Thoughts on the Ascension

 

Sacred Scripture reveals to us that Jesus appeared to the Apostles and spoke to them about the kingdom of God for forty days after His Resurrection (Acts 1:3). Then, forty days after the Resurrection, the Lord ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father. For this reason, the Church has long celebrated the Ascension of Christ on Thursday, forty days after Easter, which is indeed today.

The Ascension is often overlooked but in fact, it is a key part of the Creed, central to Christ’s saving work, and the Second Glorious Mystery. With the intercession of Our Blessed Mother to aid us, we would do well to take some time and ponder the significance of this great event. Despite our failures and weaknesses, God Almighty is so good and gracious that the divine Word humbly took on human flesh and dwelt among us. The great mystery of the Incarnation not only reveals more about who our Savior is, but it is also how our humanity is most perfectly joined to God’s divinity via the hypostatic union. Thus, Jesus truly is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no one goes to the Father except through him (John 14:6). This divine work of drawing humanity to God is even more deeply fulfilled when the risen Jesus, who is both fully God and fully man, ascends entirely, including bodily, into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. In doing so, human nature has now perfectly entered Heaven and we can now dare to hope to someday join as members of Christ’s Mystical Body where He, our Head has already ascended to. As beautiful as this ascent of human nature into Heaven is, there is still more to marvel at. The Church in reflecting on the Letter to the Hebrews tells us that Jesus is the true High Priest, who has ascended, and who has and will assuredly continue to intercede for us before the Father. We have every reason to hope for salvation with such a perfect High Priest and Intercessor. Thus, while we continue to live in a world plagued by sin as Our Lady of Fatima warned, no matter how bad things become, we must never lose faith in the Lord Jesus Christ who intercedes on our behalf. Rather, let us heed our Blessed Mother’s advice, contemplate the mystery of the Ascension by praying the Rosary, and keep our hearts centered on the Lord. In the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Christopher P. Wendt International Director Confraternity of Our Lady of Fatima

P.S. If you like what we do and want to regularly support our mission to build the Reign of Mary and/or assist the episcopal ministry of Bishop Athanasius Schneider, please consider becoming a Servant of Mary.

Thoughts on the Holy Spirit

 

Sixth Week of Easter

John 16:12–15

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit to guide the Church through time. “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth.” Since Jesus is the Son of God, it is impossible for us adequately to interpret him through our own powers of perception. We require a divine pedagogue through which the speech of the Father is to be understood. This is the advocate we call the Holy Spirit. The words of today’s Gospel are almost unbearably profound, for they speak not only of the inner life of God but of the central dynamic of the Church’s life. The Father indeed spoke the fullness of his life, being, and truth in the Son, but the Church, in its earliest days, was incapable of taking that fullness in. What was (and still is) required is the ongoing influence of the Spirit, the divine interpreter of the Word, who does his work gradually and powerfully as the Church journeys across space and time. Bishop Robert Barron

More thoughts on discernment

 

A Small and Hidden Life

From: Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life

Discernment reveals new priorities, directions, and gifts from God. We come to realize that what previously seemed so important for our lives, loses its power over us. Our desire to be successful, well liked, and influential becomes increasingly less important as we come closer to God's heart. To our surprise, we even may experience a strange inner freedom to follow a new call or direction as previous concerns move into the background of our consciousness. We begin to see the beauty of the small and hidden life that Jesus lived in Nazareth. Most rewarding of all is the discovery that as we pray more each day, God's will – that is, God's concrete ways of loving us and our world – gradually is made known to us.

Reflection Question: What has become less important in your life - and how has that made more space to draw close to God's heart

“Who dares despise the day of small things, since the seven eyes of the Lord that range throughout the earth will rejoice when they see the chosen capstone in the hand of Zerubbabel?” - Zechariah 4: 10

Thoughts on Mother's Day

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers, grandmothers, and godmothers!

This day can be joyful to some, but it can be difficult for those who have lost their mothers, long to be mothers, or carry complicated grief. But Christ did not leave us motherless. From the cross, he gave us Mary as our mother, and she is near to all who belong to him. Not only is she near, but she understands the pains of loss.

In this excerpt from Bible Mary, Father John Waiss reflects on Mary as the Mother of All Christians and what it means to receive her as our own.
 

---

Mary’s relationship with Jesus reaches its high point at his crucifixion, when he says his parting words to her and his disciple John: “Woman, behold, your son!” “Behold your mother!” (John 19:26,27).

John is the “disciple whom Jesus loved,” yet early Christians saw an ongoing fulfillment of this passage, as every Christian is called to be a “beloved disciple.” Origen (d. 253) saw this as key to understanding John’s Gospel:

"Thus we should be bold and say that . . . the firstfruits of the Gospels is the Gospel of John, whose profound meaning cannot be perceived except by him who rested his head on Jesus’ breast (see John 13:23) and who received Mary to be his mother also."

Christ is the only-begotten Son of the Father. To image our firstborn brother as God’s children, we must embrace God as our spiritual father. But to fully image Christ, we must also have the same spiritual mother—otherwise, Christ would be only our half-brother. So, following Origen’s interpretation, we must honor Mary as Jesus would, so as to be fully Christlike.

In this interpretation, the Holy Spirit seems to call every Christian to be a beloved disciple (John 19:25-27, CCC 964), with Jesus applying the words, “Behold your
mother” to each one of us. To be a beloved disciple is to accept Mary as his mother; to reject Mary would be to disobey and reject Christ.

Pope John Paul II links this interpretation to the prophecy that one man “should die for the nation . . . to gather into one the children of God” (John 11:51-52):

"On Calvary, Mary united herself to the sacrifice of her son and made her own maternal contribution to the work of salvation, which took the form of labor pains, the birth of the new humanity. In addressing the words “Woman, behold your son” to Mary, the crucified one proclaims her motherhood not only in relation to the Apostle John but also to every disciple. The Evangelist himself, by saying that Jesus had to die “to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad” (John 11:52), indicates the Church’s birth as the fruit of the redemptive sacrifice with which Mary is maternally associated."

Typology confirms this maternity over all Christians. Mary is more blessed than Eve, who became the mother of all the living according to the flesh; therefore, as a mother blessed with many children, she is the mother in Israel for all Christians. God promised that Sarah would become mother of all nations and of his people, not according to the flesh, but according to the promise. This is fulfilled in the mother of the true Isaac, Jesus—truly sacrificed on Mount Moriah, Calvary, where our Lord becomes “the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29) and where Mary becomes the mother of all his descendants (Isa. 44:1-3,24-28).

Paul alludes to the common parentage of all the baptized: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ”; thus, there is no longer distinction of Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free, because we “are all one in Christ Jesus” as Abraham’s children (Gal. 3:27-29). Like Mary, Abraham was blessed for his faith as the father of all believers:

Thus Abraham “believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” So you see that it is men of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed” (Gal. 3:6-8).

The Word became a son of Abraham by taking on our human form. By faith and baptism we put on Christ, becoming children of Abraham and of Woman—that is, of Mary. With Christ, the first fruit of those who have fallen asleep, we belong to Christ and become fruit of Mary’s womb, born again not by entering that womb, but by spiritual rebirth of water and the spirit at baptism.

Scripture also prefigures Mary as Lady Wisdom, mother of all good things, mother of all. She satisfies our spiritual needs with good fruits and produce, filling our storehouses with an abundance that we can share with others. As a good mother, she protects us, shelters us, and gives rest to those who seek and obey her in serving God.
 

---

This Mother’s Day, reflect on the Blessed Mother's love for us. She is the mother who never leaves her children.

Get Bible Mary by Father John Waiss for 20% off plus FREE shipping, using code BIBLEMOM at checkout. Today only!

Also available in eBook.

Thoughts on poverty

 

Keep Listening and Keep Looking

From: Finding My Way Home: Pathways to Life and the Spirit

Poverty in all its forms, physical, intellectual, and emotional, is not decreasing. To the contrary, the poor are everywhere around us and beyond – more than ever. As the powers of darkness show their hideous intentions with increasing crudeness, the weeping of the poor becomes louder and louder and their misery more and more visible. We who yearn for peace must strive to keep listening and to keep looking. We must not run away from this painful sight.

Reflection Question: Where are you attending to the weeping of the poor?

“The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor.” - Proverbs 22: 9

Thoughts on the main thing

 The Apostle Paul’s message in First Corinthians 11 is surprisingly direct.

The greatest danger facing the church was not persecution from outside. It was selfishness growing inside. It’s amazing how all the issues that trip Christians up all these years later are the same basic issues that showed up immediately in the early church.

By the time Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth, their gatherings had become divided and unhealthy. Wealthier members gathered in exclusive groups with plenty of food, while poorer believers were left hungry and embarrassed. Instead of reflecting unity, the church reflected the same selfishness and status-seeking found in the world around them.

Paul’s response cuts to the heart of the issue.

The problem was not simply bad behavior.

The church had lost sight of the main thing.

And the main thing, Paul says, is what Jesus Christ truly means in everybody’s everyday life.

Not what people say publicly.

Not what they sing during worship.

But what Christ means when pride, anger, lust, selfishness, or division show up in your life.

To correct them, Paul brings the people back to the table and the Lord’s Supper.

On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus took bread and told His disciples, “This is my body, which is for you.” The bread symbolized that Christ Himself becomes the source of life for His people. Christians are not meant to live by self-effort, but through dependence on Him.

Then Jesus lifted the cup, representing His blood and the new covenant. The cup symbolized the death of the old self-centered life so that a new life could emerge.

That is the heart of the Christian faith:

The old life dies.

The new life begins.

He tells believers not to approach the Lord’s Table without counting on this.

Some in Corinth were treating it like an empty ritual while continuing to live selfishly and dishonestly. Paul says that attitude makes people “guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord.”

Paul warns that participating in communion carelessly turns it into an empty ritual. The issue was not become perfect first. No believer lives flawlessly. The issue was honesty.

People were expected to examine themselves truthfully, admit sin openly, repent sincerely, and receive God’s grace.

Paul even says some believers had become weak or sick because they ignored God’s warnings. His point was not that every hardship is punishment, but that God sometimes uses difficulty to slow people down and call them back to Him.

Pain often forces people to ask questions; success rarely does.

Am I drifting?

Am I becoming selfish?

Have I ignored what matters most?

Paul closes with a simple instruction: “Wait for one another.” In other words, pay attention to people. Care for each other. Let everybody catch up, at least in honesty. We all are together in God’s grace. There is no spiritual hierarchy. Act in all cases with love and humility. Wait for each other.

That was the missing ingredient in Corinth.

And it may still be the missing ingredient today.

We Christians can still become distracted by personalities, status, rituals, politics, divisions, preferences, and endless arguments.

But Paul keeps bringing believers back to the same foundation.

The bread.

The cup.

The death of the old life.

The birth of the new.

That is the main thing.

And if the main thing is lost, everything else eventually falls apart.

John Fischer

Thoughts on Mary as our Mother

The month of May allows the Church to honor Mary as the one in whom God’s plan of salvation is perfectly fulfilled through Christ’s transforming work. Her holiness is a cause for hope: what God promises in Christ is not only awaited but already accomplished in her.

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus makes three promises to his disciples: that love for him will be expressed in obedience to his commandments, that the Father will give the Spirit of truth, and that he will not leave us orphans. These promises are already realized in Mary in a unique and exemplary way.



Mary shows that love is not primarily emotion or sentiment, but obedience. Her decisive “yes” at the Annunciation—her fiat, “Let it be done to me according to your word”—is the purest expression of Christ’s teaching: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Her obedience is concrete and total, the offering of herself without reservation to God’s will.

Christ’s promise not to leave us orphans is fulfilled both in the gift of the Holy Spirit and in the gift of Mary as our Mother. From the Cross, Jesus says to the beloved disciple, “Behold, your mother,” entrusting Mary to all who belong to him. In moments of loneliness or abandonment, we can turn to her with confidence, knowing her maternal intercession and care. Marian devotion thus anchors us in the communion of saints, where we are never alone.

The promise of the Spirit of truth is likewise manifested in Mary’s “fullness of grace.” She is the Spirit-filled disciple par excellence, the one who hears the word of God and keeps it. Her life reveals what it means to receive the Spirit fully and remain faithful to the end.

To honor Mary is therefore to honor God’s redemptive work in Christ. To turn to her, Queen of heaven and earth, is to be led more surely to her Son. And in uniting our hearts to her Immaculate Heart, we come to know more deeply the heart of Christ himself—the human heart of God who loved us to the end.

-Fr. Richard Hermes, S.J.