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THE SON OF MAN ASCENDS IN GLORY

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THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD Act 1:1-11; Ps 47:2-3,6-9; Eph 1:17-23; Lk 24:46-53 The Ascension of the Lord into Heaven According to Saint Leo the Great in his homily, the forty days that passed between the resurrection of the Lord and his ascension into heaven were moments of enactment of the mysteries of Jesus Christ in the minds of the apostles and disciples of the Lord. At his various appearances to them, he blessed and opened their minds to understand the mysteries as the scriptures foretold them. The understanding of these mysteries or faith in Jesus Christ is necessary for the reception of the Holy Spirit and their incorporation into the mystical body of Christ. The risen Lord merely laid the foundation of these mysteries, for their depth is profound, and promised that the Holy Spirit will guide them into complete knowledge. The question they put to him as he was about to ascend to heaven showed they were still far from understanding the import of the mysteries and what they s...
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LIVING AND MOVING IN GOD

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WEDNESDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTER Act 17:15,22-18:1; Ps 148:1-2,11-14; Jn 16:12-15 In Him We Live, Move, and Exist The resurrection of Jesus Christ opened a new way of attending or approaching God. It is a new way and an ancient way at the same time, for God, who made us in his image, intended us to walk the spiritual way of the word of God to the knowledge of God. By the original fall, men turned away from the sacred way to God by disbelieving God and disregarding his word. By the original sin of Adam and Eve, the human race turned away from the way from the beginning and chose the tortious way of death and darkness. “And the Lord God commanded the man saying, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’” With the human race turned away from the path of the word of God, which is a spiritual path, the only way left for us is the physical way, which is fraught w...
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SHARING THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

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  TUESDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTER Act 16:22-34; Ps 138:1-3,7-8; Jn 16:5-11 Sharing in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ In the opening prayer, the Church prays to God for us to share in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But we know we must die to have a share in the resurrection. Saint Paul writes about this when he informs us that the death of Jesus Christ was at work in his life as the life of Jesus was also at work in him. The ritual of our baptism presented this understanding clearly to us. We die in our profession of faith in Jesus Christ, for we profess faith in his death and resurrection at our baptism. Our immersion in the water showed our belief in his death for us. The death he died for us, that we may no longer live for ourselves, but for him who died for us and came back to life. Hence, our coming out of the water signifies our readiness to embrace the new life of resurrection, a heavenly life that commences with the coming of the Holy Spirit into our souls. So, what...
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CULTIVATING FRIENDSHIP WITH THE TRUTH

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  ST PHILIP NERI, PRIEST Act 16:15-15; Ps 149:1-6,9; Jn 15:26-16:4 Familiarity with the Truth Our Lord Jesus Christ states that the Father is the one who draws anyone who comes to believe in him. We have also explained how the Father draws us through the human nature he gave us. By nature, we have a propensity for the word of God, for God made us the temple of the Eternal Word. The Father gave us a rational nature that can know natural truths and live them out. He draws us by this natural propensity for the truth of the word of God and other natural truths commensurate to our nature. Hence, our coming to Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word, does not start on the day we hear the Gospel but happens daily as we receive the truths in our daily living and live faithful to what we know to be true. The daily openness to the truth makes us disciples of the Eternal Word even before we encounter him in the Gospel. Our faithfulness in little things prepares us to be faithful in higher thin...
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REMAINING IN THE JOY OF RESURRECTION

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SUNDAY, SIXTH WEEK OF EASTER Act 15:1-2,22-29; Ps 67:2-3,5-6,8; Rev 21:10-14,22-23; Jn 14:23-29 Paying Attention to the Resurrection The resurrection of the Son of Man launched our participation in the life of God. What the Incarnation of the Eternal Word started was opened to the general human race at the resurrection. Because God sacrificed the Lamb for us, God has taken away our sins, which was the hindrance to our participation in the life of the Trinity. Subsequently, we see men become the dwelling place of God through the Holy Spirit. The work of salvation of the human race was accomplished solely by God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Our point of entrance into the communion of the Trinity is the Son of Man. Faith in his life, death, and resurrection brings each person into the membership of his body. His humanity is our way to this communion. Hence, those closest to him during his ministry in the flesh whom he appointed as his apostles have the primacy of place....
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LOVE SEPARATES US FROM THE WORLD

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SATURDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTER Act 16:1-10; Ps 100:1-3,5; Jn 15:18-21 Christ’s Love separates us from the World As we read yesterday from Acts of Apostles, the decision of the Council of the Church held in Jerusalem aimed at reminding the Christians of their consecration to God through Jesus Christ. So, all the Council asked them to abstain from were things or behaviours capable of lessening their consecration or their consciousness of that fact. Our consecration to God through the Son of Man is the core message of the Gospel that we must not compromise. Nevertheless, Saint Paul’s action in the passage today shows that a good understanding of the Law of Moses does not remove from the Christian consecration to God in Jesus Christ. The law of circumcision, as a sacrament of the promise made to Abraham, leads to Jesus Christ as the fulfilment of the promise. Hence, we see Paul circumcise Timothy at Lystra to avoid causing unnecessary squabble with the Jews, which would prevent him f...
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THE POWER OF THE MYSTERIES TO SAVE

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FRIDAY, FIFTH WEEK OF EASTER Act 15:22-31; Ps 57:8-12; Jn 15:12-17 Salvific Power in the Mysteries of Christ The resolutions from the first Council of the Church held in Jerusalem reaffirmed the truth of the Christian faith proclaimed by the apostles and received by the Jews and Gentiles alike. The Council excluded additions coming from lack of focus, misinformation, and misunderstanding of some Jewish Christians. As we have noted in the previous reflections, the misinformation originated from the lack of focus of some Jewish Christians on the mysteries of the Son of Man. Their tradition and incomplete attention on the Law of Moses removed or reduced their attention on the One who has established his presence among us as the Son of Man. The origin of the misinformation is their love for the traditions of their fathers more than their actual paying attention to the Law of Moses, which is a pointer and a guide to the Saviour, Jesus Christ. Thus, their attention was more to the word...
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