When I was a kid, I played a lot with modeling clay. I would form them into little houses, cars, and people, and use them to tell a story.

I believe that our experiences are just like modeling clay. Our minds can shape our experience into how we want to see it, view it, and define it.

You can redefine any experience you have. That’s the power of the mind. Perhaps you’re going through a crazy time of problems. You carry burdens on your shoulders. You have a conflict that weighs heavy on your spirit. You get sleepless nights over a health issue or a job concern. Whatever it is, with your eyes of faith, you can change the meaning of what you’re going through.

Your trial causes you pain and you think it’s the worst thing that has ever happened in your life. But with faith, you can say, “My experience is painful. I don’t deny it. But it’s making me grow. It’s making me better. Wiser. Stronger. This situation is bringing me closer to God.” Bo Sanchez (bosanchez@kerygmafamily.com)

reflect

How has the Holy Spirit empowered you to get over a difficult situation? What gift do you still want to receive from Him?

Holy Spirit, I hold on to Your power in me today. Amen.

Saint Justin, martyr, pray for us.

First Reading | Acts 1:1-11

The Ascension marks the end of Jesus’ mission on earth. He returns to the heavenly Father in order to send us the Holy Spirit. In the coming week, we reflect on the absence of Jesus in the life of the community of the faithful at that time and try to get a sense of their feelings of loss. It must have been devastating for them to “lose” Jesus again only a few weeks after His death and resurrection.

¹ In the first book, Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught ² until the day he was taken up, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. ³ He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. ⁴ While meeting with them, he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for “the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak; ⁵ for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” ⁶ When they had gathered together they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷ He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, to the ends of the earth.” ⁹ When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight. ¹⁰ While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. ¹¹ They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”

Responsorial Psalm | Psalm 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9

R: God mounts his throne to shouts of joy; a blare of trumpets for the Lord.

² All you peoples, clap your hands, shout to God with cries of gladness, 3 for the Lord, the Most High, the awesome, is the great king over all the earth. (R) ⁶ God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy; the Lord, amid trumpet blasts. ⁷ Sing praise to God, sing praise; sing praise to our king, sing praise. (R) ⁸ For the king of all the earth is God; sing hymns of praise. ⁹ God reigns over the nations, God sits upon his holy throne. (R)

Second Reading | Hebrews 9:24-28; 10:19-23 (or Ephesians 1:17-23)

The reading tells us that there is no such thing as reincarnation. We die only once and then undergo judgment. I cannot think of anything worse than having to go through life on earth again and again and again. Once is enough for me. I doubt that we would make different choices if given a second life. We already have an opportunity in this life to choose well and correct what we’ve done wrong. It is simply a matter of motivation and priority.

²⁴ Christ did not enter into a sanctuary made by hands, a copy of the true one, but heaven itself, that he might now appear before God on our behalf. ²⁵ Not that he might offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters each year into the sanctuary with blood that is not his own; ²⁶ if that were so, he would have had to suffer repeatedly from the foundation of the world. But now once for all he has appeared at the end of the ages to take away sin by his sacrifice. ²⁷ Just as it is appointed that men and women die once, and after this the judgment, ²⁸ so also Christ, offered once to take away the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to take away sin but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him. 10:19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since through the blood of Jesus we have confidence of entrance into the sanctuary 20 by the new and living way he opened for us through the veil, that is, his flesh, ²¹ and since we have “a great priest over the house of God,” ²² let us approach with a sincere heart and in absolute trust, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. ²³ Let us hold unwaveringly to our confession that gives us hope, for he who made the promise is trustworthy.

Gospel | Luke 24:46-53

Our role as witnesses is an important one. To be a witness means to give testimony to something or someone—in our case, the truth of the Gospel. If we fail to bear witness to the truth in a court of law, then we can be charged with perjury or contempt of court. What do you think would the penalty be for failing to bear witness to the truth of God’s love? I do not think we should dwell on such a possibility. Let us just get on with witnessing to the truth of the Gospel.

Gospel Acclamation

Go and teach all nations, says the Lord; I am with you always, until the end of the world.

⁴⁶ Jesus said to his disciples: “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day ⁴⁷ and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴⁸ You are witnesses of these things. ⁴⁹ And behold I am sending the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” ⁵⁰ Then he led them out as far as Bethany, raised his hands, and blessed them. ⁵¹ As he blessed them he parted from them and was taken up to heaven. ⁵² They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, ⁵³ and they were continually in the temple praising God.

Read the Bible in one year! Read 2 SAMUEL 13 - 16 today.

Looking Intently at the Sky

It feels good to have a foretaste of heaven. It is rewarding in itself to see signs that God is alive, that He cares for His people, and that He remains ever with us, though in ways that normally would be invisible to our earthly eyes.

In Scripture, such divine “theophanies” happened not just on one occasion. Moses was a witness to this at Horeb. The burning bush was simply too much for him that he came down a changed man, in all senses of the term. It happened to Peter, James, and John, too, during the Transfiguration. The same thing happens today at the Lord’s ascension into heaven. The same thing happened during the famous miracle of the sun at Fatima, Portugal.

Some of us may have experienced something like this. When one is rapt in fervent prayer, or when one is deep in contemplative mode, one’s gaze becomes fixed, or one’s eyes, ears, and mind all become centered on God. They are all equivalents of what the passage from Acts refers to as “looking intently at the sky.” To be sure, when such moments of intimacy with God take place, one is tempted to sort of “build tents” and simply stay there, and refuse to get back down the plain.

But both the Transfiguration and Ascension events are a call, not to an inward-moving and self-absorbed type of union with God, but a call to an outward moving, though equally grounded relationship with a living God, whose presence in our midst has taken on a different form.

A genuine encounter with a God who calls and sends always leads one to go out into the world to do what God asks us to do. “Why are you standing there looking at the sky?” Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

reflection questions

Are the works you’re doing a result of your union with God?

Help me to always ground myself in a close relationship with You, Lord, so that I may go out into the world not for myself, but for You. Amen.

Today, I pray for: _____________________________________