OT XII [C] Zec 12:10-11, 13: 1; Gal 3:26-29; Lk 9:18-24 

When Jesus was praying with his disciples he felt like he should check his disciples’ knowledge of who he was. Realizing that if his disciples did not know who he really was, his entire ministry, suffering and death would be useless. Hence, he decided to ask a question in two parts.

He first asked them about what people thought about him and then he asked them what they thought about him. Recognizing that they did not have a right understanding of him, he reveals to them who he was. He told them he is the one who was prophesied, the one who will be pierced to death as mentioned in the first reading in Zachariah. He stresses his need of suffering and death on the cross.

He then lays down the conditions of service for those who would follow Him. He says, "If anyone wishes to come after me, [then] he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me."  He affirms, explicitly and uncompromisingly, that all his followers must  “take up the cross”; we must accept suffering in this life.

The Church has decreed that above each of her altars there should be a crucifix. The crucifix is a depiction of humiliation, torture, pain, and death.  Why such pride of place for such a cruel reality? Christ dying on the cross was the perfect sacrifice offered to God in loving atonement for our sins and the sins of all people (2Cor 5:15). 

With his arms stretched wide and raised between heaven and earth, Christ reconciled us to God and bridged the gulf opened by sin. If we want to go over that bridge and make our way to eternal life in communion with God, which is the only thing that can make us truly happy, we too must pass through the cross. We must follow the footsteps of our Lord: suffering, self-denial, opposition, humiliation, and difficulty. We may even have to lose the “whole world”, like so many saints and martyrs, in order to gain the truly abundant “life.” Many prosperity preachers of the day speak against the place of suffering in life. They say God wants to bless you with worldly riches in this life and he does not want you to suffer at all in this life. Suffering is undesirable they say. This is not what Jesus says when he says to follow him taking up his cross.

Suffering, when we bear it with faith and unite it to Christ's suffering, is like the oven that cooks saints, the fire that purifies our hearts of selfishness.

This helps explain why euthanasia is so wrong. Euthanasia is also sometimes called mercy-killing, or dying with dignity. Human euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Colombia, and Luxembourg. Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Albania, Canada, and in the US, states of Washington, Oregon, Vermont, Montana, and California. The Catechism makes very clear that it is always an evil act: "Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable" (#2277).

The Catechism also makes clear that: "Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate; it is the refusal of ‘over-zealous’ treatment. “Here one does not will to cause death; one's inability to impede it is merely accepted" (#2278). In some situations, drawing the line between normal and over-zealous treatment is difficult. At those times, we need to get good advice, pray, and trust that God will guide us. But the main point is clear: suffering, even terrible suffering, does not take away the value or dignity of a human life. Suffering is part of life in a fallen world.

God allows it and uses it to teach us wisdom, compassion, patience, humility, and many other things, and to let us participate in his cross.  It's different for animals. They are not created in the image and likeness of God. They are not able to know, love, and praise God in this life and enjoy him forever in the next. That's why it's perfectly acceptable to put an animal to death when its physical condition has made its life useless or unbearable.

A human life is never useless, and Christ has made sure that, united to him by faith, no amount of pain will ever become unbearable. To die with dignity means to live with dignity for as long as God, the author of life and creator of every human being, wishes to keep us on this earth, whether in comfort or in pain

The cross, when we carry it with Christ, is like a stopwatch in the hands of an expert coach: it pushes us out of our comfort zone so that we can develop our spiritual potential to the full.

The great St. Augustine put it clearly: “There is more courage in a man who faces rather than flees the storms of life, and who holds cheap the opinion of men...

Are we ready to take up our crosses and follow Jesus? Do we have enough Faith to offer up a genuine sacrifice for Christ's sake? A true disciple asks, "Am I willing to sacrifice something for the Kingdom?"  Today let’s ask the Lord for the grace to deepen our Christian life by following the way of Jesus to the Cross and victory.

OT XI : II Sm 12:7-10, 13; Gal 2:16, 19-21; Lk 7:36 -- 8: 3

In his book, Healing for Damaged Emotions, David Seamonds deals with people who have scars that nobody else can see. He uses the analogy of those beautiful giant sequoia and redwood trees in the far western part of this country: "In most of the parks," says Seamonds, "the naturalists can show you a cross section of a great tree they have cut, and point out that the rings of the tree reveal the developmental history, year by year. Here's a ring that represents a year when there was a terrible drought. Here are a couple of rings from years when there was too much rain. Here's where the tree was struck by lightning. Here are some normal years of growth. This ring shows a forest fire that almost destroyed the tree. Here's another of savage blight and disease. All of this lies embedded in the heart of the tree, representing the autobiography of its growth. "And that's the way it is with us," Seamonds continues. "Just a few minutes beneath the protective bark, the concealing, protective mask, are the recorded rings of our lives.  "In the rings of our thoughts and emotions, the record is there; the memories are recorded, and all are alive. And they directly and deeply affect our concepts, our feelings, our relationships. They affect the way we look at life and God, at others and ourselves." (2) If we could look into the heart of this woman described in today’s Gospel, we might not be so harsh in our judgment of her. What brought her to such a wretched position in life? Was she abused as a child? Did poverty lead her into this?

The whole theme of today’s reading is God's mercy. The common theme of God's unbelievable mercy ties together the first reading about King David's plea for forgiveness for his terrible sin of murder and adultery, and the Gospel about the sinful woman who throws herself on the mercy of Jesus as He dines at the house of Simon the Pharisee. Pope Francis has said that Jesus is "the face of God's mercy."

Our God is a God Who always tries, not to punish, but to rehabilitate sinners, so that we may be made whole and experience inner peace and harmony.

Why did a Pharisee like Simon invite Jesus to his house?  It could be that Simon had invited Jesus with the deliberate intention of enticing him into some word or action which could then be made the basis of a charge against him.  More likely, Simon was a collector of celebrities and with a half-patronizing contempt had invited the young Galilean to have a meal with him.  That would best explain the strange combination of respect along with the omission of the usual courtesies.

Jewish good manners demanded that when an invited guest entered such a house of banquet, three things were always done. a) The host placed his hand on the guest's shoulder and gave him the kiss of peace. That was a mark of respect, which was never omitted in the case of a distinguished Rabbi. b) Since the roads were only dust tracks, and shoes were merely soles held in place by straps across the foot, cool water was poured over the guest's feet to cleanse and comfort them. c) Either a pinch of sweet-smelling incense was burned or a drop of attar of roses was placed on the guest's head.

The uninvited guest: According to social customs of the ancient Near Eastern world, dining rooms -- especially those of the rich and famous -- were left open to the public.  Uninvited guests and curious onlookers could pass in and out of the room at will.  This explains how the public sinner got inside.  What shocked Simon and surprised other eminent guests was the uninvited entry of a public prostitute.  She was carrying an alabaster flask of concentrated, costly perfumed ointment, her hair was unbound and she chose to make what was considered an excessive show of repentance and love. The woman thought she would offer the precious perfume to Jesus and ask for the forgiveness of her grave sins in public.

A parable of criticism and teaching: The rabbinical teaching said prostitutes should be kept at a distance of two yards. While Simon silently condemned Jesus for not divining the character of the woman, Jesus proved himself to be a prophet by reading the secret thoughts of Simon. Jesus then presented the parable of the two debtors to Simon, asking him, which person loved the merciful creditor more:  the one who owed five hundred denarii or the one who only owed fifty. Through this parable Jesus defended and justified the good intentions of the woman who had publicly demonstrated her true repentance. He also criticized the rude and inhospitable behavior of his host who had prided himself on his strict observance of the Mosaic Law. Thus Jesus demonstrates correct understanding of forgiveness and justification. The verse "She has shown great love" has become a classic text for showing that perfect charity has the power of forgiving sins: Jesus first loved the woman and she responded to his love by loving him back in this full surrender.

We are challenged to accept or reject the mercy of God. We often share Simon’s mentality, displaying an attitude of lovelessness and harshness.   Let us remember that Simon’s self-sufficiency prevented him from acknowledging his need for the grace of God. 

King David reacted to the rebuke of Nathan with great humility. He realized his sin, repented of it and lamented, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Then Nathan said to David, The Lord, for his part, forgives you.”

We need to be grateful to our forgiving God: As the repentant sinner showed her gratitude to Jesus by anointing his feet with tears and precious ointment, we, too, should show gratitude to God for unconditionally and repeatedly pardoning our sins. This is possible only if we try our best to keep the promises we make in our act of contrition in confession "to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin.” Our sincere attempts to avoid the occasions of sin will be proof of our sincere repentance and the expression of our gratitude to the merciful God who has forgiven our sins.

We need to cultivate a forgiving attitude towards our neighbor: Although it is not easy, we must learn to forgive those who hurt us if we want to be able to receive the daily forgiveness we need from a merciful God. We start forgiving when we try our best to patch up quarrels, misunderstandings and disagreements and pray for the well-being of our offenders. Let’s pray that in this year of Mercy, we may be merciful to others who offend us, just as God is merciful to me.

OT X [C]: I Kgs 17:17-24; Gal 1:11-19; Lk 7: 11-17

A number of years ago the New York Daily News carried a story about a television news anchorwoman named Pat Harper who left her luxurious East Side apartment with 80 cents in her pocket and spent five days living on the street "to learn what it's like to be homeless." Harper spent the days wandering the streets in the icy January rain and her nights sleeping in doorways, train stations and public shelters. She began to realize that most of the homeless people were not much different than she. Several people helped, giving her food and advice on how to survive without money. The undercover investigation made her realize that many homeless are simply normal people who have been hit with financial problems from which they have not been able to rebound. There was no other way to know how they felt than for this successful media person to walk where the homeless walk.

There is another who left comfort and convenience to walk where the outcasts walk. When he saw the widow of Nain, he could probably see his own mother in the shoes of this widow, a few months later what his own mother would be going through when he will be dying on the cross.  And he saw wanted to help the poor widow by bringing her son back to life.

The central theme of today’s readings is that, in a world of broken hearts, God sees and cares for us in our grief. He shows compassion on our miseries and gives us His healing touch.

The first reading, taken from I Kings 17, shows us how our merciful God uses His prophet Elijah to resuscitate the only the son of the poor widow of Zarephath who had given the prophet accommodation in her house during a famine. Tragically her only son became very ill and stopped breathing. In utter desperation and anger the poor widow struck out at Elijah, as if somehow this were his fault.   Grief often gives rise to misplaced anger, and hurting people hurt other people.  This woman was hurting, and so she struck out at Elijah. Elijah realized that it was his turn to help her in her tragedy. And he prays to God and He brought him back to life.

Today's Gospel presents one of the three accounts in the Gospel of Jesus’ raising of a dead person to life. The other stories are those of Lazarus and of Jairus, the synagogue leader’s daughter. Today's story is found only in Luke. Meeting a funeral procession coming out of the village of Nain, Jesus was visibly moved at the sight of the weeping widow going with the town to bury her only son.

This woman had lost her husband, now she has lost her only son – she is alone, suffering without hope. No one asked him to perform this miracle; he took the initiative to intervene.

The Christian God is not a God who remains aloof: he does not keep his distance; he cares too much about us, in spite of our sinfulness, weakness, and brokenness. Sometimes we feel like we are suffering alone, as if God doesn’t care. Sometimes Christ seems far away, because he doesn’t give us the miracle we long for. But that is not what we find in the Bible.

The whole gospel gives witness to the compassion and care of Jesus for sick and tired. Mark 8:1-4 gives the account of Jesus healing a leper who was suffering. Verse 25-35 recounts the account of Jesus healing a woman with hemorrhage. Jn 5:1-18 relates the story of Jesus healing a man who was paralyzed for 38 years. Mark 6:30-32 tells how Jesus took his tired disciples to a deserted place away from the crowd so that they could have some rest. John 21:9 tells us how Jesus prepared a breakfast for the disciples who had been tired from fishing all night. All these reveal the tender compassion of Jesus for people.

We don’t see Jesus in the Gospel episode as a remote Divine Being, but as somebody close to us, sharing our loss and sorrow. Jesus’ raising of the widow’s son was also a sign of the spiritual resurrection offered to all people. Jesus is showing concern about the need for us to be spiritually alive here and now.

We can also offer our broken hearts to Jesus: We need to bring our deepest hurts and broken relationships to Jesus and experience how he reaches out to us to grant us his loving reconciliation. Let us invite Jesus to transform the most difficult situations in our life. 

We need to become channels of God’s compassion and healing love as Jesus was. Our deeds of love will transform the broken-hearted and help them to experience God as the Father who has come among His people. We must ask God for the grace to be like Christ for the others in our daily lives. Those who saw St. Francis of Assisi, for instance, were also seeing Jesus in him. Saints are those who carry Jesus in their words and deeds, imitating his way of doing things and his goodness. Our society need saints, and we can each be one in our own environment. Those who hurt also need comfort, and again, it is our responsibility to offer that comfort. As our Lord comforted this woman, let us comfort others (Galatians 6:2, Romans 12:15). And thus let’s be his hands and heart to others.

Cycle C The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Gen 14:18-20; I Cor 11:23-26; Lk 9:11-17

The Pelican is excessively dedicated to its young one. The pelican collects small fish and stores in the pouch at its neck. In the process of feeding them the bird presses the pouch against its neck. There is a reddish tinge at its breast plumage and redness at the tip of its beak.   All these specialties of the pelican have given rise to a legend of the Pelican feeding its young with its own blood.

The mother Pelican pierces its breast, opens her side and lays herself across her young pouring out her blood over the young. The young ones feed on the mother’s blood and revive strength and come back to life. This symbol of pelican was used by the medieval church to indicate the sacrifice of Jesus.

Today we are celebrating the feast of the Body and blood of Christ. The Council of Trent (1545 to 1563), declared that we must honor Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist publicly so that those who observed the faith of Catholics in the Most Holy Eucharist might be attracted to the Eucharistic Lord and believe in the Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, present in this great Sacrament. "

Jesus instituted the Eucharist in deliberate allusion to, and fulfillment of, what happened on Mount Sinai.  He replaced Moses as the God-chosen mediator, establishing the New Covenant promised through the prophet Jeremiah (Jer 31:31-34), by using his own Blood rather than that of sacrificial animals.  By sacramentally consuming the Body and Blood of the God-Man, we are interiorly transformed through the most perfect possible union with God.  Jesus creates a faithful people intimately united with God by means of his sacramental Blood.

We experienced our mother first as a source of food, and through that visible channel we experienced her as a source of love.  God is mothering us, attracting us, trying to tame us frightened creatures.  How do we tame an animal?  By feeding it.  Gradually the animal begins to trust us, begins to believe in our goodwill.  We were (and maybe we still are) like little frightened animals.  We have to be tamed into human society.  Love is invisible and needs a visible channel.  That visible channel is originally food.  This wisdom of the body is taken up and exalted in the Eucharist.  The food which is the Eucharist has the deepest significance.  It is about our relationship with God, the ultimate womb from which our existence came. 

At the heart of that relationship, for Christians, is Jesus.  The great 14th-century mystic, Julian of Norwich, not only called God our ‘mother’, but she called Jesus our mother!  This may seem very strange, even weird.  But she had profound reasons for saying it.  She did not mean that Jesus is like our mother!  She meant the reverse: our mother is like Jesus!  Our mother fed us from her own body.  Our mother’s care for us may well be the best image we have of God  -  and of Jesus.

From the time of the election of the Israelites God’s presence was manifested in various ways among them. Moses received 10 commandments on Mount Sinai. As he brought it to the people they made a Tabernacle and placed the Tablets in it. The presence of God lingered over the tabernacle.

Jesus at his departure instituted the Eucharist to continue his presence with his people. St Francis of Assisi who had a profound experience of Jesus declared, "Just as He appeared before the holy Apostles in true flesh, so now He has us see Him in the Sacred Bread. For in this way our Lord is ever present among those who believe in him, according to what He said: "Behold, I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world." (Mt. 28, 20)

When we receive the Holy Communion we become the tabernacle where Jesus is present. So Maximilian Kolbe says, ‘If angels could be jealous of men, they would be so for one reason: Holy Communion.” Hence, it is binding on us that we should keep the tabernacle, ourselves, holy.  St Francis de Sales preached to the people, “When you have received Him, stir up your heart to do Him homage, welcome Him as warmly as possible, and behave outwardly in such a way that your actions may give proof to all of His Presence.”

Vatican II states that as a sacrifice, "the Holy Eucharist is the center and culmination of Christian life" (Lumen Gentium, 11).   Because it enables us to participate in Christ’s sacrifice as a present reality and to benefit from its fruits in our own lives. 

By receiving Holy Communion we become Christ-bearers as Mary was, with the duty of conveying Christ to others at home and in the workplace, as love, mercy, forgiveness and sacrificial service. As we honor Jesus today on this Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Jesus, let us devote more time before the Blessed sacrament and draw strength and consolation in our troubling moments. And let’s us adore Jesus with St. Thomas Aquinas' prayer of devotion in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament:  "O Sacrament most holy! O Sacrament Divine! All praise and all thanksgiving be every moment Thine!" 

Holy Trinity: Proverbs 8:22-31; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15

One day St Augustine of Hippo was walking along the sea shore and reflecting on the doctrine of the Trinity. He suddenly saw a little child all alone on the shore. The child made a hole in the sand, ran to the sea with a little cup, filled her cup, came and poured it into the hole she had made in the sand. Back and forth she went to the sea, filled her cup and came and poured it into the hole. Augustine went up to her and said, "Little child, what are you doing?" and she replied, "I am trying to empty the sea into this hole." "How do you think," Augustine asked her, "that you can empty this immense sea into this tiny hole and with this tiny cup?" To which she replied, " And you, how do you suppose that with this your small head you can comprehend the immensity of God?" With that the child disappeared. Augustine was pondering the mystery of Holy Trinity those days.

Like Augustine we may not be able to understand the mystery of the Trinity. But we can describe the mystery, in the words of the Athanasian Creed: "the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, and yet there are not three Gods but one God." Jesus knew very well that the disciples and his listeners were not able to understand the meaning of his message. Jesus expressed it in today’s Gospel. "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." Jesus revealed himself to the people gradually and as understandable to them. First he taught them to recognize in himself the Eternal Son of God. When his ministry was drawing to a close, he promised that the Father would send another Divine Person, the Holy Spirit, in his place. Finally after his resurrection, he revealed the doctrine in explicit terms, bidding them "go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matthew 28:18)."

The Fathers of the Church used examples to explain the Trinity. Augustine wrote: "You see the Trinity if you see love."  According to him, the Father is the lover, the Son is the loved one and the Holy Spirit is the personification of the very act of loving. This means that we can understand something of the Mystery of the Holy Trinity more readily with the heart than with our feeble mind.

St. Cyril tried to explain the Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity using sun as an example.    He said, "God the Father is that blazing sun. God the Son is its light and God the Holy Spirit is its heat — but there is only one sun. So there are three Persons in the Holy Trinity but God is One and indivisible." St. John Maria Vianney used to explain Holy Trinity using lighted candles and roses on the altar and water in the cruets. “The flame has color, warmth and shape. But these are expressions of one flame. Similarly the rose has color, fragrance and shape. But these are expressions of one reality, namely, rose. Water, steam and ice are three distinct expressions of one reality. In the same way one God revealed Himself to us as Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.”

What each of these illustrations has in common is that they are all analogies, and all our language about God can only hint at the reality never grasp or contain God in one image.

The doctrine of the Trinity underlies all major Christian feasts, including Christmas, the Epiphany, Good Friday, Easter, the Ascension and Pentecost. All the official prayers of the Church, including the Holy Mass and the Sacraments, begin with an address to the Holy Trinity: “In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” We are baptized, absolved of our sins and anointed in the name of the Blessed Trinity. We bless ourselves with the Sign of the Cross invoking the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and we conclude our prayers glorifying the Holy Trinity, saying “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.” 

We are called to become more like the Triune God through all our relationships.  God does not exist in isolated individualism but in a community of relationships.  We are made in God’s image and likeness.  Just as God is God only in a Trinitarian relationship, so we can be fully human only as one member of a relationship of three partners.  The self needs to be in a horizontal relationship with all other people and in a vertical relationship with God.  In that way our life becomes Trinitarian like that of God. 

The more deeply we ponder and absorb this revelation of God, the more we will love him. And the more we love God, the happier we will be. We were created in order to love God. Whenever we do what we were made to do, we experience meaning and fulfillment. So the more we love him, the more fulfilled we will be. But in order to love him more, we must know him better. An old proverb says, "You cannot love what you do not know."

If we know who God is, if we go beyond vague, fuzzy ideas and really get a clear view of his glory and his goodness, it will stimulate our spiritual taste buds and stir up our love. This is the reason that God has revealed himself to us. Today, on this feast of the Blessed Trinity, we need to ask ourselves: how well do we know God? Have we become satisfied with the bare minimum? Today, when we profess our faith in God, let's really mean it. And let's ask God to stir up our desire to know him better, because if we really want to do so, he will gladly show us how to do so.

PENTECOST:C-.2016

Bishop Bob Morgan in his book Who’s Coming To Dinner? tells a powerful story about a Dutch pastor and his family who during the second World War got into big trouble with the Nazis. The Dutch pastor and his family had been hiding Jewish people in their home to keep them safe from Hitler’s forces. They were eventually found out. And one night in the darkness, they heard the sound of heavy boots and the loud impatient knocking on the door. They were arrested and loaded into a cattle car to be taken to one of the notorious death camps. All night long the Dutch pastor and his family rode along in heart-breaking anguish, jostling against one another and against the other prisoners who were jammed into the train cattle car. They were stripped of any form of dignity and absolutely terrified. They knew they were being taken to one of Hitler’s extermination centers. But which one? Would it be Auschwitz, Buchenwald, or Dachau?

Finally, the long night ended and the train stopped. The doors of the cattle car were opened and light streamed into that tragic scene. They were marched out and were lined up beside the railroad tracks, resigned to unspeakable pain, as they knew they would be separated from each other and ultimately killed. But in the midst of their gloom, they discovered some amazing good news… good news beyond belief. They discovered in the bright morning sunlight that they were not in a death camp at all, not in Germany at all. Rather, they were in Switzerland!

During the night, someone through personal courage and daring had tripped a switch… and sent the train to Switzerland… and to freedom. And those now who came to them were not their captors at all, but rather their liberators. Instead of being marched to death, they were welcomed to new life. In the midst of his joy and relief, the Dutch pastor said, “What do you do with such a gift?”

Something like that happened to the disciples at Pentecost. They were afraid, confused, unsure, overwhelmed… and then came this incredible gift… the gift of the Holy Spirit! It turned their lives around… and empowered by this amazing gift, they went out and turned the world upside down.

Today’s Gospel relates how the risen Jesus gave his apostles a foretaste of Pentecost on the evening of Easter Sunday by appearing to them and inviting them  to carry on the mission given him by his Heavenly Father. He then empowered them to do so by breathing upon them and saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” 

On the day of Pentecost, Jesus fulfilled his promise to send the Advocate or Paraclete. The gift of the Spirit would enable them to fulfill Jesus’ commission to preach the Gospel to all nations as well. Therefore they were given the gift of tongue to speak to people of all languages.

The Tower of Babel story begins with unity (same language, same words) and ends with disunity (confusion of speech, scattering all over the earth). The people built “a city and tower with its top in the sky,” a figurative way to describe human folly, wanting to be more than what humans can really do. This action results in confusion of language and dispersion of people.

Reader’s Digest once carried a wonderful story of a mother who was describing her family’s visit as tourists to Wales. She was describing her six-year-old son’s reaction the first time he heard the Welsh language being spoken. “Mom,” he said, “it sounds like they’re scribbling with their tongues.” This was the condition of the people of Babel felt about each other.

The story of Pentecost in Acts 2:1 – 11 reverses what the people in the Babel story had done, it begins with people coming from every nation under heaven and speaking different languages.  It ends with people filled with the Spirit still speaking in different tongues, yet united and able to hear different languages yet unmistakably understand the mighty acts of God.

The Holy Spirit helped breaking down barriers. Barriers are things like fear, misunderstanding, prejudice, jealously, envy, resentment, grudges. These are at the root of all the conflicts that threaten world peace. But all those large scale conflicts can always be traced back to conflicts in individual hearts. If we learn to break down barriers in our own hearts, we will become more effective builders of unity in the world around us. One of the barriers that come up most frequently in our daily lives is that of misunderstanding. This is also known as "lack of communication" or "miscommunication".

An international business consulting firm did a study a few years ago about the most common obstacles to productivity. They concluded that over 85% of problems in the business world stem from miscommunication. In family relationships, the percentage is even higher. Jesus has given us the method for breaking down this ubiquitous barrier. He was able to break down mankind's misunderstanding of God and open the way for a renewed relationship of trust. Breathing on the disciples he gave them the power to forgive sins. Forgiveness of sins is an important aspect of restoring communication in our relationships. In this Year of Mercy, we invoke the Holy Spirit to intensify in us His gifts of joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. 

It is important to gain a renewed appreciation of the Spirit as the One who builds the Kingdom of God within the course of history and within our own life.

Today is a great day to ask the Holy Spirit to rekindle in us the spirit of new life and enthusiasm, the fire of God's love and communication.  Let us repeat Cardinal Newman’s favorite little prayer, “Come Holy Spirit:”

 “Come Holy Spirit
Make our ears to hear
Make our eyes to see
Make our mouths to speak
Make our hearts to seek
Make our hands to reach out
And touch the world with your love.  AMEN.”

The Ascension Acts 1:1-11; Eph 1:17-23; Lk 24:46-53

Today’s readings describe the Ascension of Jesus into his Heavenly glory after he had promised to send the Holy Spirit as the source of Heavenly power for his disciples and commanded them to bear witness to him through their lives and preaching throughout the world.  The Ascension and Pentecost, together, mark the beginning of the Church.  The feast of the Ascension tells us that the Church must be a community in mission, guided by God’s Spirit and confident of God’s protection even amid suffering and death.

Each Sunday we profess through the Creed, "He ascended into Heaven."  Christ’s Ascension was the culmination of God’s Divine plan for Christ Jesus – his return to his Father with his “Mission Accomplished."  Ascension is the grand finale of all his words and of the works He has done for us and for our salvation.  It is a culmination, but not the conclusion.  As he is now with God in glory, he is now with us in Spirit: "Lo, I am with you always." The feast of the Ascension celebrates one aspect of the Resurrection, namely Jesus’ exaltation.  He did not wait 40 days to be glorified at God’s right hand. That had already happened at his Resurrection. 

The Ascension is most closely related, in meaning, to Christmas.  In Jesus, the human and the Divine become united in the person and life of one man.  That's Christmas.  At the Ascension, this human being – the person and the resurrected body of Jesus – became for all eternity a part of who God is.  It was not the Spirit of Jesus or the Divine Nature of Jesus that ascended to the Father.  It was the Risen living Body of Jesus: a Body that the disciples had touched, a Body in which He Himself  had eaten and drunk with them both before and after His Resurrection, a real, physical, but gloriously restored Body, bearing the marks of nails and a spear.  This is what, and Who, ascended.  This is what, now and forever, is a living, participating part of God. That is what the Ascension, along with the Incarnation, is here to tell us – that it is a good thing to be a human being; indeed it is a wonderful and an important and a holy thing to be a human being.

The apostles aren’t sad at the leave taking of Jesus. Think of the children you see at the county fair who lose the grip on their helium balloon and, as it floats away, they weep. Then turn to the parent, saying, “Buy me another one. Buy me another one.” It’s not like that with Jesus’ apostles. They don’t feel abandoned. The Scripture says they did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God. Under Jesus’ blessing hands this small group of Christians who see Jesus ascend to heaven is the nucleus of God’s worshiping church, a nucleus as strong and powerful as the nucleus of any atom.

In today's Gospel, Jesus gives his mission to all the believers: "Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.” This mission is not given to a select few but to all believers. To be a Christian is to be a proclaimer and an evangelizer. There is a difference between preaching and proclaiming. “We preach with words but we proclaim with our lives.”

After attending a convention led by Billy Graham a woman wrote to him. “Dear Sir, I feel that God is calling me to preach the Gospel. But the trouble is that I have twelve children. What shall I do?” The televangelist replied: “Dear Madam, I am delighted to hear that God has called you to preach the Gospel. I am even more delighted to hear that He has already provided you with a congregation in your own home.” We are called to begin the preaching in the small community we live in and then go out to the rest of the world.

As we celebrate the Lord’s return to His Father in Heaven – His Ascension -- we are being commissioned to go forth and proclaim the Gospel of life and love, of hope and peace, by the witness of our lives. On this day of hope, encouragement and commissioning, let us renew our commitment to be true disciples everywhere we go, beginning with our family and our parish, "living in a manner worthy of the call [we] have received.”