THE EXALTATION OF JESUS CHRIST

FEAST OF THE ASCENSION - Ephesians 4:1-13

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul quotes the Psalm 68:18, saying: “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives” (ESV), and then Paul goes on to explain that the one who ascended is the one who had descended “right down to the lower regions of the earth”. (Eph 4:9). The hymn in the letter to the Philippians speaks as well of this swing movement: coming down (descending) and going up (ascending):

“Though he was in the form of God,

did not regard equality with God

as something to be exploited,

 but emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave,

being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form,

 he humbled himself

and became obedient to the point of death—

even death on a cross.

 Therefore God also highly exalted him

and gave him the name

that is above every name,

 so that at the name of Jesus

every knee should bend,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

 and every tongue should confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.”

Ascension means the exaltation of Jesus Christ or the return to the glory of the Father, that belonged to him, since he is one with the Father. But we cannot forget that the celebration of the Ascension implies as well a proclamation of faith on the incarnation. We believe that Jesus is the Son of the living God, born of a woman, so that he may share our life and carry the burden of our sins. He shared our condition, in order to set us free and open the gates of heaven for us. As he passes through the gates of heaven, he leaves them open for us, so that being one with him, we may go in to share in his glory.

Paul says that Jesus ascended as a conqueror, entering the heavenly city with the whole horde of the enemies that oppressed us. Being victorious, Jesus Christ will flood us with his gifts, mainly with the greatest gift of all, which is the source of all other gifts: the Holy Spirit.

Let us celebrate this feast with great joy, because our Lord Jesus Christ has a place prepared for us and he will call us to ascend to him and to be with him in the glory of the Father.

CALLED TO UNIVERSALITY

VI EASTER SUNDAY - Acts 10:25-26,34-35,44-48

Since the beginning, time and again, the Church appears to be conformist and conservative, afraid of change. Before the coming of the Holy Spirit, there was just a small group of the disciples of Jesus, who lived in hiding, afraid of suffering the same fate of their master. The Holy Spirit had to come like a strong wind to force them out and bring them into the open. It was the beginning of witnessing to the resurrection of Jesus as Christ and Lord. However, their preaching of the Gospel  did not go very far. In fact, they remained in Jerusalem, where they frequented the Temple on a regular basis. All the members of the Church were Jews; it looked more like a new Jewish sect than the Church of Jesus Christ. They had to suffer persecution (Act 8:1), in order to be scattered and take the message of redemption to Samaria and beyond.

For a while, the Church was a Jewish Church, made up only of Jewish people, both Aramaic and Greek speaking. They were following all the Jewish traditions, keeping themselves apart from the non-Jews or gentiles. Once again, the Holy Spirit had to force them to change course. First, in a dream, Peter was made to understand that there are no impure foods and that he should eat whatever is put in front of him wherever he may go, meaning that he would be able to sit at the table of the gentiles and share their food. Then, he was called by Cornelius, an officer of the Roman army, who had gathered in his house a group of relatives and friends, in order to listen to the message of salvation. While he was preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Cornelius and the assembly gathered in his house, the Holy Spirit came upon them, to Peter’s great surprise, forcing him to recognise that “God shows no partiality” (Act 10:34), and that he addresses his offer of salvation to all. And so little by little the Church started spreading among the gentiles.

However, this journey of openness and inclusiveness was not an easy journey. The Christian Jews wanted at all costs to force the Christians of gentile origin to follow all Jewish traditions , and that caused so big an uproar in Antioch, that they had to appeal to the Apostles, who decided in favour of the gentiles, making it ver clear that the Church to be the Church of Jesus Christ has to be catholic, that is universal. The Church does not belong to any group, because she belongs to Christ, who is the head of the Church, and she is his body. 

In spite of the decision of the Apostles in the council of Jerusalem (Act 15), Paul suffered opposition and persecution everywhere. In the end, the universality (catholicity) of the Church became a reality, only because the Jewish people were defeated and the Temple destroyed, practically ending the influence of the Jerusalem Church and of the Jewish Christians. 

Throughout history, time and again, the Church is pushed forward by the Spirit, forcing her to change and to remain faithful to Jesus Christ and to the values of the Gospel. We must learn to listen to the Spirit and to allow ourselves to be guided by him.

LIKE BARNABAS

V EASTER SUNDAY - Acts 9:26-31

Paul of Tarsus was an extraordinary man who lived through extraordinary circumstances. He was a Jew from the diaspora, born in Tarsus, which was then an important harbour in what is now Turkey. He was a man of two worlds: a Roman citizen by birth, speaking Greek; and a Jew of strict observance, a Pharisee, most probably radicalised, as it happens nowadays with many Muslims who live in Europe. With his heart full of zeal for the Law and the Jewish culture, he committed himself wholeheartedly to destroy the emerging Church. For him, teaching that Jesus is Lord, the Christ and Saviour of the world was non-sense; and he realised that the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ had the potential to spread far and wide, and he had to stop it. 

Then, his life was turned upside down, when he had a deep personal experience of the risen Lord. And he considered everything else as a loss compared to “the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil 3:8). He did not waste time, but started immediately preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  However, when he went to Jerusalem, nobody trusted him, until Barnabas introduced him to the Apostles and to the community in general. After a discussion with the Hellenists, that’s Greek speaking Jews like him, they prepared a plot to kill him. When that plot came to the knowledge of the Christians, they sent Paul back to Tarsus. And there he remained, seemingly lost for the work of evangelisation, until Barnabas went to Tarsus to bring him to Antioch. Without Barnabas, Paul would have been lost and forgotten for ever. Barnabas never had the greatness of Paul, but he had this great ability of recognising true value when he saw it. First, he was ready to trust and then he was ready to humble himself and go for Paul.

In our communities, we are in need of people like Barnabas, who are able to spot those with qualities to become leaders.

VOCATION SUNDAY

IV EASTER SUNDAY - John 10:11-18

The word vocation - from Latin - means being called and can be used in a great variety of ways. We may speak  of our calling to life and our calling to faith. We speak of our Christian vocation and of our vocation to holiness. The vocation to holiness is addressed to all, without exception.

In the Catholic Church, this Sunday is called Vocation Sunday, being the Sunday in which we hear Jesus presenting himself as the Good Shepherd and in which we pray for vocations in the Church.  

Jesus is the the Good Shepherd, who takes good care of his flock and is ready to give his life for his sheep. All those called to the ministry in the Church must look to Jesus as the role model, putting themselves at the service of the community. In times of crisis and difficulty, they must not abandon the people they serve and run away, but must be prepared to share their plight,  being a source of hope, guided by the example of Jesus.

Today, we must pray for all people in leadership, in the Church, in the community and in the country, so that they may always remember their calling to service. Leadership is not power, but service; and when it stops being service, then it becomes oppressive and it leads to exploitation. 

May the Lord put a spirit of service in the hearts of all people in positions of leadership, so that they may care for the good of the people entrusted to them.

JESUS OPENS OUR MINDS TO UNDERSTAND THE SCRIPTURES

III EASTER SUNDAY - Luke 24:35-48

The gospels present a poor picture of the Apostles and the disciples in general. They followed Jesus with the wrong expectations, and they could not understand a lot of the Jesus’ teaching, even though Jesus tried to explain his mission to them. It was completely out of their understanding that Jesus was going to be killed, and that Jesus himself walked into their enemies’ trap.  After the resurrection, they went on behaving in the same manner, unable to understand Jesus’ death and resurrection. Jesus reproached them that they could not understand the Scriptures. 

Like any Jew, they knew the Scriptures. They heard them being read every Saturday in the Synagogue. Most probably they knew by heart some of the most important passages, but like most of the Jewish people they had very wrong expectations about the Messiah. They dreamt of a powerful Messiah, who would become a universal king, ruling the whole world. They dreamt of a messianic kingdom in the image of the Roman Empire, in which the Roman peace would be substituted by the messianic peace. As members of the Jewish people, they dreamt of being rulers of the world. However, Jesus presented himself as a humble servant, ready to wash his disciples’ feet. The Prophets had spoken of the suffering servant of the Lord (Yahweh), who carried upon his shoulders the sins of the world and who offered his life as a sacrifice of peace and reconciliation (Is 53:5,10). 

Paul speaks speaks of a veil covering the faces of the Jewish people preventing them from seeing and understanding the mystery of salvation, which Jesus Christ carried out to fulfilment. But then Christ came to remove that veil, so that all those who believe in Jesus Christ can understand the Scriptures with God’s own mind.

“Indeed, to this very day, when they hear the reading of the old covenant, that same veil is still there, since only in Christ is it set aside. Indeed, to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their minds; but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.” (2 Co 3:14-16)

Christ is the key for understanding the writings of the Old Covenant, and we must interpret them through him.  Jesus opened the minds of his disciples for them to understand the Scriptures.

“This is what I meant when I said, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets and in the Psalms has to be fulfilled.’ He then opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘So you see how it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that, in his name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses to this.” (Lk 24)

We are not different from the Apostles, and we are affected by the same problem: our inability to understand the Scriptures. Many times we read them with our own human understanding and project on them our desires and dreams. We want the Scriptures to speak for us, that’s to be our spokesperson, instead of sitting at the feet of Jesus with a listening heart. Taught by Jesus, and full of love for him, we will be able to proclaim that he is alive and that “in his name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all the nations”.

THE DIVINE MERCY

II EASTER SUNDAY - John 20:19-31

The proclamation of God’s mercy is at the heart of the Gospel. Jesus started his preaching by calling on people to repent and to believe, because the kingdom of God is at hand (Mk 1:15). In the parables of the lost coin, the lost sheep and the prodigal son (Lk 15), Jesus speaks of great rejoicing in heaven, when someone who was lost has been found and welcomed back in the father’s house.

When confronted with the accusation that he went about with sinners, Jesus answered that the sick are the ones who need a doctor (Mt 9:12). He came for the sinners, and not for the ones who are holy already.  In no uncertain terms Jesus said:

“Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy and not sacrifice. For I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mt 9:13).

In the beatitudes, Jesus teaches: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” (Mt 5:7) God is a  merciful God. Already in the Old Testament, God revealed himself to Moses as a merciful God:

“The Lord, the Lord,

a God merciful and gracious,

slow to anger,

and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,

keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation,

forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin”. (Ex 34:6-7).

The whole ministry of Jesus had no other motive but to show God’s love and mercy. “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (Jn 3:16).

God is merciful and we are called to be merciful. We are in need of forgiveness, but must be ready to forgive in order to be forgiven. And that’s what we ask in Our Father: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”.

The mystery of God’s love and mercy is an essential part of our daily christian life. However, all of us - individually and as a community - fall short of a life worthy of God’s mercy. Time and again, we misrepresent God and think of him as a harsh, cruel and merciless God. Being afraid of him, we stay away from him. We do not trust his love and mercy, and we are not ready to recognise our shortcomings, our failures and our sinfulness. That’s why we need to be reminded time and again of this most basic truth that God is merciful and that we can throw ourselves into his merciful arms.

Pope Francis likes to say that God never gets tired of forgiving us; we are the ones who get tired of asking for forgiveness.

In this Sunday’s Gospel, we hear that Jesus commissioned his disciples, breathing upon them, giving them the Holy Spirit and granting them the power to forgive sins. The forgiveness of sins is an essential part of the mission of the Church, who is the body of Christ.

In the year 2000, the Pope St. John Paul II presented to the Church the Sunday after Easter as the Sunday of Divine Mercy. It is a special Sunday for us to become aware of God’s mercy and of our duty to be merciful. It is a day of thanksgiving and praise to God for his infinite mercy. In this Sunday, we must ask the Lord Jesus to breath upon us and to give us his Spirit, so that we live as a community of reconciled people.

The devotion to the Divine Mercy has become widespread in the Church, due to the profound experience that St. Faustina had of the Risen Lord as the Lord of mercy.

First of all, we must ask for God’s mercy, recognising our sins and turning back to him with total confidence in his merciful love. As a consequence, we must be merciful. God’s mercy must flow through us to others. We must extend to others the mercy which we receive. And we must do that with complete trust in Jesus Christ.

THE LORD HAS RISEN. ALLELUIA!

EASTER SUNDAY - John 20:1-9

The whole Church sings Alleluia, rejoicing in the great victory of the Lord, who rose from the dead. It seems like a dream and no more than a dream. The well educated people of Athens laughed, when Paul spoke to them about the resurrection (Act 17:32).  What strange a belief, so much at odds with everything that surrounds us. Sooner or later, everything goes to decay, and nothing comes back. However, through the ages,  human beings have always dreamt of immortality. Some despised the body and considered it to be a prison of the soul. They looked for the immortality of the soul, set free of the chains of the body through death. Others, refusing to divide the human person into body and soul, and considering the whole as one reality, dreamt of the immortality of the whole person, with the body sharing in the glory of the soul.

Jesus’ resurrection is the proof and the guarantee that God’s promise of life and salvation is for the whole person, body and soul.

Looking at Jesus’ death, it seems that there is no hope left for humankind. The power of evil covers the world in darkness. Jesus’ passion was the suffering of the innocent and the oppression of the just. Friday - Good Friday - is a time of suffering and sorrow, when those  full of hatred and jealousy claim victory. It is a day repeated time and again all over the world. These days, we can look at the people of Syria and Iraq, who carry a heavy cross, having fallen victims of senseless religious hatred and blind radicalism. And we remember the university students of Kenya killed by people who seem to have gone mad. Their darkness is very dark indeed, and they want to plunge the whole world into darkness.

This Saturday - the Holy Saturday - is a day of silence, in which we are filled with hopelessness and loss. However, in this silence, deep down in our hearts, there is a small voice telling us that this is not the end.

Indeed, it is not the end. In the middle of darkness, a bright light suddenly shines, overcoming fear and bringing joy. It is the victory of life over death and of light over darkness. The victory of life, which is the victory of faithfulness and love.

Where is the proof? With our scientific minds, we want proof of everything. Yet, there is no proof for a lot of important things in our lives, and even most of what we call scientific theories are theories that cannot be thoroughly proved, even though based on a few facts. 

The Risen Christ, a painting on a tomb
in my home church, in Tarouca

John “saw and he believed. Till this moment they had failed to understand the teaching of scripture, that he must rise from the dead.” (Jn 20:8-9). 

Jesus has risen. He is alive. And he is Lord and Saviour. From the tomb, he came out victorious, preparing the way for our own victory.

With Paul, we can sing:

“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

“Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting” (1 Co 15:54-55)