Today in the life of the Church, we revere the doctrine of the ascension of our Lord
into heaven, and primarily this doctrine teaches us that we are not called for happiness in
this life, for our Lord in ascending into heaven shows us that heaven was not merely
created for the good angels, but indeed it was created for man, for in heaven Christ
reigns in his humanity, and so he ascends to his Father's house in order to prepare
a place for each and every one of us, and as it were, to secure that place for us.
A place for us by the grace he wishes to give us, and we know through faith that the
only thing that can prevent the baptized from entering into the Father's kingdom is to offend
God by mortal sin, and so the Lord tells us that it was good for us that he ascends to
his Father, or else the Spirit would not come, and so the Holy Spirit, as it were, gives
us the grace to overcome all the trials and the tribulations of this life in order that
we too may one day be saved.
And so we must consider what is necessary for us in this life, and we turn to the Immaculate
Virgin Mary to see precisely what the believer is to do in the time of this separation.
For Our Lady would suffer an excruciating agony, an excruciating martyrdom when her
Son ascended into heaven.
For no longer was he present.
As he was present to them prior, and so she undergoes a martyrdom of love, and that martyrdom
of love is essentially rooted in her complete and utter devotion to the most blessed sacrament,
the presence of her Son hidden under the Eucharistic species until the end of time.
And so this doctrine of the ascension emphasizes the central mystery of our faith, that in
this life of exile, in this life of pilgrimage, we are reigned over by our Lord.
We are said that our principles are established in a place in our lives, that we are reigned
over for the타 crihin, and this creation of holiness will be all regarding what is
needed.
And our Lord, who is the Lord our Lord and is include in us beyond glory, would not live
harm us if we did not honor Him to Karma of being a martyr.
we were healed.
Proverbs 10.
In Christ among other things.
We aregage him all our life.
We areare�무ubَّ .
All this life.
True.
in place then he then he ascends to his father in order that the holy spirit may come upon us
and convince us of all the truths that the lord had told us and we see precisely the power of
this eucharistic kingdom when we celebrate the feast of the pentecost for often isn't it is not
reflected enough for somehow we think that the disciples and the apostles were merely gathered
around in the upper room waiting around twiddling their thumbs to do nothing and then all of a
sudden in an instant they were overshadowed by the power of the holy spirit but the doctors and
fathers are unanimous on what was transpiring in the eucharist and most precisely when the
holy spirit descended upon them for they were all gathered in order to offer the holy sacrifice of
the mass that is that central mystery of our faith which truly establishes the church as a
eucharistic kingdom and it was in this context of the holy sacrifice of the mass that the holy
spirit would descend upon our lady and the apostles gathered in the upper room and we
immediately see the strength that they would derive from this transformation during the holy
sacrifice of the mass for they would immediately go out and do those things that the lord had
commanded them to do namely to baptize all nations in the name of the father and of the son and of
the holy spirit and teaching them all the truths necessary to work out our salvation
and so that first day of pentecost 5000 would be converted to the mystical body of christ
by the preaching of that prince of apostles saint peter and again his message is always the same
message because it is always the essential message of our faith that jesus christ has
been faithful to his promise and he reigns over us now in his eucharistic presence in order that
we may derive from him the gracious necessary so that at the end of the day we may be able to
see him face to face as we are all called to do and so the ascension reminds us that we that of the
central mysteries of our faith is the one that is to drive all human beings we were not created for
happiness in this life we were created for happiness and in eternal life in order to
attain that happiness the lord gives certain criteria for us to be happy and to be happy
he says whoever believes in his baptized will be saved and so we must first be baptized in order
that we may come to believe that greatest of all mysteries that jesus christ has departed from this
world in his physical presence in his ascension to his father's kingdom but but he has remained
here in that third and final humiliation his eucharistic presence by which he will which he
will reign through the love of his sacred heart until the end of time
and why was it that our lady willingly chose to undergo that agonizing martyrdom by which she was
separated from her son in his physical presence in heaven in order to remain on this earth because
a good mother is always a sacrificial mother and so our lady would remain on earth in order to teach
us the mystical body how it is we are to worship her son in his eucharistic presence and she gives
the principle of that at the wedding feast and she gives the principle of that at the wedding feast
of cana do whatever he tells you and so we must do what the lord tells us not what the world tells
us we must mortify ourselves in the things that are contrary to our faith we must be witnesses
to his truth until the end of time and so we must stop compromising our faith in all the ways that
we have done we must stop compromising the apart the apostolate of the church by trying to
incorporate into it those things of the world that are clearly not true and that are not true
clearly and obviously contrary to our faith those devices by which we are using the modern media
modern music in all types of endeavors in order to try to bring our young people into the church
but ultimately we not only do not bring them into the church but we drive them out in ourselves with
them for while we think we remain in the church we do what the world does and so we too begin to
pursue the vanities the lust and and the riches of the church and so we must stop compromising our faith
in all the ways that are contrary to our faith and so we must stop compromising our faith in all the ways that are contrary to our faith
of this world as many within even within the mystical body of christ have done and so the ascension
teaches us that our life is to be a mortified life a life of prayer and a life of work by which we try
to exercise that stewardship over god's creation by which we seek to re-establish that order or to
use the words of pope john paul ii that beauty that creation had from the beginning and was
disrupted by original sin and so we must stop compromising our faith in all the ways that are contrary to our faith
and that disruption of original sin has crept into even the inanimate objects and those creatures
not gifted with reason and so it is to the members of the mystical body of christ under the influence
and grace of the holy spirit to strive to re-establish that order that beauty into the
created world so that the world again that the world again begins to communicate that mystery
that it pointed out in the first instant of its creation the mystery of the incarnation
of the son of god in the womb of the blessed virgin mary and so let us strive so that all we do
all we say and all we think in some way seeks to establish that beauty that was in the created
order from the beginning so that the whole of creation points to that mystery that is most
crucial for all souls to be saved that jesus christ truly became man that he suffered died
and was buried for our sins and that 40 days of his life will be the day of his resurrection
after strengthening the apostles and the truths that he had taught them he ascended into his
father's kingdom in order to send forth the holy spirit to reign over us until the end of time
whose primary mission is to teach us and convince us beyond any shadow of a doubt that jesus christ
is truly present and he is present in order to protect us and so we have nothing to fear from
from the forces of this world for we are reigned over by the love of the
sacred heart and he will stand by us in the trials and the tribulations and the temptations
in this life in order that we may reign with him forever in the life to come
you