Each year in our diocese, we celebrate four of the most important feasts of the Church on four consecutive Sundays. These feasts are the Ascension, Pentecost, the Feast of the Holy Trinity, and the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.
Tag: ascension
Proclaiming the truth about the Ascension
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| This column is the bishop’s communication with the faithful of the Diocese of Madison. Any wider circulation reaches beyond the intention of the bishop. |
Dear Friends,
Why did Christ ascend to heaven? Wouldn’t it have been nice if He had just stayed here on earth and appeared regularly for the rest of history? Wouldn’t it be nice if every so often we could go to a certain place and He would appear? Wouldn’t it be nice if the whole world simply knew the truth and would not have to seek after faith, since they would have regular audiences with Christ, our God? Wouldn’t it be nice!
What was so important that Christ, with His Father and the Holy Spirit, decided not to do it that way? What could be so important? Two things:
Christ is Eternal High Priest
First of all, the Eternal High Priesthood of Christ had to be definitively accomplished, completed, and revealed. And that Eternal High Priesthood was definitively completed and revealed only when Jesus ascended and took His place at the Father’s right hand.
It says in the Hebrew Scriptures, the one who takes his place at the Father’s right hand is, in fact, the Eternal High Priest. “The Lord said to my lord, ‘Sit at my right hand while I make your enemies your footstool . . . You are a priest forever in the line of Melchizedek (Psalms 110: 1, 4)’.”
The importance of the Ascension
Dear Friends,
This past Sunday we celebrated the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. As a brother-bishop jokes, we celebrate this glorious mystery exactly according to the Acts of the Apostles . . . 44 days after Easter . . .
The difference Easter made
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One of the striking things about the Easter and post-Easter narratives in the New Testament is that they are largely about incomprehension: which is to say that, in the canonical Gospels, the early Church admitted that it took some time for the first Christian believers to understand what had happened in the Resurrection and how what had happened changed everything.
In Roman Pilgrimage: The Station Churches (Basic Books), I draw on insights from Anglican biblical scholar N.T. Wright and Pope Benedict XVI to explore the first Christians’ unfolding comprehension of Easter and how it exploded their ideas of history and their place in history.
So, what changed after Easter?
Understanding of history
The disciples’ understanding of history changed. The first Jesus community lived in expectation of the “last days,” even while Jesus walked among them in his public ministry, but they thought the “last days” involved a history-ending cataclysm.
Spreading joy: Pope Francis leads the way in showing us how to do it
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope (Romans 15:13).
It’s his smile. That’s what we have noticed especially about our new Holy Father, Pope Francis. His smile literally lights up St. Peter’s Square — and that’s a big place!
It’s not that our previous popes haven’t exuded happiness. They did show us joy, too. But Pope Francis has been unusually open in approaching people, walking right up to them in the crowds, touching people and picking up children (I’m sure his security staff is pretty nervous at times).
I think his joy his contagious. People have been responding to him in person and have been enjoying watching videos. Catholic News Service has posted some wonderful videos of Pope Francis interacting with people of all ages. Some of these videos can be found on the Catholic Herald website (www.madisoncatholicherald.org) on the home page. If you haven’t watched these videos, I encourage you to take a look. You will come away smiling.
‘Heavenizing’ our freedom
Dear Friends,
This past Sunday we marked the Feast of the Ascension when, the Gospel tells us, Jesus took His place at the Father’s right hand; He took His place as the Eternal High Priest. This means something very powerful and very real for us today, for Jesus ascended and became the Eternal High Priest who leads all creation in the Eternal Divine Liturgy in Worship of God the Father, in the Communion of the Holy Spirit.
Holy Days of Obligation
The following are […]
We find Jesus in a concrete way in the Church
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I hope each of you enjoyed a very blessed Feast of the Ascension this past weekend, and with you I continue to look forward to the Feast of Pentecost! I noted last week that we, as a Church, are already turned in our hearts and in our minds toward Pentecost and, certainly, with the Ascension of the Lord, we become even more alert in our anticipation of the descent of the Holy Spirit.
As we look at St. Luke’s description of the Ascension, we notice that, interestingly, the “two men clothed in white” who appeared to the apostles after Jesus ascended say to them, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here, staring up into the heavens? This Jesus, whom you see, going up into heaven will return the same way as you just saw Him go into the heavens.” What does it mean that Jesus will return “in the same way?”
Encontramos a Jesús de manera concreta en la Iglesi
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| Esta columna está dirigida a los fieles de la Diócesis de Madison. Cualquier circulación más amplia transgrede la intención del Obispo. |
Espero que cada uno de ustedes haya tenido una bendita Fiesta de la Ascensión el fin de semana pasado, y con ustedes ¡espero con ansias la Fiesta de Pentecostés! Resalté la semana pasada que nosotros, como Iglesia, hemos dirigido nuestras mentes y corazones hacia Pentecostés y, ciertamente, con la Ascensión del Señor, estamos más alertas en nuestra anticipación de la venida del Espíritu Santo.