From our Pastor’s Desk

Dear Parish Family:

Happy Mother’s Day to all our mothers, those alive and those deceased as well. May God bless you always with all kinds of gifts, happiness, and hope.

Today, we are celebrating the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord. This Feast commemorates the elevation of Christ into Heaven by His own power in the presence of His disciples on the fortieth day after His glorious Resurrection. The Ascension of Jesus into Heaven completed His earthly work of our redemption. Through His numerous apparitions to hundreds of people between the day of His glorious Resurrection and the day of His Ascension, Jesus proved two things. First of all, He proved that He was the promised Messiah. Secondly, He proved that through Him, who overcame death, those who persevere in their living faith shall also overcome death and inherit the Kingdom of God.

In today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles we hear that for forty days, Jesus had appeared to His disciples, presenting Himself alive to them by many convincing proofs. While speaking about the Kingdom of God, Jesus explained the Scriptures to His disciples. He ate and drank with them. He walked on the Road to Emmaus with some. He allowed some to touch Him to prove that He had a physical body. Having done these things, Jesus commanded the disciples not to leave Jerusalem until such time as they had been baptized with the Holy Spirit in fulfillment of the promise of the Father. While John the Baptist baptized with water for the repentance of sins, Jesus would baptize His disciples with the Holy Spirit.

Through His actions, Jesus was opening the eyes of His disciples as to what was to come. They would embrace a spiritual heart that would open their minds to the fact that the spiritual Kingdom of God has come on earth as it is in Heaven. They would perceive that the spiritual Kingdom of God embraces all the saints of the past, present and future who are baptized and receive the Holy Spirit. For it is living faith in Christ and the Sacrament of Baptism that one is born again and qualifies to receive salvation and eternal life in the Kingdom of God.

When Jesus had finished telling His disciples what they needed to know, He was lifted up and a cloud took Him out of their sight. Contrary to the false teachings that we hear around us, Jesus shall not return to this world through a second physical birth. Nor shall He return to come and get 144,000 chosen ones to raise them to Heaven. When He returns, it will be at the end of this age when this physical world shall come to its end. It shall be at the resurrection of the bodies, at the moment before the final judgment of all. While awaiting that moment, St. Paul tells us through today’s Second Reading from the Letter to the Ephesians that we should lead a life worthy of the calling to which we have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

We are reminded that there is One Body of Christ and one Spirit of God. The Body of Christ is the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church that Jesus has instituted on earth. To this Body and Spirit, we have been called to the one hope of our calling, to one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

Before the coming of Christ on earth, man was a slave to sin. He was a captive within the kingdom of Satan who was the prince of this world. Since the glorious Resurrection of Jesus, God reclaimed His Kingdom, making captivity itself a captive. Through Christ, the captives of Satan become the friends of Jesus. To Jesus, we are indebted for our freedom from the slavery of sin.

Today’s spiritual message is found in the Gospel reading that we heard earlier. When Jesus appeared to the eleven, He said to them, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Having said this, He was taken up into Heaven, and the disciples went out and proclaimed the Good News everywhere. Today, we see the fruit of their work because Jesus worked with them and confirmed the messages by the signs that accompanied the Gospel.

For over two thousand years, the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church has valiantly persisted by the grace of God the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit in the Most Holy Name of Jesus. For more than two thousand years, the Catholic Church has proclaimed the Good News to the whole creation, generation after generation.

My brothers and sisters, as you reflect upon the Ascension of the Lord Jesus during the coming week, remember that while Jesus has ascended into Heaven, He is here with us today. He is present in our hearts. He is present in His apostolic Church. He is physically present in the Holy Eucharist and in the Sacred Tabernacle. As mysterious as it appears, while He has ascended, our faith affirms to us that He is still here with us.

May Jesus always be with each and every one of you as you are moved by His Spirit to proclaim the Good News to those around you. We ought to do this because we are One Body, One Spirit, One Family! Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Katharine Drexel, Saint Michael the Archangel, Pope Saint Pius X and Blessed Dr. José Gregorio Hernández, pray for us!

Yours in Christ Jesus!
Fr. Omar