Deacon Tom Anthony

MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,

 Today we celebrate Ascension Sunday where, 40 days after His resurrection, Jesus is taken up into Heaven. A wonderful way to reflect upon this is not by contemplating that Jesus went away but, through His ascension, we are all lifted up to Heaven with Him. Saint Augustine creates a beautiful picture how Jesus, being the Head while we are the Body, brings us with Him wherever He goes because the Head can never be separated from the Body. This is spoken about in a spiritual sense and has very important implications for us as a whole. When we accept Jesus Christ as our savior we are then eternally united with Him. He dwells within us and we are then shaped and molded by His presence. We begin a process of perfection that will ultimately lead to inexplicable joy. This joy begins here and will then continue for eternity.

In our Faith-Life, the Ascension can be viewed as sort of an invitation to something greater. Christ pulls us out of the darkness and upward into the Eternal Light of God. There, through perseverance and persistence, we can remain. He will never abandon us; it is impossible to do so. The only way we can break away from Him is to make that choice to do so by our own actions and sin. Even when we do this, He will wait for us to return to Him. Take a moment to imagine ourselves being lifted up by Christ. This happens perpetually when we involve ourselves in the development of our relationship with Him. As in all relationships, there will be times when it is strained by internal and external forces. There will be periods of anger, frustration, and rejection. We will refuse to talk to Him. We will actually hate Him periodically. Times like these can be best described as falling back to earth and into the darkness. Realizing the implications of this enables us to see that Christ is still there. He is extending His hand to us so that we may take it and begin the Ascension to something greater once again. He is always there even in the darkest moments.

The Ascension further tells us that this physical life on the earth is only the beginning and not our ultimate end. We are invited to follow Christ wherever he goes and that means our destination is one in the same with His. We are raised up with him and then are transformed with Him now and forever. Through this journey, we are encouraged and inspired by the presence of the Holy Spirit which consumes us with the Love of God and brings us forward to the Father. It is through this process that we experience the Holy Trinity. This is Our Journey of Faith and journey to a deeper relationship with God.

Jesus Christ in our lives has the ability and power raise us up to the greatest heights of success and experiences. We are encouraged to dismiss all of the earthly desires that surround us and constantly threaten to destroy us . Jesus Christ wants us to accept and partake in something so much better. That is life with the Holy Trinity through Him and in Him.

Deacon Tom