Ascension: our rising with Christ!
The crucifixion of Jesus can bring out the best in us. For we see how much we are loved by God that He dies for us. The image of the crucifix brings comfort during times of our suffering, elicits love as we look upon the reminder of such sacrificial love given by God for us. As God knows we need such a reminder to help us through the difficulties life throws our way and to help us know we are not alone.
There are also the promises that come from the journey of Jesus to the cross that bring comfort to us. He teaches that if we strive to love others the way that he loves us we will find peace within our hearts, joy within our living, and hope in knowing we can be better in Him. Like his words today in our gospel:
And behold I am sending the promise of my Father upon you;
He then tells us “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
That statement by the Lord is the summary of all the scriptures, God is within us. God makes a home within us to guide and comfort; no other religion has such.
That is the message we are to share beginning at home. How greatly loved we are by God, that we are chosen to be a home of God so that others may see and hear and grow to love God as much as we do. Then there will be peace, not just the absence of war and violence, but a peace that demonstrates God with us and all of us as God’s children.
As we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus he challenged his disciples and us to go out and tell the Good news, that Good news is in us. We have been formed within our families and our church to know how loved we are, how lovable we are, and how worthy we are to be so loved by God within us.
Personal sharing is the most effective way of proclaiming the Good News and message of Jesus—telling others who he is to us and why we believe.
Do you share it with your spouse—children—family members? Ask yourself: what would’ve happened to you –if everyone in your life kept silent about Jesus or allowed him to slip into some forgotten memory? What would happen if we just left the good news to preachers in a pulpit?
My mother never allowed that to be the only source of knowing Who/What/How God is. My mother witnessed their faith in sacrificial love for us. That is God-love.
Today we honor that God-love in most mother’s as we celebrate Mother’s Day. AS most mother’s know, there is no job or life more important that being entrusted with the gift of life in children. However, this holiday can be a painful for some women who have wanted to be mothers but are unable to be, or those who have painful memories of their mothers, or mothers whose children have died, or persons separated from mothers due to family strife and broken relationships. Nor can we perpetuate the restricted sense of mothers in domestic and private spheres, especially with the working mothers, both single and married. We also recognize surrogate mothers, especially grandmothers or aunts who are filling the role of parenting due to cultural-sociological stresses in family structure in America. We celebrate and acknowledge this weekend the dignity and power and ability of women who have influenced us all.
Life, the source nurturer, the womb-connection that continues into eternity as we look upon the Blessed Mother and her gift of Jesus to us all. With all the mixed definitions, cultural and historical changes, motherhood is still the source of understanding God’s nurturing love. Yes, we celebrate and rejoice with the gift from God of good mothers and join in prayer with all Americans this weekend for the sanctity of motherhood, and womanhood, and the upholding of the historical origin of this celebration: Mother’s Day for Peace. Peace that cherishes and sees as sacred life in the womb and out, peace that prevents the evils we presently fear from terrorists, and the reconciling peace that is needed in many families–our most precious yet endangered gift from God.
Blessed Ascension and Mothers’ Day, Fr. Gordon