Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

Ascension B.12; Acts 1:1-11; Eph 1:17-23; Mark 16:15-20
The boss wondered why one of his most valued employees was absent but had not phoned in sick. So he called the employee's home phone number and was greeted with a child's whisper. 'Hello?' 'Is your daddy home?' 'Yes, he's out in the garden,' whispered the small voice. 'May I talk with him?' The child whispered, ‘No.’; so the boss asked, 'Well, is your Mommy there?' 'Yes, she's out in the garden too.'  The boss asked, 'May I talk with her?'

Again the small voice whispered, 'No.' Hoping there was somebody with whom he could leave a message, the boss asked, 'Is anybody else there?' 'Yes,' whispered the child, 'a policeman.' Wondering what a cop would be doing at his employee's home, the boss asked, 'May I speak with the policeman?' 'No, he's busy,' whispered the child. 'Busy doing what?'
‘Talking to Daddy & Mommy and the police dog men.'

Growing more worried as he heard a loud noise in the background, the boss asked, 'What is that noise?' 'It's a helicopter' answered the whispering voice. 'What is going on there?' demanded the boss, now truly apprehensive.  'The search team just landed a helicopter' 'A search team?' said the boss. 'What are they searching for?'  Still whispering, the young voice
… replied with a muffled giggle ...'ME!'
(Source: unk/M.Pearson)
Actually this amusing story is really what we are celebrating today.
Where is Jesus and what are we to do now?
You see, Ascension Day is not really about the power of Jesus vanishing into heaven.  It is about having that power unleashed onto the earth. While on earth, Jesus affected those around him. After he ascended, this powerful Presence was … unleashed on the whole earth, the whole cosmos. One theologian (Walter Wink) once noted that killing Jesus was like trying to destroy a dandelion seed-head by blowing on it (Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, 226). Christ was the light of the world all right, but "now that light, as if hitting a prism, would fracture & shoot out in a human spectrum of waves & colors" (Yancey, 228). There is "no place that we can go to flee from his presence" (Psalm 139),
… nowhere we can go to separate ourselves from God's love (Rom. 8).
(Source: esermons.com/Witvliet, Beyond the Blank Blue Sky)

Today we need to hear what Teophilius heard? Jesus was “taken up”  but before he left the disciples, he said, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes to you, and you will be my
2  witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”    The first command Jesus gave us was "Follow me!"
The greatest commandment Jesus gave us was "Love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself."   The last commandment Jesus gave before he was taken from our sight was, "Be my witnesses.”
What are we asked to witness?
Today’s readings bring us to the end of Jesus’ time with his disciples. We see the disciples going out & proclaiming the good news to the whole world, even while they are waiting for Jesus to return in glory.
What is this good news that they proclaim?  
And why do the disciples go out & proclaim it?  
What sends them out?
       To answer “why”, let us look to Acts of Apostles. We learn that the disciples can proclaim the good news because they have received instructions through the Holy Spirit.  From gathering together as a community, from reflecting on the Scriptures, & from encountering the risen     
Lord Jesus, each of  the disciples has come to know in a very personal way the good news about the life, death, & resurrection of Jesus.  The Spirit, stirring in their hearts, sends them out … to proclaim the good news.
What, then, is this good news that the disciples discover & proclaim to everyone?  It’s not about domination or any other self-seeking power.   It is that God is with us at every moment of our lives-from birth to death, and even after we die.    God is always with us.
God loves us all, saints & especially sinners (we need a little extra!).
It has always been about love.
In one of the “Calvin and Hobbes” cartoons, Calvin and his tiger Hobbes come upon an injured raccoon.  Calvin tells Hobbes to stand guard while he summons Mom to the rescue.  The raccoon is placed in a shoebox with some food & water; but the next morning Calvin is told that the little guy didn’t make it.  Calvin cries, saying, “I’m crying because out there he’s gone,  
… but he’s not gone inside of me.” (Source: Celebration 5/12)
And Jesus is inside of us!
The Gospel ends with the words: “And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it.”
Let us remember, at this Liturgy of Christ’s return to the Father, that as our Easter celebration is coming to an end; the joy of living
… new life in Christ is still just beginning.The two dressed in white were right, don’t look up, look around you & … let the Adventure begin!
(Sources/ideas: Living With Christ, 5/12; esermons.com/McCabe/Sherer, Path of the Phoenix)

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Easter 6B.12; Acts 10:25-48; 1John 4:7-10; John 15:9-17
A Norwegian proverb says this …. That which is loved is always beautiful.  If you care for a flower, it becomes what it is supposed to be, beautiful.  Likewise, if you love a human being who has not known much love, that person can become what they were meant to be - more generous, more patient, more compassionate.  
The ideal of beauty is not so much on the “outside” as it is on the “inside”.
If this is true, then how should we treat each other?

In The Help, Kathryn Stockett brings to life the experiences of 12 black maids working for well-to-do white families in Jackson, MS, in the 1960s.  Recently graduated from Ole Miss, Eugenie “Skeeter” Phelan, one of the book’s heroes, is interested in telling the stories of these domestic servants (or “The Help”) from their own point of view.  Only with great reluctance & much fear do the maids begin to tell of their struggles to raise the children & clean the homes of their employers in an area that continued to uphold
… Jim Crow laws & to insist on segregation of the races.
On of the maids, Aibileen, shares her experiences in the Leefolt household, where she is raising Mae Mobley, a baby girl whose mother is disappointed in her daughter’s plain looks & seemingly slow ways.  She chose to ignore her own daughter.  To compensate, Aibileen takes every opportunity to show Mae Mobley genuine affection & to encourage her growth & self-esteem.    
      Each day she assures the child, “You is kind, you is smart, you is important.”  When Mae Mobley was old enough to speak, she repeats the triple affirmation to the maid, to who she also says,
… “You is my real Mama, Aibileen!”
Now lets turn to the Scriptures…..
Similar loving affirmation is offered to believers.  In the first reading, Luke assures his readers through Peter: You are filled with the Holy Spirit!  That pronoun “you” includes Jews as well as Gentiles.  Even a Roman soldier like Cornelius was not outside the pale of God’s concerns.  Although Peter had not yet fully comprehended the universal embrace of God.  Peter was beginning to see that just as God shows no partiality, so should all those whom the Spirit has enlightened welcome every upright believer
… regardless of their origins.
In the 2nd reading, the Johannine community affirms the love of God for us.  “You are loved!”  This affirmation bears repeating, especially when we find ourselves or others unlovable.  “You are loved” means that we have a God-given capacity … greater than ourselves for putting others first.  
2  “You are loved” encourages us to enlarge our hearts, to broaden our horizons & to make present God’s for us in acts of loving kindness
… for others.
This love is at the heart of the third affirmation in the Gospel: “You are my friends!”  Slaves in the ancient world were regarded as human tools used by their masters for their own purposes. Jesus, who laid down his life out of love, changed slaves to sin to friends.  I call you friends, said Jesus.
This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
Or: I chose you; I love you.  Love one another, remain in me and bear fruit
We are also to affirm others.  They too are the friends of Jesus.
The very successful Alabama football coach Paul Bear Bryant once said,
“I am just a plow-hand from Arkansas but I learned how to hold a team together…how to lift some men up & calm down others until, finally they’ve got one heartbeat & together become a team.  There’s just three things I’d say:  If anything goes bad, I did it.  If anything goes semi-good then we did it.  If anything goes real good, then you did it.  
That’s all it takes to get people to win football games for you”.

As Christians, we are not about the business of football (well maybe ND hehe!).  Nevertheless, “Friends of Jesus” choose to come together, to share “one heartbeat” … and to live the good news of salvation, that God is love.
This love is Jesus, love incarnate.   And Jesus’ love is a total giving to the one being loved.  By our love we give joy to others without regard for our own feelings.  More deeply, our love is a giving of our very self, in Christ.  
This is how we lay down our life for another person.
To be sure, if we are to give such love, we must first know love.  We must begin to grasp the depth of God’s love for us-for every part of us.  

Here at this sacred moment, this Liturgy of God’s Love, we gather precisely to learn, to remember, and to celebrate this love;
and in celebrating we come to know how much we are loved.  
        Today, while taking all this divine love in, let us focus on the sign of peace.  Forget the timid wave-grasp a hand.  Make eye contact.  Look into the yearnings within the other person.  Then, from here, the world is awaiting you, no begging you …. to give God’s love & peace to them.
Love them, Jesus does.
(Sources: Celebration 05/12; Living With Christ, 05/12)

Fifth Sunday of Easter

Easter 5B.12; Acts 9:26-31; 1John 3:1-24; John 18:1-8
Is life really working for you?
Is there something or is it that Someone seems missing?
In the film, “Joyful Noise” (January 2012) … starring Queen Latifah & Dolly Parton, … the small town of Pacashau, Ga has fallen on hard times. Its people are counting on their church choir to win the National Joyful Noise Competition & uplift the townspeople’s spirits.  The film shows Christian people of all ages growing, trying new things, skirmishing a bit, but above all having fun precisely because of … living in union with Jesus.
Here’s their secret & ours ….
Live on in me, as I do in you.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  
He who lives in me and I in him will produce abundantly.  
….from Jesus of Nazareth, the right connection for life!
Jesus was familiar with the image of God as a gardener.  In today’s gospel, Jesus claims to be the true vine & says that we, his disciples, are the branches drawing life from him.  
The relationship is intimate.
The relationship is essential.
The branches must be attached to the vine or else they will wither and die.  We disciples must remain united with him in order to live a life of greater human purpose and divine meaning.
This intimate connection between God & ourselves is nothing new.  We do not have a judgmental, stern, aloof, cold, and moody God who is isolated in some far off heaven, aggravated by most of what we do.  
We have a God who loves us & likes to “snuggle”!
God loves “being with” us.  Even in the Eden story, God is pictured walking in the garden with Adam and Eve in the cool of the evening.  The prophets spoke often about our relationship with God as a marriage, using lots of intimate images.  If you don’t believe me, read the Song of Songs!   
        Passages from that book are often chosen for readings at weddings.  Other Old Testament readings tell us that our God remains faithful to us, taking us back again and again – no Puritan God here!  
       If that were not enough, God gets inside our skin, human flesh, in the person of Jesus.  At birth, Jesus was called “Emmanuel,” meaning “God is with us!”  God, in the flesh, talked often about the intimate relationship between God and us.  Jesus spoke of himself as the good shepherd & us as his sheep.  This shepherd lays down his life for us.  Today he calls himself “the vine” & us “the branches.”  He gives himself to us-his body & his blood as “bread & wine”- and asks us to “feed on” him.  This Jesus “walks
2  with” his disciples on the road to Emmaus.  After his ascension into heaven he makes us temples of  his Holy Spirit, living within us.  
Yes, we have a God who deeply desires “to be with” us,
… a God who loves to snuggle!
We are challenged by today’s gospel to consider our intimate connection to this God.  The gospel uses the phrase “remain in me” … 5 times.
We are not the center of the universe.  God is!  We can ignore God, and life can go on, but if God ignores us for one second, we would simply cease to exist.  It’s not we who choose God, it is God who chooses us first.  
The relationship is already there.
We can ignore it, cut ourselves off & try to go our own way, or we can wake up, smell the roses & realize our dependence on God, and draw life from him like branches on a vine. We have a choice.  
That choice has implications.
God has already initiated this life-giving, life-enhancing relationship. It is already a part of us.  We need to be conscious of what we already have!  
    The ancient Jews wore scripture quotes in tiny boxes on their foreheads to remind themselves.  My favorite way of reminding myself is to have an on-going, day long, conversation with God.  I do formal praying but, I also like to picture Jesus with a cup of coffee in his hand - my friend & constant companion.  We shoot the breeze together all day long!
(Ideas-adaptions: Sunday Nights, R. Knott)
This has a price.  I’m more aware what needs to grow inside of me & what the needs of others are around me.   By believing in Jesus, I think, we must be loving.  Love of God means love for God and love in/for the other person. These two parts of God’s one “Commandment” must be fulfilled in a way that each authenticates the other.  Our actions must support out words.  Let me say that … “just the thought that counts” … won’t work now!
We want out lives to be fruitful & authentic.  
We want to feel life, that our life, really counts for something.
With Jesus, it does.  
Great or small words/acts of love transform a world “in Christ”.
Everyone is under our care.

At this Liturgy of the Lord of Life, we can be sure that God embraces us, in Christ, and empowers us, in the Spirit, to share not only this world,
but heaven itself!  … now that’s a Joyful noise!
 

Fourth Sunday of Easter

Easter 4B.12; Acts 4:8-12; 1John 3:1-12; John 10:11-18
We are God’s children. (1John 3:2)
Being a child of God is not just a matter of doctrine or intellectual faith but a RELATIONSHIP – a relationship founded on love. See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God.
What does this reality look like today?
   Listen to a “old” true story …. At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves children with learning disabilities, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After praising the school & its dedicated staff, he offered a question:
'When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does is done with perfection.  Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do.
Where is the natural order of things in my son?'
The audience grew silent. He continued, 'I believe that when a child like Shay, who was mentally & physically disabled comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, & it comes in the way other people treat that child.'
Then he told the following story:
Shay & I had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, 'Do you think they'll let me play?' I knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but I also understood that if my son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging & some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.  I approached one of the boys on the field & asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance & said, 'We're losing by 6 runs & the game is in the 8th inning. I guess he can be on our team & we'll try to put him in to bat in the 9th inning.'  Shay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. I watched with a tear in my eye & warmth in my heart.   
The boys saw my joy at my son being accepted.
In the bottom of the 8th inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three. In the top of the 9th, Shay put on a glove & played in right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game & on the field, grinning from ear to ear as I waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of the 9th, Shay's team scored again. Now, with
two outs & the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base & Shay was scheduled to be next at bat.  At this juncture, do they let Shay bat & give away their chance to win the game?   Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. We knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn't even 2  know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball.  However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, realizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact.  
The first pitch came & Shay swung clumsily … missed.
The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay.  As the pitch came, Shay swung & hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher. The game would now be over. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder & could have easily thrown the ball to the 1st baseman.  Shay would have been out & that would have been the end of the game.  Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's head, out of reach.  Everyone from the stands & both teams started yelling, 'Shay, run to first!  Run to first!'  Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base.  He scampered wide-eyed & startled.  Then….
     Everyone yelled, 'Run to 2nd, run to 2nd!'  Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran struggling to the base.  By the time Shay rounded 2nd base, the right fielder had the ball. The smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team. He could have thrown the ball for the tag. He intentionally threw the ball high & over the third-baseman's head.  Shay ran toward 3rd base overjoyed as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home.  
All were screaming, 'Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay'
Shay reached 3rd base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, & shouted, 'Run to third!
Shay, run to third!'  As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, 'Shay, run home! Run home!'
Shay ran home, stepped on the plate, & was cheered as the hero
… who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team
'That day', said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, 'the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love & humanity into this world'.   Shay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and coming home and seeing his Mom embrace … her little hero of the day! (Source: P.Story/unk)   
Humanity can be so, so beautiful.
Leo Tolstoy said, "The only certain happiness in life is to live for others." It is when we see the world with a larger level than ourselves. It’s when we become concerned for others
… that we find the depth of God's love in our lives.
At this Liturgy let us truly become the children of God,
let us imitate & follow the Good Shepherd … by loving those around us.

Third Sunday of Easter

Easter 3B.12; Acts 3:13-19; 1John 2:1-5; Luke 24:35-48,
We have celebrated.  We have prayed.
Yet, do we know what to do with Easter? … with life after the Resurrection?
Here’s a little story from a child’s perspective ….
A Sunday School teacher asked her class on the Sunday before Easter if they knew what happened on Easter & why it was so important.  One little girl spoke up saying: "Easter is when the whole family gets together, & you eat turkey & sing about the pilgrims and all that." "No, that’s not it," said the teacher. "I know what Easter is," a 2nd student responded. "Easter is when you get a tree and decorate it and give gifts to everybody and sing lots of songs."                         "No, that’s not it either," replied the teacher. Finally a 3rd student spoke up, "Easter is when Jesus was killed, and put in a tomb & left for three days."
          "Ah, thank goodness somebody knows" the teacher thought to herself. But then the student went on: "Then everybody gathers at the tomb & waits to see if Jesus comes out, and if he sees his shadow he has to go back inside and we have six more weeks of winter."  (eSermons.com)
Humorous, but has our outlook on life changed?
Resurrection not only promises us a life after death but it also affirms the goodness of God’s creation. God is both good & faithful. And the physical world is the place for God’s love to be expressed. This implies an active role in our world for us because God cares about us both physically & spiritually.

The Gospel says that, the two disciples recounted what had taken place on the way, and how Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.   This act is the key to our future ….
These two disciples who were on the road to Emmaus did not recognize Jesus walking beside them. They were all wound up in their own disappointment.  They were focused on themselves.   Even when the teacher explained the Scriptures for them, they did not grasp his identity.  Nor did they accept the women’s witness to the  resurrection.  It was only in the sharing of a meal, in the breaking of the bread, that they finally shed their disbelief, and finally engaged the world.

Like those disciples, we, too, live in the post Resurrection-event.   As one preacher said, "If we don't know WHAT is beyond the grave,
we do know WHO is beyond the grave." William Sloane Coffin
And this calls for something … from us.
2   After…he showed them his hands and feet….he asked, “Have you anything to eat?” They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in front of them.”
This is no ghost!   Remember that ghosts do not eat, but Jesus asked for something to eat.  Perhaps he was hungry?  Probably not.  It was a way of saying that he was alive, since only the living can eat. For the 2nd time, he is recognized when he ate, because this is such a human act & a gesture that is so Jesus: taking the bread, giving thanks, blessing, breaking it…
It is in the Eucharist where we come to know Jesus in every way.
We do not deal with ghosts.
We encounter the Risen Lord in … those around us.
We encounter real people with real physical, emotional, & spiritual needs.     
They are hungry.   They are Jesus.  They are right in front of us.
Jesus did not command the whole world to go to church.
Jesus commanded his church to go to the whole world.

And as the 1st Letter of John tells us, if we know him we will be like him, whoever keeps his word, the love of God is truly perfected in them.
To love as Jesus loves is no easy task.  As Fyodor Dostoyevsky famously articulated in The Brother’s Karamazov, “Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams.”  Real love is hard work and dedicated to making this world a better place for everyone. Real love requires crucified hands, crucified feet, and maybe an open wound in our sides, too.   Real love is who we really are.  Can we do less?
Eucharist is what we celebrate and, equally important,
it is how we live our lives outside this building in the world today.
We are called to DO, the “breaking of the bread.”
Witnesses are more than passive bystanders. We who hear the story of Christ’s suffering and resurrection become witnesses to these things, too.
At this Liturgy of our future in the Risen Christ,
let us remember that God is love (1John 4:8);
let us remember that Jesus is the living God among us and within us;
let us remember that we are called by Jesus this very day…
You are to be witnesses of these things.
What things ?....
to be the living love of God, to touch and transform the pain & suffering,
to share the joy & peace of God to all around us because…
As it was then, it is now, in the breaking of the bread of our lives,
they too will know their God and our God.  

(Some ideas: America 4/16/12; Nuestra Parroquia, Marzo, 2012; Living With Christ, 4/2012)
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