Christ’s ascension into heaven marks the end of his ministerial journey on earth, and celebrates the beginning of the new role his Father has given him as Lord over all, to sit by his right hand, God’s hand, in heaven as Priest, Prophet and King.
It is of such importance to our belief in God, our Christian Faith, that every Sunday we proclaim: “He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father, Almighty. In the Apostles’ Creed, we claim: From there he will come to judge the living and the dead,” and in the Nicene Creed: “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.” Luke tells us, Jesus was “lifted up” and taken out of sight by a cloud, something our modern, logical sensibility can find difficult to understand or even accept. But what is important is we realize it IS a ‘mystery’, something unexplainable in human terms, yet undoubtedly a sign of incredible, mystical power and super-natural ability which goes far beyond human capabilities. This, in-turn, should instill in us a profound security, a great relief in knowing something much greater than us is in charge, indeed our Creator, who in his wisdom and will is capable of anything. Yet, Christ does not abandon us. He gives us instructions through his disciples to continue his work, to obey his commandments, and to preach his gospel throughout the world, assuring us he will always be with us, and will return on the last day. But where did he go? Scholars suggest Luke used analogies or symbolism to represent the fantastical event: clouds often represented the unknown, the mystical, up was heaven, down was hell, and the sky, the firmament, was heaven. Clearly, Christ seems to have entered an ethereal state which liberated him from space and time, the constructs and foundations of the earth, which allowed him to exist in a perpetual existence of presence with all creation, just as he promised us. And the Holy Spirit seems to be coincident with this transformation, the Spirit of Truth which would come, and has already come to each of us thru Confirmation. This is why there is a sense of comfort when loved ones leave us in death, because as Christ told us and demonstrated by his resurrection, death is Not the end, but merely a new beginning, a change to a different state. We never die; we just change. This confidence in the resurrection and the ascension should give us peace and joy to know those we have lost during the pandemic are still alive. They have merely changed, and gone home when it was their time, just as Christ did. This is why it is such a joy to have our Faith, our Church, our Saviour, Jesus, with us always and everywhere just as he promised, at our side as our very best friend, wherever we go. Therefore, it is easy for us to wait patiently for the reopening of our places of worship – because Christ is already with us every moment of every day. Meanwhile, many of us might ponder what heaven is, what is it like? Kathleen Norris explores heaven in her book, “Amazing Grace”. She shares with us a dream in which she was seated at the Lord’s heavenly banquet table which stretched into infinity. Many people were seated at the table from different times and places, practices and vocations: poet, Emily Dickinson sat next to St. Therese of Liseux with theologian, Soren Kierkegaard, seated across from them. A whole line of Dalai Lamas sat across from Kathleen’s good friend, a Benedictine Monk, who was good-heartedly grumbling about having to wear his cassock for eternity. Meanwhile, family and friends and a host of historical and unknown figures chatted and celebrated cheerfully down the entire length of the unending table. But are we to dwell on heaven? At least beyond preparing for it while on earth? Kathleen points out that God’s angels certainly thought not! “’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.’ As if to say, take a look around; your work is here!” In other words, Jesus has given us work to do. So, we must get to it! Strangely, yet satisfyingly, this rational side of a most irrational event ironically makes the Ascension event even more plausible and believable! It’s like mom telling us to stop gawking at the night sky, and put the garbage out at the curb; or the teacher telling us to stop daydreaming and put pen to paper. We are here to complete Christ’s assignment here on earth, and to help each other finish the job. Mind you, someone once said, that “all work and no play makes a dull boy.” And maybe that someone was St. Augustine who gave us the following good advice for the challenging time we are now facing when doing God’s work might be awkward or difficult to do from our various isolated situatios: St. Augustine recommends this to live by: “Let us sing ‘alleluia’ while here on earth, though we still live in anxiety, so that we may sing it one day in heaven in full security. … God’s praises are sung both here and here, but here they are sung in anxiety – there, by those destined to live forever; here they are sung in hope – there in hope’s fulfillment; here they are sung by pilgrims – there, by those living in their heavenly land. So, then, … let us sing now, not in order to enjoy a life of leisure, but in order to lighten our labours. You should sing as pilgrims do – sing, sing out, but continue your journey. … Sing then, but keep moving toward heaven’s door.” Rev Fr Christopher Tracey, Pastor Saint Joseph Roman Catholic Parish Saugeen Shores, Ontario
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In the past few weeks, with all the challenges which come with being isolated, it has seemed important to take this valuable time to examine our ‘inner’ selves, where our ‘true’ self, our true ‘yearning’ lies at the core of our being, demanding more than our simple wants and desires.
Why focus here? Because this is where God is. “You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.” We know God, because he is inside us! God is as close as our beating heart. But God is asking more of us than just complacency, more than contentment in knowing he is there. He is asking us to be engaged with him, to enter into relationship with him, … and with others! Now it is time we also looked at our relationships with those outside of ourselves, our fellow ‘spiritual’ beings. In an assembly at the seminary, we were once asked to share one word or idea which represented life in general. So, I said aloud, “Life is about relationships. Everything is relationship. The sun to the earth, flowers to bees, people with God.” Later, ‘Uncle Chris’, as I was affectionately called, became known as the ‘everything-is-relationship’ guy. Whenever a deep question was asked in class, someone was sure to answer, in jest, “Everything is relationship!”. Nonetheless, the more I recall this, the more I realize what Jesus is calling us to: Jesus wants us to enter into the relationship which he has with his Father who is likewise in relationship with the mystical nature of the Holy Spirit. This profound relationship gives us ‘true’ strength, comfort, and assurance of our resurrection. Jesus makes 3 important promises: 1) the Holy Spirit will be sent to help and guide us in our time on earth – which already happened on Pentecost 2) that he, himself, would return – as was already witnessed in his resurrection, and 3) that God and himself with the Holy Spirit will return to greet us at the end of time – which we anticipate with joy. He further comforts us by promising to be with us always: “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live!” Yet, some may say, “But look at how much we are suffering; mental and emotional pain from worry over food, rent, mortgages, bills; many are seriously, physically ill. How are we to get through this? Are we to just keep our chins up, grin and bear it?” Jesus says what to do: “Love me, and keep my commandments.” Note that these are Jesus’ commandments: to feed and clothe the poor, bind up each others’ wounds, be kind and love one another; while God will provide for us in his will and wisdom. In a recent article, a very wealthy man was said to be extremely proud of owning three one-of-a-kind Bugattis. He said it was his ultimate symbol of achievement. But another article regarding achievement followed: about a billionaire, Chuck Feeney, who lived in the depression. After many menial jobs, with a hope and a prayer, he opened the first Duty-Free Shops. But he didn’t stop there. In the 1970s he created, “The Atlantic Philanthropic Foundation” which embraced the philosophy: “Giving While Living”. Over the years, such donations were made: Cornell Univ: 7M / Limerick Univ: 14.9M / Vietnam Govt & Educ: 381.5M / Ireland Govt, Science & Educ: 570M / South Africa (after Apartheid) Govt & Educ: 422M / Australia Govt, Law & Science: 368M / Bermuda Govt & Educ: 28M / USA: 3.1B. Chuck ensured every dollar was donated before his retirement. Before his retirement, the foundation had donated 8B dollars. Now 86 yrs old, he rents a modest apartment. Chuck has lived Christ’s commandments. We may not be able to give like Chuck Feeney, nor be able to volunteer, given many are in isolation or hardship, but we do have the capacity to give each other love and kindness. We are called to be Christ on earth. St. Teresa of Avila once said, “Christ has no physical body on earth without us.” Christ desires us to be his hands and feet, his heart and compassion here on earth. When we embrace Christ’s love of the Father and the Holy Spirit, we become his saving body here on earth, working in loving relationship with him, and God in us, for the good of all. This is true achievement in life: our investment in God and in each other. Because life is Not about things! ‘Life is about loving relationships’, because “Everything of true meaning, everything is relationship.” Rev Fr Christopher Tracey, Pastor Saint Joseph Roman Catholic Parish Saugeen Shores, Ontario “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.” Doesn’t that give us pause to wonder what those rooms might be like when we arrive? Some people claim that when we die, we will end up living in the same houses and rooms we are already living in. Therefore, we must take care that they are places we treasure, look after with love, and will be happy in for eternity. There are certainly all kinds of dwelling places here on earth: rich houses, poor houses, abandoned houses we see on brief country escapes from our required isolation, houses we ponder who once lived in them: did they have good lives, happy lives, fruitful lives with large or small families, or suffer loss and die out? Then there are the cave dwellings of our ancestors, and the hollowed-out hillsides in the desert where saints and hermits retreated from distractions of the world. We might ask, “How many would live like that today?” Yet, many still do, seeking a life of prayer and contemplation, perhaps in a house of cloistered ascetics. One thing is clear: our dwellings are extensions of ourselves. Khalil Gibran, in his spiritual masterpiece, “The Prophet”, tells us: “Your house is your large body.” And is it not true, we can often tell who a person is by the condition or state of their rooms. In fact, our dwelling places represent our interior, spiritual selves. Author, Jerry Jenkins, says a writer should establish a ‘place to write’, like the board he stretched between two kitchen chairs in front of a folding table when he was starting out. He suggests this place represents our inner thoughts and ideas. And so, shouldn’t our homes and rooms therein represent at least a part of our spiritual selves, who we are as Christians? Like Christ taught us to be: a humble people, living in moderation, yet resourceful, kind, and generous toward others. St. Teresa of Avila wrote her classic, “The Interior Castle”, after receiving a vision of a multi-faceted jewel, in essence, a crystal house containing 7 rooms representing our graduated, inner journey to God who is at the heart of this magnificient gem, waiting expectantly for us to knock on his door after we have completed the challenges of the other rooms, and have now abandoned ourselves, the soul of our now empty shells ready to be filled with his light and love, and so, become completely absorbed into him, to become ‘one’ with him for eternity. But are our homes dark with despair, dusty with disappointment, cluttered with vain attempts to control what we cannot control? Does our interior castle look more like a “Fun House” where mirrors distort our true image? Or as Khalil Gibran cautions: “Or have you only comfort, and the lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house as a guest, becomes a host, and then a master? Verily, the lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul, and then walks grinning in [one’s] funeral.” Instead, he advises, “Your house shall not be an anchor, but a mast. Your house shall not hold your secret, nor shelter your longing. For that which is boundless in you abides in the mansion of the sky, whose door is the morning mist, and whose windows are the songs and the silences of night.” When I was very young, a music teacher named Mrs. Margetson would visit our one-room school house on Weds to teach us how to sing, read music, even how to square-dance in the school yard when Spring came. Sometimes, she played 45s on her portable record player. Our favourite was, “Puff, The Magic Dragon”. But she also taught us to become responsible, moral, and ethical young adults, not to demand too much of life, but to give back to life instead. One of the things she taught us was to love and honour our future homes, which might sound odd, but she read aloud today’s gospel about Christ’s Father’s house, suggesting our homes should also reflect God’s love and joy. This probably came from reflections of losing her own home in England during the war. To illustrate this, she used an old, war-time song, sung by the dearly loved, Gracie Fields, for troops in Europe: “Bless This House”. The lyrics go like this: Bless this house, O Lord, we pray. Make it safe by night and day. Bless these walls so firm and stout, Keeping want and trouble out. Bless the roof and chimneys tall. Let thy peace lie over all. Bless this door that it may prove ever open to joy and love. Bless these windows shining bright, Letting in God’s heavenly light. Bless the hearth, blazing there, With smoke ascending like a prayer. Bless the people here within; Keep them pure and free from sin. Bless us all that we may be, Fit, O Lord, to dwell with Thee. Everyone: Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe in Jesus, hear his glorious proclamation of the Gospel, and receive in the inner rooms of your hearts the promise he made to us of resurrection through his own wondrous resurrection from the dead. Recently, it was said, in responding to the global pandemic, that responding to people’s emotions of fear and anxiety only leads to chaos. Truly, it is better to respond to people with facts, with the truth, and then people will respond positively, being confident in that truth to know how to move forward with their lives. But as Christians, we have a much more profound Truth with which to live without fear in our homes: It is Christ – the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Go and visit God in your inner castle. Sit in silence for 5 or 10 minutes. Empty your thoughts, dispel distractions using a mantra if helpful. Do it alone or with family. Don’t be surprised to find children are already familiar with this form of prayer practiced in our Catholic schools. This is the Way to Truth – to God – in your Life. Rev Fr Christopher Tracey, Pastor Saint Joseph Roman Catholic Parish Saugeen Shores, Ontario On the desk of a priest friend of mine sits a wooden plaque which a brass face which reads, “The more you complain, the longer you live.” Now, there’s something comic in this statement which at first makes us laugh, maybe even laugh out loud, but there is something about it which sneaks up on you, because the real meaning is much more serious than we give it credit, something which is just beneath the surface, a little bit of wisdom which should give us pause.
“The more you complain, the longer you live.” What is it really trying to tell us? Well, in a sense it seems to be saying that living a ‘long life’ is perhaps not our desired end! Rather, to live a ‘shorter’, reasonable life is more desired: one with a comfortable finality, without any discomfort, a pleasant life, blessed by God, without the complications of living a ‘longer’ life filled of additional suffering. But life IS complicated. So, I ask: isn’t this little piece of wisdom telling us that the more we accept the complications in our lives – without complaint – without demanding our own way, but accepting what the good Lord offers or allows us to experience in the course of our lives – the good and the bad – will bring us inner peace, a satisfying ‘letting-go’ of the anxiety and stress which, in reality, we bring upon ourselves when we struggle against adversity, rather than putting all our troubles into the hands of God. That’s why Christ came. To help us bear with whatever comes, because he is “the gate”, the way “home”, our spiritual home. Whether we live a long or short life is of no consequence when we trust in God. It is how we keep our eyes and ears trained on the Good Shepherd, without complaint, to follow him as he takes us lovingly through the gate to truth and paradise. An odd analogy, perhaps: but I thought about that plaque, after hearing the number of complaints and demands being made in the media to let us go back to work, return our children to the class-room, and open the doors of our hair salons, sports arenas, and places of worship, something akin to the complaints Moses withstood from the people in the wilderness – complaints we know are born of impatience and fear feeding the fires of desires for self-control. But like the plaque itself, perhaps there is something beneath the surface of these complaints and discontent, a bit of wisdom which should also give us further pause: for example, is there something else going on in the bigger picture of the pandemic, something which should release us from our awkward isolation, but in a more productive, healing and restorative way; Not just by acceptance of our situation, but by taking time to learn about ourselves and our world while we have the time: looking into the mirror and coming to know ourselves better, taking time to ask who we truly are outside the pressures of the world, to stop and double-check the destination on our tickets for life’s journey. Rather than seeking a way out of this, we might consider questions like: What can I learn from being in this situation? Is God is hoping we learn a greater love for him and his sacraments by having them taken away from us? Perhaps we are to learn what it means to be separate from the Eucharist, Christ 'present' in the bread and wine to better value the gift of himself? Perhaps God wants us to look for him deep inside ourselves where he most surely dwells just as he does in the Tabernacles of our churches? Perhaps, in the new closeness of father and mother to son and daughter he wants parents to better recognize and celebrate the face of God in their children, and children to come to see and experience and fall in love with their parents in a more sustained, deep and intimate way? Perhaps he wants us to learn to truly sacrifice our suffering in silent and humble gratefulness for just being alive, while helping others in their suffering with the true, redemptive love we can offer them? Perhaps he wants us simply to learn to suffer in silence as our Saviour, the Good Shepherd, did, on his way to the cross? In a way, we are in a 'forced fast' which, if we suffer it with humility and redemptive love for others, will only better us for our journey to the Kingdom of God. A few weeks or even a few months of removal from over-scheduled, hectic, anxious lives, can protect the rest of our lives. Remember, too, the thousands of Christians who have no church, living side by side in squalor, in refugee camps and poverty, who are perhaps in more danger than us; these people have no means to demand their human rights. Instead, we need to pray for them in our homes, as we wait patiently, humbly, and responsibly for directives from our elected govt and church officials who are trying desperately to make valid decisions literally for our lives! This challenging journey will end. And I would not be surprised, if within weeks or days afterward, it is almost forgotten as we get on with our lives. … But will we remember the complaints and the demands? Or will we remember the precious wisdom we learned, and savour the grace we acquired on that journey? I’m wondering how many families have watched the Wizard of Oz with their children at least just one more time these past weeks. Well, this beloved film also has something more beneath its surface, like the plaque, a little bit of wisdom over and beyond the entertaining story itself. Dorothy Gale is whisked away from the world she knew and loved, and ushered into a strange, frightening, yet fantastic place. But almost from the very beginning, she complains to everyone that she just wants to go home, she wants things to return to normal. If she had a place to picket, she might have done so. But she had been sent on a journey, clearly, not of her own choosing, but a journey nonetheless of self-discovery. After being told she had to experience this journey to learn she always had the power to return to the life she knew, her companions ask her, “So, what have you learned?” She responds it wasn’t enough just to want to see her loved ones again – to return to the home she knew and felt safe in, but her heart’s desires were no further than her own backyard – in essence, in her inner being.” In the 18th C, Benjamin Franklin once said, “Those things which hurt, instruct.” In the early 20th C, Evelyn Underhill, the writer of many classic books on spirituality, tells us “Jesus is not a cheap, quick fix for life’s problems.” Christ is the gate to the path which can be challenging, but the gain far outweighs the cost. She says, “One thing I am learning is to stop avoiding the suffering, but rather embrace it and turn it into sacrifice. This is divine generosity.” In the late 20th C, psychiatrist, Scott Peck, famous for “The Road Less Travelled”, says: “Life is difficult. This is a great truth. … because once we truly know life is difficult, understand and accept [that it is], then life is no longer difficult. [Why?] Because once it is accepted [as such], the fact life is difficult no longer matters. What makes life difficult is that the process of confronting and solving problems is a painful one. Yet it is in this whole process that life has its meaning. It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually. It is for this reason that wise people learn not to dread, but actually [come] to welcome problems and actually to welcome the pain of problems.” Yes, indeed! We grow spiritually by accepting our suffering and pain without complaint, without making demands of our government and church officials, by learning from this removal and distancing from what used to be, while seeking solutions for it from within ourselves, not from without, and transforming our suffering into a gift of transcendent healing for others through the inner power of our being where God nurtures, heals and protects us. Perhaps, this coming week, take a piece of paper – or a journal if you have one – and write down 2 paragraphs about what you have learned in these past few weeks of isolation: one paragraph about the negative things, if any; the other about the positive things, if any. When you are done, read the paragraphs either out loud or to yourself, and then put your hands together in prayer, and Thank God for everything you have written. Then, rest in the Lord. And always remember: God is not only just in our beautiful places of worship, but in all places across the globe and in the universe; and most definitely deep within our hearts. Rev Fr Christopher Tracey Saint Joseph Roman Catholic Parish Saugeen Shores, Ontario |
Father's Blog
Rev. Fr. Christopher Tracey
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