Ascension of the Lord - Year A - 28th May, 2017
What will this child turn out to be
Every mother is delighted when her child is born healthy and strong as was a mother in Libya a few short years ago. In the early hours of last Tuesday morning, in Manchester, this little child, now on the threshold of adulthood, sacrificed his young life, believing that God had the greatest reward awaiting him. He took with him so many good, innocent people including beautiful eight year old Saffie Rose Roussos.
All appeared before God together
The horrific way all of these beautiful children of God left us is not the way they all suddenly appeared before God. We have the words of God spoken to Jeremiah the prophet: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, before you came to birth I consecrated you” (Jeremiah 1: 4-5). This is how God would have remembered them.
Angel Infancy Henry Vaughan in his poem The Retreat, speaks of us all having a life with God before birth.
Happy those early days! When I
Shined (sic) in my angel infancy
Before I understood this place
Appointed for my second race,
Or taught my soul to fancy aught
But a white celestial thought;
The challenge of the Ascension – A new mission
Today the heavens open for us. Jesus takes our weak human nature, now tested, now victorious over sin, before the throne of God.
We are not to be looking into the sky. Our mission is all around us. Especially in these dark days we need to take to heart, the words of Jesus: “I am with you always until the end of time.”
Fr. Michael McCullagh, C.M.