saint Anne.

At the Annunciation of the Good News, God became man:  Christ’s Body began forming within Mary’s womb.  Here in the upper room at Pentecost, that same Holy Spirit descends again, to overshadow the apostles.  Here in the womb of the upper room, where the first celebration of the Sacrifice of the Eucharist had been offered by Christ, the Church—the Body of Christ—was born, that the apostles might go forth into the world to preach the Gospel and offer their lives in sacrifice for Christ.

Friday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Acts 15:22-31  +  John 15:12-17
May 4, 2018

“This is my commandment:  love one another as I love you.”

Today’s Gospel passage is often chosen for Nuptial Masses.  It speaks to the reality of love.  It gives some concrete form to love.  This concreteness is needed when one lives—as you and I do—in a culture which equates love with warm, fuzzy feelings.

Today’s Gospel passage was written by St. John the Evangelist, who in one of his epistles tells us that “God is love” [1 John 4:8].  Today John quotes Jesus so as to give shape to the definition of God as love.  In terms of the divine Person of Jesus, John quotes Christ as explaining to us that “no one has greater love than… to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  The setting of today’s Gospel passage is the Last Supper.  In His own mind as He spoke these words, Jesus knew that He would give the ultimate example of such love the next day.

But the Church proclaims today’s Gospel passage during the midst of Easter.  The reason for this is that Christ doesn’t want His disciples simply to admire His sacrifice, but to enter into it.  To do what our Savior commands, we need the power of the Holy Spirit, whom the Father and Son will send at Pentecost.  In the Spirit of the Father and the Son, you can find the strength to love your neighbor as Jesus has loved you.

Saints Philip and James, Apostles
1 Corinthians 15:1-8  +  John 14:6-14
May 3, 2018

“Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father.”

As is fitting for the feast of two apostles, the Scriptures for today’s feast highlight that the Church’s foundation is apostolic.  Of course, the role of the apostles is not limited to the Church’s beginning.

Those ordained to the office of bishop continue to carry out the work first entrusted to the apostles.  It’s true that each and every member of the Church has a vocation that is missionary in nature.  The word “apostle” literally means “one who is sent”.  Every Christian is called to “go outside himself” and share with others the natural and supernatural gifts he has received.  Most Christians do this chiefly through family life, and in the secular workplace and community.  We might say that the laity are apostles “ad extra”, outside the walls of the Church.

However, within the Church, those called to the office of bishop have a unique role.  While laypeople proclaim the Gospel within the domestic church and in the workplace and community, bishops proclaim the Gospel to all of the Church’s members, chiefly through the Sacred Liturgy.  The Gospel is meant—among other goals—to bring order to chaos, and mercy to the scars of sins.  Everyone who is a member of a family, a neighborhood, a parish, etc. knows how difficult it can be to cultivate unity.

Unity is the first of the Church’s four marks for a reason.  Apostolicity serves her unity.  Pray, then, for your local bishop and for our universal bishop, His Holiness the Pope, called to preside in charity over the Church on earth.

St. Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Acts 15:1-6  +  John 15:1-8
May 2, 2018

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.”

The powerful metaphor that Jesus proclaims today—the Vinegrower, the Vine, and the branches with their fruit—is, like so many of the passages from John proclaimed by the Church during the Easter Season, a powerful exposition of the relationship between God the Father and God the Son.  Within this relationship we see our own place, as members of the Mystical Body of Christ.

John’s account of the Gospel is the most mystical and sublime of the four Gospel accounts, and is therefore also the most difficult to reach into and meditate upon.  Today’s metaphor opens a window into the sacred Teaching of the Beloved Disciple.

Begin with a simple question:  What is God the Father like as a Vinegrower?  This is a very simple, earthly and earthy image.  If you know anyone who is a gardener (or even more specifically, a vintner), you can picture some of the qualities that this image evokes.  The tenderness, patience, perseverance, and dedication that flow from this image teach us about the Love of the Father for His Son, and for us who are members of His Son’s Body.