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World at Prayer blog
Reflections of Family and Faith
"The family that prays together stays together." - Venerable Patrick Peyton
In these past few days Jesus is presented in the gospel as giving last instructions before he departs from the disciples. Back at home, the schools that are run by Congregation of Holy Cross are private boarding schools. When parents drop off their children at the beginning of the term, you hear words like, take care of yourself, mind your behaviors, work hard, be careful, always talk to the warden if you need something from us. These are the kind of things people say when they are leaving or departing from school. Those words are always full of love for the child being left behind. What the parents are doing out of love is entrusting the future well-being of that child to himself or herself.
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I have a question for you…how does your family handle goodbyes? My family seems to have adopted the procrastination technique of being the last to leave a cookout or party, or even on phone calls, having one more story that rekindles the conversation…but parting and farewells, as much as we might want to avoid them, are a part of life.
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Learn more about our faith | Why pray?
Today’s readings give us two emotional farewell moments. In the first reading, Paul gathers the elders of Ephesus, knowing suffering awaits him. Yet he says with remarkable peace: “I consider life of no importance to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord.” In the Gospel, Jesus prays to the Father on the night before His Passion: “I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.” Both Paul and Jesus speak about one thing: finishing the work God entrusted to them.
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Learn more about our faith | Why pray?
Imagine being a devoted fan of a football team. You know every player's name, you wear the jersey, you have the mug and the car sticker, and you never miss a match, you scream at the television, and you even try to coach the team from your couch telling them how they should play. But one day someone asks you, perfectly casually, "Did you catch the championship final last month?" And you say, with complete confidence, "What championship? What is it about? That is roughly the situation Paul walks into when he meets those twelve men in Ephesus.
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Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you! I saw a comic that said, Wife is afraid of a cockroach, Cockroach is afraid of mouse. Mouse is afraid of cat. A Cat is afraid of a dog. A dog is afraid of man. And the man is afraid of a wife. It's fun in life, we are afraid of something. Something makes us scared. These can be internal fears. Based on personal experiences or difficulties.
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Today we celebrate what can seem like a paradox. After Jesus leaves His disciples, the Gospel tells us they return to Jerusalem with “great joy.” Normally, when someone we love leaves us, we experience sadness and loss. But the Ascension is different because it is not about Jesus becoming absent; it is about His presence taking on a new form. If Jesus had remained on earth in His physical body, He would still be limited by time and space—present in one village, one home, one gathering at a time. Through the Ascension, however, Jesus is no longer beside us in the same physical way as He was over 2,000 years ago, but He is now present to all people everywhere and at every moment; 24/7.
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