Reflections from the Heart – May 12, 2024

The Ascension of the Lord
by Fr. Ivan Olmo

“He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered.”  Has Easter ended for you?  Has it already gone by?  Is Easter already old news or is it just beginning as you spiritually wake up, are enlightened, and come alive?  Easter is so much more than a Vigil or a special Sunday.  It is so much more than a dedicated liturgical time or a special specific liturgical season.  Easter is a true reality of God’s magnificent transcendent love, that transcends all space and time, and thoroughly accomplished in the here, there, and now and fully accomplished in the forever eternity we call home. Easter is the joyful truth of the profound, immense love God has for his creation and the unfathomable divine mercy that has acted on creation’s behalf.  A love that transforms history and ages past. A merciful love that forgives, forgets, remains present and active all the time. Easter is about a sacred bond that makes all things and people new.  An eternal, faithful covenantal loving relationship and friendship that freely and happily gives life, courageously and perpetually forgives life, heroically yet humbly overcomes death and lovingly and mercifully gives life anew, a life that is unending, undying, eternal and true.   Easter begs for the opportunity to stop us in the busyness of our continuous coming and going.  Easter would have us to stop, take a pause, look around and ask yourself: Why are you here? How did you get here to this current day and situation? Where are you heading? Is heaven a possibility for you?  Easter calls us, begs us, implores us for the opportunity for some restful time to thoroughly and genuinely consider, reflect and contemplate the most profound question Easter could ask: What has God accomplished in you? Have you received the new life Jesus won for you?  Seriously, do you know what God has done for you lately?  God’s well thought out, perfectly discerned and awesomely executed divine plan gave you a new day, a new beginning, a new life in Christ.  The Paschal Mystery, which is the sacred Passion, Death and Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and his glorious Ascension into our heavenly home has conquered death, reopened the gateway and path to heaven for us and now readies for our coming home again.  This mystery gives unending life, breathes life into our painful wounds and heals the effects of sinful humanity and the death that awaited us.  May the Lord’s Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension be accomplished in you.