PASTOR’S VOICE
Dear brothers, we arrived in the middle of the month of May and we approached the celebration of Pentecost, Feast of the Divine Holy Spirit. May He renew our Faith and our hearts to live all that Jesus taught us.
This week, we will only have Mass broadcast on Friday, as I will be involved in the meetings of the Archdiocese Assembly that will be online. And that's it. For now no new news for this week. Take a look at the Novena of Espírito Santo that we are posting on the Facebook page and come and pray together.
Brothers and sisters, The Solemnity of the Ascension of Jesus that we are celebrating today suggests that, at the end of the path followed in love and giving, there is definitive life, communion with God. It also suggests that Jesus left us the testimony and that we, his followers, must continue to carry out God's liberating project for men and for the world.
In the Gospel, the risen Jesus appears to the disciples, helps them to overcome disappointment and comfort and sends them on a mission, as witnesses of God's plan of salvation. From the Father, Jesus will continue to accompany the disciples and, through them, to offer men a new and definitive life.
In the first reading, the essential message of this feast is repeated: Jesus, after presenting the Father's project to the world, entered the definitive life of communion with God - the same life that awaits all who follow the same “path” that Jesus walked. As for the disciples: they cannot look at the sky, in an alienating passivity; but they must go to the midst of men to continue the project of Jesus.
The second reading invites the disciples to be aware of the hope to which they have been called (a life full of communion with God). They must walk towards this "hope" hand in hand with the brothers - members of the same "body" - and in communion with Christ, the "head" of that "body". Christ resides in his “body”, which is the Church; and it is here that he becomes present among men today.
A blessed week for you!
FIRST READING Acts 1.1-11
In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the Apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
HOLY GOSPEL Mark 16.15-20
Jesus appeared to the eleven, and he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it.
