THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD  –  2018

«  Forty days ago we celebrated   Jesus triumph over death, his RESURRECTION.   

«  After the resurrection  Jesus has appeared in different ways to his apostles,  who will be his  witnesses, the witnesses  of his resurrection.   

«  Today we celebrate, in the liturgy, Jesus return to the Father.    

«  He will not be visible anymore; he will be present in his church through the sacrament, the word and his witnesses.

  

 FIRST READING  – Act  1:1-11

-          Jesus asks them to remain in Jerusalem until they receive the promise from the Father.   

-          Luke says, in the Acts, that the Lord has tried, in different ways, to convince them that he is alive.  

-          John baptized in water, you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit.  

-          Let us reflect on the meaning of the word “baptize.” To baptize means to submerge into water. Thus when Jesus says they will be baptized in the Holy Spirit, it means that they will be submerged in the Spirit of God that we call the Holy Spirit.

-          And this will happen as well  to those who will follow him through the centuries.    

-          Thus the Spirit does not come to us in a visible and external way, but we are submerged in the Spirit.  

-          The apostles ask if the kingdom of Israel will be restored, but Jesus says that this is known only by the Father.  

-          But, they will receive the Holy Spirit who will come upon them and make them witnesses of Jesus throughout all the world.   

-          It is important to enter into the symbolic meaning of the vocabulary used to describe this mystery of faith, the passage or return  of Jesus to the Father.  

o   Lifted up = we always look  at the blue sky when we speak about heaven, the abode of God. Thus to be lifted up means that Jesus goes to the Father.  

o   They continue to look intently, we feel so good when we experience the presence of God   

o   Why are you standing there looking at the sky? He will return  

o   But now “you have to be his witnesses”, now it is the time of the church, our time when we have to do the same works that Jesus did. We have been called to do that through our baptism. 

-          It is not a sad farewell, it is not a day of mourning, it is the day of Jesus  triumph, that is why the church puts on our lips the responsorial psalm:  

o   We are invited to clap our hands, to shout with cries of joy, to sing the praises of our King, to sing hymns  

o   Because the Lord has established his throne upon the heights, he reigns over the nations and he sits as King on his sacred throne. 

-          It is neither a sad farewell, nor a day of mourning because Jesus has triumphed over evil and death. 

-          This triumph is already ours in hope, now for a little while we have to work with the Lord to invite all to the heavenly banquet for all eternity.  

Responsorial Psalm Ps 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9

-          R. (6) God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
 All you peoples, clap your hands,
shout to God with cries of gladness,
For the LORD, the Most High, the awesome,
is the great king over all the earth.
R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
 God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy;
the LORD, amid trumpet blasts.
Sing praise to God, sing praise;
sing praise to our king, sing praise.
R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
 For king of all the earth is God;
sing hymns of praise.
God reigns over the nations,
God sits upon his holy throne.
R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.

SECOND READING   Ephesians  1:17-23

-          The author of this letter asks that the Lord Jesus     

o   May grant us a spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in  knowledge of  him  

o   May the eyes of our heart be enlightened in order to know what is the hope that belongs to his call   

o   What are the riches of his glory, the inheritance among the holy ones, destined to be distributed to the members of the Church.    

o   So we may experience his power in our life  

o   This is the same power that the Father has revealed in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and in giving to Jesus a glory which is above all that has been created.   

o   He has put all things beneath the feet of Jesus; this means that he has made  Jesus Lord and Head of the church which is his body.   

-          A good preparation for the celebration of Jesus’ triumph will be to reflect and try to answer this question:  

o   Do I really know Jesus, do I know him in such a way that this knowledge fills me with hope, joy, strength and trust without limits? Let us have a heart to heart conversation with the Lord. 

GOSPEL  Mark 16:15-20

ü  This reading is part of the longer ending of Mark’s Gospel. 

ü  The Gospel written by Mark ends on verse 8, the verses from 9 to 20 were added later on. And this addition was also considered part of the cannon of the Scriptures.   

ü  The Lord sends the 11 to proclaim the good news to all creation.   

o   Whoever believes will be saved, and whoever does not believe will be condemned.  

o   This gospel becomes a trail of salvation or condemnation.  

o   Condemnation, not for those who have never heard of the Gospel, but for those who have heart and have rejected it.   

o   The key word is “freely”. We need to accept the message as free human beings, as God has created us. Persons able to obey,  that is “hear” and follow the voice of God they have heard. This means that we acknowledge that God is, that he is not an imagination. 

ü  Let us examine the words used in this gospel to describe the signs which will accompany the Works of those who believe:   

o   They will drive out  demons = evil will be destroyed   

o   They will speak new languages =  The Holy Spirit comes upon all the believers in a ongoing Pentecost, upon all the peoples  and  all the cultures

o   They will pick up  serpents with their hands= the serpent  is the symbol of all that is evil.

o   If they drink any deadly thing it will not harm them  = a poison is the symbol of all that threatens life.  

o   They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover = the sick will be comforted and healed which does not precisely mean cured from their sickness but alleviated from their sufferings by the compassionate love of the followers of Jesus.

o   The mission of the church will be the same mission of Jesus who proclaimed the Kingdom and healed all that were afflicted by any kind of suffering.   

o   It is a mission which requires the action of the whole person: Word, hands, eyes and mind.

ü  The disciples are left now without the visible presence of the Lord.

o   Each one will go to a different part of the world to preach the good news of salvation, the good news of the unconditional love of God who is Father, Brother and Friend (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).   

o   The Lord is with them, with his church, and works with them through signs which can be accomplished only by him.

CLARETIAN CORNER

 

First and foremost the Apostolic Missionary must conform his life, person and customs with his Divine Master Jesus Christ.

The missionary must compose his person in a way that he be a cause of edification to whom might look at him and relate closely with him.

This composure requires many qualities but specially the following:

First, modesty in his way of looking he must never look out of curiosity specially women. Second, he must be moderate in his words.  Third, he must not move his hands when talking but have them in a decent and quiet way without touching his face, his chin much less his nose; he must not do gestures with the mouth when speaking, he must not change the tone of his  voice nor speak making fun or scorning people.  The missionary loses very much of his modesty with these manners, and most of all he loses the good opinion the people had of him before relating with him because they see in him things not proper of the holiness of his state of life; in this way he has very samnll or not fruit at all with his words.  María Antonia París, Foundress.  The Apostolic Missionary. 1-3  

I remember that in my second year on the island I wanted to go overland to Baracoa because the sea wasn't fit, and I took off with my companions.  We took along a cook, both because the places we were going to were few and far between and because the inhabitants of the few outlying houses had abandoned them in their flight from the cholera epidemic. Our good cook fell behind because his pack-mule couldn't walk; so the rest of us went on ahead, arriving very late that night at a house where we could find nothing to eat but a small and really tough piece of hardtack, which we broke into four pieces, one for each priest. Next morning we had to start out, fasting, on the worst road I've ever traveled in my whole life. Anthony Mary Claret, Founder.   Autobiography 540.   

BIBLIOGRAFÍA

CLARET, Antonio María. Autobiografía.  

PARIS, María Antonia. Autobiografía en Escritos, con Comentarios por   Juan Manuel Lozano.

PÉREZ HERRERO, Francisco. “Evangelio Según San Marcos” en Comentario al Nuevo Testamento. Casa de la Biblia 1995. 

RAVASI, Gianfranco. Según las Escrituras – Año B. San Pablo-Bogotá, Colombia 2005.

SCHÖKEL, Luis Alonso. LA BIBLIA DE NUESTRO PUEBLO (comentarios). Misioneros Claretianos. China 2010.