Let us follow our Leader

Today as Sisters of Jesus Our Hope, we are celebrating our community Feast Day – the Solemnity of the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven.   Why?  Because the Ascension is the Feast of Hope!  Jesus descended from Heaven at the Incarnation and He returned to Heaven where He now sits at the right hand of the Father.  He told us that He was going to prepare a place for us so that we can be with Him for all eternity.  Doesn’t that give you hope?  There is more to this life than this life!  Heaven is our real home and our destiny is to be there forever.   

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 662) says that “Jesus Christ, the one priest of the new and eternal Covenant, ‘entered, not into a sanctuary made by human hands…but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.’  There Christ permanently exercises his priesthood for he ‘always lives to make intercession’ for those who draw near to God through him.” 

From the Church’s Roman Missal we read:  Lord Jesus, the king of glory, the conqueror of sin and death, today you ascended to heaven while the angels sang your praises.  Mediator between God and man, judge of the world and Lord of all, you have not abandoned us, but have gone before us into the everlasting dwellings to give us the peaceful confidence that we, your members, will follow where you, the firstborn and the head of the Church, have gone united with you in the same glory.  (Preface II)

So, let us not get bogged down with the burdens of life.  Death is not the end but only the beginning!  Let us keep our eyes focused on Heaven and remember where we are going!  That awareness should give us great hope!