Readings:
1ST Reading: Acts 1:1-11: The exact time is not yours to know. The Father has reserved that to Himself.
2nd Reading: Ephesians 1:17-23: May he enlighten your inner most vision that you may know the great hope to which he has called you, the wealth of His glorious heritage to be distributed among the members of the Church…He has put all things under Christ.
Gospel: Matthew 28: 16-20: “Know that I am with you always, even until the end of the world!”
This week we many graduations, and congratulate the hard working grads. In a way you are experiencing ascension of your own. This week was also the first of May. it is the day when the Communists celebrated by showing off their greatest weapons. There is a story which may come true soon, that Fidel Castro died. He stepped into heaven with all his baggage and immediately St. Peter ran up and ordered the angels to kick him out. He said, “Fidel all your life you have been an instrument of the devil, now you can go to him.” So down, down, down Castro went. He was greeted and welcomed by the devil as one of his favorite mischief makers in the world. Castro said that he had forgotten his bags inside the gates of heaven when St. Peter kicked him out. The devil said, “No problem, I’ll send some junior devils up to fetch them.” He did, but when the junior devils got there the gates to heaven were closed because it was lunch time. The junior devils said to each other, “What are we going to do, stand around here and wait? Let’s just climb the fence and get the bags and go.” So they were climbing the fence and some saints saw them. They said, “Look at that, Fidel isn’t in the fiery pit one hour and already the junior devils are trying to get out!”
Lenin was supposed to have been flushed with the success of the new Russian revolution when he proclaimed 1917 the “greatest year in all history.” A brave soul asked, “1917 years from what?”
Stalin once asked, missing the point entirely, “How many troops does the Pope have?”
Lenin and Stalin are dead and gone now, and they are on the ash heap of history. Hitler is dead and gone, too, also on the ash heap. Napoleon is dead and gone. Charlemagne, Attila, Caesar, all the great warlords butchers and tyrants are in the ash heap of history and they are not missed.
Eleven ordinary men stood on that mountaintop with their friend, Jesus. Jesus only ministered for three and a half years. He never carried a weapon other than the power of his love which drove out demons, healed people and raised people from the dead. His only commandments were to love God and our neighbors, even our enemies. He loved the saints and he loved the sinners. As he ascended into heaven, he told the eleven to go and make disciples who would keep his commandments baptizing all people into the gospel of love. What was he thinking? Well, we are here 2,000 plus years later, longing for his presence in the bread and the wine. Here we are bringing bags of food for the food bank for the poor, making blankets and things for the babies, the sick, and the dying. History and experience inform us. The power that conquers is not the weapons so many of the fallen have trusted but the love of God. Jesus lives! His power is the only power that lasts.
One day we will all face him and he will judge us. The judgment will go like this. We will find him on the cross, beat up, bleeding, tortured and when we look into his eyes we will hear him say, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” The power of his love will conquer for us as well and that’s the good news!
|
Fr. Jeff's Weekly Homily
May 4, 2008