Sunday, May 13, 2012

ASCENSION OF THE LORD – MAY 2012


«  Forty days ago we have celebrated the Resurrection of the Lord, his victory over death.
«  During these forty days the Lord has appeared in many different ways to his disciples who will be the witnesses of his resurrection.  
«  Today we celebrate in the liturgy the mystery of the passage of Jesus from this visible existence to the Father, from where he had come in the Incarnation.  
«  We will not see him anymore, his presence will be through the sacraments, the word, the witness of his disciples, in a word through the Church.   

 FIRST READING  – Acts  1:1-11
-          Jesus asks them to remain in Jerusalem to receive the promise of the Father, of which Jesus has spoken to them in different occasions.  
-          Luke says that the Lord has tried in many different convincing ways to tell them that he is alive. 
-          John baptized in water, but you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit. 
-          Let us enter into the meaning of the word baptize, which in Greek means submerge. Thus the Lord is telling his Apostles that they will be submerged into the Holy Spirit.
-          And this will happen as well to all his disciples through history. 
-          This means that we do not remain outside, but we are introduced in the intimacy of the Trinity, through the Holy Spirit.
-          They want to know if the Lord will reestablish the Kingdom of Israel, but the Lord tells them that the Father is He who has established the time and knows it.
-          But they will receive the power of the Holy Spirit who will come upon them, and will make of them witnesses of Jesus in the whole world. 
-          It is important to grasp the symbolic meaning of the words used to describe this mystery of faith, the return of Jesus to the Father:   
o   Lifted up = we always look to the blue sky when we speak about heaven, the dwelling place of God. Lifted up, means that Jesus enters into the world of God. 
o   They continue looking up to the sky, how good we feel when we experience the presence of God, we forget about all other things. 
o   Do not look to the sky, He will return.  
o   But now you must be his witnesses, with all its consequences. Now the time of the Church begins, our time in which we have to accomplish the same works that Jesus did. To this we have been called through our Baptism.
-          It is not a sad farewell, it is not a day of mourning, it is a day of victory, thus the Church puts on our lips the words of the responsorial psalm: 
o   We are invited to clap our hands, to shout with cries of gladness, to sing the praises of our King, to sing hymns. 
o   Because the Lord establishes his throne on high, 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 forever over evil and death.   
-          This triumph is ours in hope, now for a short time we must work with the Lord and invite all to the heavenly banquet for all eternity.  
SECOND READING   Ephesians  1:17-23
-          The author of the letter asks that the God of Jesus 
o   May give us a spirit of wisdom and understanding to know Him  
o   May enlighten our most inner being to acknowledge the great hope to which we are called.  
o   May make us  know the richness of the inheritance, destined to be distributed among the members of the Church  
o    May make us know his power in the believers 
§  The same power which was shown by the Father in the resurrection of Jesus, and in giving him a glory which is over the whole of creation. 
§  Because He has put everything under the feet of Jesus, this means that he has made Jesus, Lord and Head of the Church, which is his body. 
-          Alonso Schökel asks a question in his commentary. Let us keep it in our hearts and meditate on it during the rest of the week: Does the author of the Letter to the Ephesians  suggests that the Church is more than a earthly reality, being already united with Christ in his victory, and in his glory, filled with the fullness of the divinity? 
o   We have a glimpse here of the reality of the Church: fullness of Christ, imperfection of this body formed by members who are still in process of formation during the journey of life.  The perfect reality together with the process of the unfinished journey of the community, and of each one of the member.   
o   A good preparation for the celebration of the Ascension of Jesus will be to ask ourselves the following question: 
o   Do I  really know Jesus, in such a way that this knowledge will fill 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 the canonical Gospel of Mark. (16:9-20)
ü  The Gospel written by Mark ended on verse 8. Later this longer ending was added and was accepted as part of the Gospel of Mark when the canon of the Scriptures was made. 
ü  The Lord sends the 11 to proclaim the Good News to all creation
o   He who believes will be saved, and he who does not believe will be condemned 
o   The Gospel (the Good News) binds us to take a position. 
o   The Gospel becomes a judgment of salvation or of condemnation. 
o   It is not a condemnation of he who has not heard of the Gospel, but of the one who has  heard it and freely makes the decision not to accept it.   
o   The key word is “freely”, we need to accept the Gospel message in freedom, as free human beings created by God free, able to obey which means to listen to, and to follow de voice of God. It  means to recognize that God exists, that He is not an imagination.
ü  Let us look at the vocabulary used to communicate the deep meaning of the manifestations (miracles) which will accompany those who believe: 
o   They will drive out demons = evil will be defeated
o   They will speak new languages = The Holy Spirit comes upon the believers, all the peoples and all the cultures  in a continuous Pentecost.  
o   They will pick up serpents with their hands = the serpent is the symbol of tension or fear, they will not hurt them. 
o   If they drink any deadly thing it will not harm them = poison, the symbol of everything that hurts or kills life, will be destroyed.    
o   They will lay hands on the sick and they will recover = the sick will be comforted and healed. 
o   In a word, the mission of the Church is the same mission of Christ who PROCLAIMED THE KINGDOM AND CURED ALL WHO WERE AFFLICTED BY EVIL. 
o   This mission involves our whole being: word, senses, heart, mind hands and feet.
ü  The disciples who are  now without the visible presence of the Lord Jesus:  
o   Go in different directions to different countries 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 confirms with signs the word which his followers proclaim, signs that only He can do.
Let me quote from José A. Pagola:
We must, first of all, have absolute faith in the protective care of God. God continues to work in the hearts and consciences of all his children, even though we think of them as “lost sheep”.
He continues to work within and outside the Church. God does not abandon any one, even though they may never have heard of the gospel of Jesus.
But this does not absolve us of our responsibility. How does the Lord want to make the good news of Jesus available to men and women today?

CLARETIAN CORNER 
During the time we were in the house of our good host many sins usually committed, perhaps by ignorance in keeping the commandments of the Holy church, were avoided, especially during the days of Holy week. On this matter, our Lord thanks me for having corrected them with so much gentleness and prudence (God has given me this in his infinite mercy)) and all those good people were very contented and convinced. All were in full attentions to us in this island and they said that their satisfaction was embittered by the remembrance of our nearing departure. Something very funny happened that I do not like to omit, since I had already describe so many sad events. And it was that on holy Wednesday the news was spread that we would go to chant Matins for the singing of the nuns, until the Captain, who was our second guardian Angel, disillusioned them. With so many favors, God paid me the little tribulation I suffered for his love. Blessed be such great bounty! Venerable María Antonia París, Foundress of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography 156.    
We know that many souls were saved through the prayers of St. Teresa of Jesus and St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, and that many are now being saved through the prayers of good and fervent nuns. For this reason I have always been ready to preach retreats and sermons to nuns (although my time has been too restricted to allow me to be their confessor), namely, that they might commend me to God in their prayers. Sometimes I would tell nuns that they must play the part of Moses on the mountain, while I played Joshua's in the field of battle--they praying and I wielding the sword of God's Word. Thus, just as Joshua claimed victory through the prayers of Moses, so I would expect to claim it through the prayers of the nuns. And to urge them on to greater heights of prayer, I would tell them that we would share the merits of the victory.  Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Founder of the Claretian Missionary Sisters. Autobiography 263.  
BIBLIOGRAFÍA
CLARET, Antonio María. Autobiografía.  
PARIS, María Antonia. Autobiografía en Escritos, con Comentarios por   Juan Manuel Lozano.
PAGOLA, José A. Following in the Footsteps of Jesus.  Meditations on the Gospel for Year B.  CONVIVIUM  Press, 2011.
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.   





   

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