Not many weeks ago, the church celebrated the Ascension of Our Lord. This event might strike us as a sort of postscript to Our Lord’s earthly life: Hasn’t he accomplished our salvation through the cross and resurrection? In this article, let’s consider three ways the Ascension is significant, and let’s refer to these three ways as the salvific, the ecclesial and the eschatological significances.
In our Catholic tradition, we express in many ways our belief in the dignity of the human person, the sacredness of the body, the resurrection of the dead, and the importance of remembering the dead. Among the most powerful expressions are the care we give in preparing the body of a deceased person for burial, the prayers we raise up during the act of burial, and the continued respect and prayers we offer for the deceased.
The Gospel of Matthew says, “Do not be afraid … all the hairs of your head are counted” (10:30). The Lord Jesus reminds us in the Gospel of this week that even the smallest matters of our life are of importance to God. We do not have a God who stands at a distance, aloof from us and from how our lives unfold, but a God who is invested down to the last hair, who cares about each detail of our existence.
Although a Harvard law school professor’s recent proposal that home-schooling children be banned provoked a predictable hornets’ nest of justifiably outraged responses, the article by Professor Elizabeth Bartholet nevertheless served two useful purposes that make it worth recalling even now.
“Daddy, do you hear me when I ask you a question?” Christendom College professor and gentleman farmer John Cuddeback’s 8-year-old son asked him recently as he was sending some work emails from the living room couch.
The nurses kept using the same word. The doctors used it too.
Rock star.
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mt 6:19–21).
The first weekend of quarantine, my husband and I decided we were not going to attend Mass. Things weren't publicly suspended yet in our diocese, but I'd just returned home from Missouri and was self-isolating for fear I'd been exposed to COVID-19 while traveling. We watched Mass using the CatholicTV app and made a spiritual Communion.
Today we celebrate the solemnity of Corpus Christi, that is, the solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. This feast day is a beautiful culmination of our recent feast days: On Easter we celebrated the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus, who triumphed over sin, suffering, death and evil itself. On the Ascension, we celebrated Our Lord entering gloriously into heaven, thereby fulfilling the promise to be with each of us every moment and prepare a place for each of us in heaven. On Pentecost, we celebrated the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, who then went forth to found the church, preaching the Gospel and making Our Lord present through the sacraments. And last week, we celebrated the solemnity of the Holy Trinity, the God who is love, who has revealed himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and who invites us to remain in that love.
A cup of water
Today, the church celebrates the 13th Sunday in ordinary time. I am not a big fan of the use of the word “ordinary” to describe this moment in the church’s liturgical year. At a minimum, it informs us that we are not in the Advent, Christmas, Lent or Easter seasons. However, during “ordinary time,” we strive to allow the profound mysteries and abundant graces of Christ which we celebrate during Christmas and Easter seasons to penetrate the depths of our hearts, heal our brokenness and empower us to live Christlike lives. There is nothing ordinary about that reality.