The Light is on!

The Solemnity of the Ascension which we celebrate in our Diocese tomorrow, May 21, is our community Feast Day. It is the feast of supernatural Hope! It commemorates the event in Salvation History when Jesus in His glorified body returned to His Father in Heaven and is now seated at the Father’s right hand, interceding for us. As Catholics we proclaim this great mystery every time we pray the Creed. It is one of the articles that as Catholics we believe. “He ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”

Articles #659 through #667 in The Catechism of the Catholic Church are worth reading today. More than that, they are food for our deep meditation and prayer. For example, in article 661: “Left to its own natural powers humanity does not have access to the Father’s house, to God’s life and happiness. Only Christ can open to man such access that we, his members, might have confidence that we too shall go where he, our Head and our Source, has preceded us.”

Jesus has returned to His Father’s house and has prepared a place for us there. That should give us great hope! Philosopher Peter Kreeft says that life on this earth is like a motel where we stay on our way home to Heaven. Jesus is already there and He has not only left the light on for us, He is the Light! Let us follow Him, our Beacon of Hope, until we are all the way home.!