Present In Us and Through Us

Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord May 20, 2012 (Mk 16:15-20)

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. These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." 

So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God. But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Lord's Ascension. After appearing to His disciples during forty days after His resurrection, Jesus finally ascends, returning to the Father and taking His seat at God's right hand. But before He ascended, Jesus commissioned His disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all, assuring them that great signs will accompany them as He Himself will work with them.

The Lord's Ascension marks the end of His physical presence here on earth. But His presence does not end there. He continues to be with His Church; He is present in the community of those who believe in Him. And He wills that this community of believers grow in number. Jesus is present in every place where His Word is preached. He is present where His believers are. He is present in us. And because of His presence, we, His believers experience signs and wonders as a confirmation that Jesus is working in us.

Since we have become members of the community of believers who enjoy the special presence of Jesus, we also inherit the commandment that our Lord gave His disciples: "Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature." As Jesus' disciples, it is our duty to spread the Word of God in everything we say and do. We must not speak nor act in a way that opposes the Word. Jesus is present in us. Therefore, we must also make Jesus present to others through us, in our words and deeds. By a faithful witnessing to the Word, we can make the people around us disciples of Jesus.

In Jesus' Ascension, we Christians draw hope and strength as we continue to obey His mandate to evangelize. As we live our faith and share the same faith to others, we are assured that the Christian way of life leads to heaven because Christ already went before us. As true Christians, our goals in life go far beyond worldly achievements, beyond a good career and even beyond earning a great deal of money. Our Solemnity today reminds us to look up to heaven as the disciples did. To be with Jesus in heaven is our ultimate goal as Christians.

As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Lord's Ascension into heaven, may we strive to be obedient to the Lord's command of evangelizing in everything we do, assured of Jesus' abiding presence and hopeful that we may one day merit to be in heaven with Him and with the people we have evangelized. May the Lord be present in us and through us!

Connected to Jesus

5th Sunday of Easter May 6, 2012 (Jn 15:1-8)

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.

I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.

Connection is very important in our daily lives. "No man is an island," the saying goes. We need to connect with the people who matter to us. We want to be connected to people who can do favors for us. This need to connect explains why social networking sites such as facebook and twitter have been widely accepted.

Jesus, in our Gospel today, compares Himself to a vine to which we, the branches are connected. The Father, He says, is the vine grower who prunes us and expects us to bear fruit. We are connected to Jesus because of our faith in Him. Obviously, a branch cut off from the vine will surely die. Jesus' metaphor thus conveys powerful messages about our relationship with Him: "If we are cut off from Jesus, we cannot bear fruit," and "If we do not bear fruit, we might as well be cut off from Jesus."

In our modern times, when we busy ourselves in connecting to people for many different reasons, there is a danger that we might lose our connection to Christ. Faith in Him is now challenged by so many things around us that invite us to connect to them instead. But it is clear that we cannot live apart from Christ. We can do nothing without Him as our source of strength. We must always be connected to Him.

Nevertheless, our connectedness to Jesus must not be stagnant. No matter how strong our faith in Him is, it is dead if it doesn't bear fruit. Bearing fruit means doing good works arising from one's faith. In the level of the community, bearing fruit means growing in number as the witnessing of the community attracts others to also connect themselves to Christ. True connectedness to Jesus always entails bearing good fruit.

The Father, our vine grower prunes us in order to help us bear fruit. But we must submit to His pruning. Jesus tells us that His Word is one way by which we become pruned. Through the Word of God, we can little by little prune away the things in our lives that hinder us from bearing good fruit. But we must let this Word transform us. We must not simply hear the Words of Jesus, we must heed them.

Jesus also speaks to us in the events of our daily lives. It doesn't matter if our experiences are joyful or sad. What matters is that we are able to get the message Jesus is trying to tell us in everything that happens to us. And when we heed these lessons, we become more connected to Christ and we can bear more fruit.

As we continue rejoicing in the Season of Easter, may we not forget our connectedness to Christ and our responsibility to bear fruit. Jesus continues to give us life for He is the vine and we are the branches. May we rejoice in this life He gives and may we bear fruit through it!