THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD  - CYCLE A - 2020

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

« During this time, Jesus has made him visible in different ways to his apostles who will be the witnesses of his resurrection.  

« Today we celebrate in the liturgy the passage of Jesus from this way of life similar to ours,  to the Father.  

« He will not be visible anymore; he will be present in his church through the sacrament, the word and the witnesses of all the times,  explaining to us the meaning of our life if we want to listen to him,  and leading us by means of his Spirit. .

 

 FIRST READING  – Act  1:1-11

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

-        Luke says in this book 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 “baptism.” To baptize means to submerge into water. Thus, when Jesus says they will be baptized in the Holy Spirit, he means that they will be submerged in the Spirit of God that we call the Holy Spirit.

-        In addition, this will happen 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. 

-        They want to know if the kingdom of Israel will be restored, but Jesus says that this is known only by the Father. 

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

-        It is important to enter into the symbolic meaning of the vocabulary used to describe this mystery of faith, the passage or returning 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, when he allows us to feel his loving and joyful presence.   

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

o   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. In our baptism, we have been called to do that.   

-        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. 

-        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. 

-        While we journey during this life waiting to enter the banquet, we have to work with all our abilities to transform this world of ours, this society in the Kingdom of God.

-        Each one putting his/her gifts and the little we have, like the boy who had only 2 fish and five loaves, and with this Jesus fed the multitude.

-        If we give the little we have to the Lord for the good of our brothers and sisters, it multiplies to feed all and still there are leftovers.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM: Ps. 47

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 Father of Lord  Jesus     

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

o   May enlighten the eyes of our heart to know

§  What is the hope that belongs to his call  

§  What are the riches of his glory, the inheritance among the holy ones, destined to be distributed to the members of the Church, and among all the men and women of good will who seek God without knowing Him, but with a sincere heart.     

o   So we may experience his power in our life

o   Which is the same power that the Father has revealed in the resurrection of Jesus from among 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.  

o   Alonso Schökel asks a question in his commentary, a question which we may keep and meditate in our hearts over and over again: Does Paul mean that the Church is more than an earthly reality, being already united to Christ in his triumph and in his glory, being already inhabited by the fullness of the divinity? 

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

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 sincere conversation with the Lord.

o   Am I aware that the Church is not the reunion of members of a club o an association, that she does not exist by our will but that she is the Body of Christ and each one of the baptized is part of this Body. Body led by the Spirit of Jesus.  

GOSPEL  Matthew 28:16-40

Ø  Matthew writes at the end of his gospel the missionary commission of the apostles by Jesus. 

Ø  The eleven, the new born Church, has gone to Galilee 

Ø  In the morning of the resurrection Jesus had commissioned the women to go and tell his disciples to go to Galilee, there they would see him. 

Ø  Why Galilee and not Judea where they were?  

Ø  Galilee was the place of their first encounter with Jesus, we could call it “their first love” when they got excited about the young rabbi who proclaimed a kingdom of love, peace and fraternity, they were excited about him and about his project.   The young rabbi who associated himself with the marginalized of society, the poor, the sick, the sinners, those who do not count, and those “discarded.”

Ø  Now after all that had happened with the crucifixion of Jesus, their cowardice, their leaving him alone, Jesus invites them to go back, we could say to go back home. 

Ø  They go to Galilee, when he comes in their midst, they adore him, although some still doubt  

o   In the Gospels and in the Acts we see how the community of the followers, after the resurrection, gives to Jesus the honor due to God, they adore him.  

o   It is interesting what Matthew says, “they doubted” why? They doubted because the joy was so overwhelming that they could not believe it to be true? They doubted because they did not believe it was he. 

o   We do not know, but certainly, this sentence from Matthew is uplifting for us, the followers of the XXI century, we doubt also during the journey of our life, we doubt about our relationship with Him. 

Ø  The fact that they doubt is not an obstacle for Jesus to send them. We are sent in spite of our doubts, our infidelities, our laziness, and our many temptations against our mission as missionaries.  Our brothers and sisters doctors and nurses and the other persons who take care of those stricken by the pandemic, doubt also, they are also afraid, they are tired but they continue caring for the sick. This is the response Jesus wants from us in any situation we find ourselves.

Ø  The one who sends us is Jesus and his will is not conditioned by our feelings or our actions. 

Ø  As a consequence of our baptism we have been sent 

o   Go and make disciples, that is to say, inspire others to follow me 

o   Not to a select group, but to all the nations, no one is excluded from this proclamation, from this happiness; we cannot put obstacles with our life to what Jesus wants: all the nations. 

o   Once they had become disciples, once they had gotten excited and are ready to follow me, baptize them in the name of the Trinity, in the name of God.   

o   That is, submerging them into the waters of life, which is to be deeply submerged in the life of our God. 

o   Teach them all that I have taught you. What we have to teach is what Jesus has taught us and the Spirit with his light explains to us, as John says in his Gospel “the Spirit will remind you all that I have taught you.” 

o   If this responsibility frightens us, if we think that we cannot do it, let us continue to listen to Jesus who says to us 

o   I AM WITH YOU UNTIL THE END OF HISTORY, THE END OF TIME. 

Ø  No fears, no laziness, no excuses the Risen Jesus who sends us is also always with us and journeys with us. 

Ø  THANK YOU  Lord to be the Emmanuel, God with us, as the angel had said to Joseph who doubted when he knew that Mary was pregnant, do not fear he will be called Emmanuel, that is, God-is-with-us. 

 CLARETIAN CORNER 

María Antonia presents with great simplicity, and sometimes even with little order, her intuitions on how   the Reformation of the Church should be, and who should do it. 

Claret kept with him these two Notebooks, and we realize the value they had for him, since he included them at the end of his Autobiography.  We have a written evidence in two letters of Father Clotet .

The text has two introductions, in which María Antonia explains the reason for writing the Notes on the Reformation.  Two parts follow: the first part on who has to do the Reformation and how the Reformation has to be . The second part  is the Rules for the Apostolic Missionaries.   There is a conclusion  in which she explains that she has written in obedience. She also mentions her hopes in the new institute. (Paris and Claret. Two Pens Guided by the Same Spirit, pp. 73-74 )

The document has an outline easy to follow, due to its interconnection, order and coherence.  

It begins with a Prologue in which Claret explains that he has been motivated to print again this work, by the positive reactions of several bishops on receiving the first edition.  He makes them believe that this is his own personal Plan used in his service to the Diocese of Santiago de Cuba.  

A long Introduction follows. We find in this introduction doctrinal, theological and apologetic elements, which come before giving the counsels, and the practical pastoral strategies.  We are surprised that in a writing of this nature, addressed to his brothers Bishops, he starts with a profession of faith in Christ and in the Church.  This has an explanation due to the situation   they were experiencing, especially in France. This country presented itself to the world as a model of the new civilization based on the motto (theme?) of the French Revolution: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. With the Revolution, France wants to begin a new period of its history.   Some French Bishops, in particular Govel, Constitutional Bishop of Paris, rejects Christ for the Revolution. Rationalism gave the primacy of reason over faith.  (Paris and Claret. Two Pens Guided by the Same Spirit, pp. 103)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MUÑOZ, Hortensia and TUTZO, Regina, Claretian Missionaries. Paris and Claret, Two Pens Guided by the Same Spirit. 2010.

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.