EASTER AND THE ASCENSION OF THE RISEN CHRIST.........

The 7th Sunday of Easter is now the Solemnity of the ASCENSION, the crescendo of the Easter event as after His Resurrection the Risen Christ ascended into heaven back to the right hand of God the Father. In Jubilee Year 2000, I was privileged to be included in a pilgrimage to the Holy Land as one of 40 Christian ministers sponsored by the Knights Templar. Among the dozens of sacred sites we visited was included the place in Jerusalem, a mountain top, where the Ascension is believed to have taken place. It has upon it a relatively small, circular, tower shaped building. Sacred Tradition teaches us the Ascension of the Lord occurred 40 Days after the Resurrection. Whether it is was forty days, forty hours, forty minutes, or even forty seconds, our faith in God's plan for salvation assures us Jesus the Christ, God's Redeeming Son, is risen from the dead and ascended into heaven until He gloriously returns at the end of time. The Ascension underscores Jesus' share in the Godhead of the Holy Trinity. Co-eternal with the Heavenly Father,who sent His Son into the world to conquer the power of sin and death over us and to reconcile humankind with the Divine. But the Ascension of the Risen Christ is also a significant moment in the history of the Community of Believers (the Church) for as the Apostles and other disciples were gathered around the Lord Jesus on a mountain top in Galilee before ascending, the Risen Christ commissioned them to go forth and baptize, teach, and preach, in His Name. Mark's Gospel specifically says, "Go into the whole world and proclaim the good news to all Creation". Thus the evangelization and ministry of our Catholic-Christian Church was set in motion and here we are some 2,000 years later the inheritors of that commissioning. By virtue of our Baptism and initiation into the Body of Christ, we are commissioned to be present and participating members in the mission an ministry of the Church. As we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord this week what are you doing to respond to the commissioning of your Baptism and initiation into the Body of Christ, the Church ? The Community of Believers fulfills its role and responsibility by the presence and participation of each one of us in the prayer, worship and ministry, of being Catholic-Christian disciples. Being a disciple of the Risen and Ascended Jesus is more than a perfunctory obligation, it is an everyday opportunity to share and to serve. As God's Easter-Ascension people what are we doing to proclaim the Good News to our part of Creation ? The time is now to embrace the essential truth of our own commission to build up the Coming of God's Kingdom. May the closing days of the Easter season 2009 bring you joy and cause yo to say YES, anew to God's Call and your rightful sharing and serving of the Community of Believers the Risen and Ascended Christ founded as His Church on earth.........Fr. Troy