“Let Go to Go” by Rev. Paul Berghout (@FatherPB)
Piety
When he had said this, as they
were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight. While
they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed
in white garments stood beside them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you
standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you
into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”
Acts 1:9-11
Just as it is appointed that men
and women die once, and after this the judgment, so also Christ, offered once
to take away the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to take away sin but
to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him. Hebrews 9:27-28
Then he led them out as far as
Bethany raised his hands and blessed them.
As he blessed them, he parted
from them and was taken up to heaven. They did him homage and then returned to
Jerusalem with great joy and they were continually in the temple praising God.
Luke 24:53
Study
The Ascension marks the beginning of a new phase in Christ’s
relationship to humanity, kind of a “spiritual presence of the absence” for
baptized believers.
What in our lives is needing to
let go of, to ascend, as it were, and to let that letting go bless us that we
might receive the Spirit we need for a new era in our lives?
There comes the point where a couple’s love attains the height of its
freedom and becomes the basis of a healthy autonomy, says Pope Francis, about
married love.
This happens when
each spouse realizes that the other is not his or her
We let go to go-
In the golden days of the West, one of the major means of
transportation was the stagecoach.
A first-class ticket meant you could sit down. No matter what happened,
you could remain seated. If the stagecoach got stuck in the mud or had trouble
making it up a steep hill, or even if a wheel fell off, you remained seated
because you had a first-class ticket.
A second-class ticket meant that you got to sit down until there was a
problem, and then you had to get off until the problem was solved. You got off,
stood to the side, and watched somebody else fix the problem. When the
situation was corrected, you could get back on the stagecoach and take your
seat again.
A third-class ticket meant that you got to sit down until there was a
problem, and then you had to get off and push! You had to help solve the
problem.
The Ascension of Christ is about
being willing to travel with a third-class ticket.
Christ “sitting at God’s right
hand” means participating in Christ’s divine dominion over space, says Pope
Benedict 16th.
Jesus is present always in the Eucharist, and he has given us the power
to direct our lives in accordance with God’s will and overcome obstacles.
He gives us that power by receiving his priestly blessing. St. Luke
speaks of Jesus' "lifting of the hands" which is the terminus technicus for priestly
blessing and Luke says, "he blessed them.”
Action
Malcolm Muggeridge asked Mother Teresa if she thought working with the
poor was the way to find God, she replied: "Because we cannot see Christ
[in the flesh], we cannot express our love to him; but our neighbors we can
always see, and we can do to them what, if we saw him, we would like to do to
Christ In the slums, in the broken human body, in children, we see Christ, and
we touch him."
“Why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been
taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him
going into heaven."
This implies we have things to do for Christ.
[i] From
Amaris Laetitia, 320 (https://amoris.ie/amoris-laetitia/).
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