Solemnity of the Lord’s Ascension

Jesus Living Within

Introduction

-          Where is heaven? It is a question I used to face from children. Some would say it is up pointing towards the sky because as it is written in today’s readings, ‘Jesus was lifted up to heaven’. The answer for this question that I used to share is, Heaven is not exactly a place but a state. It is a mystery to human beings because we are “timelings and spacelings” and we cannot imagine a situation beyond time and space.

-          The relevant question today is not where heaven is, but the significance of the ascension of Jesus in my life.

Body

-          There are two great departure moments faced by the apostles of Jesus, such as

o   Death of Jesus and

o   Ascension of Jesus

-          The apostles faced these two occasions differently.

o   At the first departure, the death of Jesus,

§  The apostles were in fear

§  They were disappointment, losing their hope in Jesus.  

§  They felt they left alone.

§  Some of them went back to engage in their old profession, like Peter and his friends went for fishing.

§  They were dispersed. Eg, two of them went to Emmaus.

o   At the second departure, the ascension of Jesus

§  The apostles were in joy

§  They were hopeful and in expectation

§  They felt the divine presence in them.

§  They never went back to what they left for Jesus.

§  They were united and praying.

-          The change of attitude among the apostles in the second departure was mainly because of their realization that Jesus was living in their hearts.

o   When Jesus was living in this world, he was one among them – (with them).

o   When Jesus was risen and ascended, he was one in them – (living in their heart). Therefore, nobody could take their master from their heart, even the death itself.

o   The conviction that Jesus was living in them was fully realized with the Pentecost experience.

Conclusion

-          Through baptism Christ is born in our heart. The image of Christ is imprinted in our soul by water and Holy Spirit. Let us be aware of this presence at each and every moment of our lives.

-          Jesus gives the command of proclaiming the good news and inviting others to receive baptism. It is a call to tell others that Christ wants to live in their heart and invite them for baptism through which His image will be imprinted in their heart.

-          Let us proclaim the gospel through our words and deeds to our brothers and sisters.

6th Sunday of Easter – Relationship with Jesus (Jn 15:9-17)

Slave or Friend?

Introduction

-          Once a teenager told me disappointedly about his family, “my family is not a home but a military training camp. My father is the commander in chief who always command to us, children. We are the trainees who fear very much our daddy and obey him. My mother is the cook of the military training camp. We, the children have no freedom to express our opinion or nobody listens to us”.

o   In a family the relationship should be correct in order to have the expected result, i.e., the father should be the father, not the commander in chief and the children should be children, not the trainees.

-          To have the right result, the relationship should be set right. It is very much applicable in our spiritual life.

-          In today’s gospel Jesus presents two models of relationship for our spiritual life;

1.      Slave and master relationship

2.      Friend and friend relationship

Content

-          The slave master relationship will have the following characteristics.

o   Fear

§  The slave obeys the master because of fear. When the slave does something wrong he is too much afraid of punishment. He takes all the unflavored action against him by the master as punishment.

§  It can happen in our spiritual life if we consider God as our master and we are servants / slaves. Whenever we do some mistakes we fear of His punishment. Whatever disaster happen in our life we consider them as punishment of God.

o   Work for pay

§  The servant works for pay. His mentality would be if I work more the master should pay me more.

§  It may right with our spiritual life. We may think, ‘I am praying and attending the liturgies of everyday. So I will be blessed by God’.

o   Keep a distance

§  The servant will not be comfortable if the master is so close to him because he may fear it would create lots of problems. Therefore distance from the master to be safe from over intrusion of the master.

§  In our spiritual life if we compartmentalize our prayer life with our other activities of life, then we are following slave-master relationship with God.

-          Friend–friend relationship - In this kind of relationship the following will be the characteristics.

1.      Emotional attachment

§  We will be attached to Jesus like ‘Vine and branches’ (Jn 15).

§  We would feel the presence of Jesus in each moment of our life.

§  We will try to avoid all those action of ours that may cause rupture in the relationship (our sins) between me and Jesus.

2.      Intellectual consent

§  It should be reflected in our life of faith.

§  The response that comes from the intellectual consent is ‘May it be to me as you have said’ (Lk 1:38).

§  We pray every day, ‘your kingdom come, your will be done’. It is the intellectual consent that we are aiming at.

§  In today’s moral and ethical issues such as RH bill, euthanasia, use of contraceptives, abortion etc. our ultimate position should be of Jesus which is revealed in the Gospel and through the Magisterium of the Church.

3.      Commitment to action

§  Action according to the command of Jesus – “You are my friends if you obey my commandment” (Jn 15:14). ‘Love one another as I loved you’ is the commandment of our Lord.

§  It is a call to forgiving and selfless love that is expressed by Jesus on the crucifix. Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Lk 23:34).

Conclusion

-          Let us put right our relationship with Jesus. He called us his friends. Be friend with Jesus.

-          If Jesus is my friend, let us have emotional attachment with him, intellectual consent with his ideas and commit ourselves for action according to his commandment.