Then Jesus 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.
Yesterday I read in the news that eighty thousand people had signed up for a one way trip to Mars. I was amazed. That takes a lot of courage. But suddenly this thought came to my mind: “Aren’t we all on a one way trip as well?”
Life is a one way trip. You can’t go back in time. You can’t even go back to being a child. You gotta keep going on, moving forward, chugging along.
All of us on earth are on a one way trip…to heaven. Contrary to some opinions, life on earth does not lead to a "dead end." It leads to an amazing start and finale!
Do you feel like you need to get more out of life? If so, then fate and faith have brought you to the right place. There’s so much to do. There are so many people to love.
Do you feel like you need to get more out of life? If so, then fate and faith have brought you to the right place. There’s so much to do. There are so many people to love.
Taken up to heaven. Today is the feast of the Ascension of our Lord. Today, Christ’s temporal life comes to an end, but not life itself. He will no longer accompany his Apostles. He will no longer travel with them from one village to the next. He will no longer be held back by space and time. Instead, the Lord of life and history will be behind every event in salvation history and within every heart that belongs to Him. Jesus will make his presence felt in every community that worships Him and within every innermost room that holds him. He will no longer have to travel to meet us. He will be with us, in us and live through us.
Are you surprised? Why? Isn’t this what love does?
Love knows how to penetrate our innermost rooms. After the resurrection, the Lord no longer traveled like before. He entered rooms not through doors but though walls. He appeared as quickly as He disappeared. No barriers, no weaknesses, no soldiers were strong enough to stop Him. Time and physical constraints no longer applied to Him. From public appearance to private experiences: God went private.
God goes private. The Lord penetrated all walls: corporal, sociological and psychological. We all have walls. We keep them up nearly all the time. We feel like we need to. After all, don’t we need to protect ourselves from others and even from ourselves? God forbid we start thinking about life and death, time and eternity, who we are and why we are here! (I’m being sarcastic.)
The Lord was taken up to heaven. What is heaven if not the intimate life of God; His inner room. Heaven is eternal life - a real life, an intimate and personal life - with God. This is not something spatial. But it is the “heights and depths” of life.
Let us put all things beneath us and give the Lord of life and love our life and love.
BEAUTIFUL!
ReplyDeleteI must admit I copied some of this to prepare for my Preaching today. This whole thing about a love fest and the three greatest commandments: Love Love and Love cannot be emphasized enough.
ReplyDeleteJesus loved these folks so much He invited them to His Ascension, how cool is that, because that means he invited us to.
I was told years ago (by a very faithful Catholic) that one of the places you will always find God is in the present moment. This is the place that time and eternity meet. Only God resides in the present moment. It is still hard to live in this world, but I have found that living in the present moment truly is my salvation.....especially in times of trial.
ReplyDelete