READING OF THE DAY First reading from the Acts of the Apostles ACTS 1:1-11
In the first book, Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught until the day he was taken up, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While meeting with the them, he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for “the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak; for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
When they had gathered together they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight. While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”
Second reading from the letter to Ephesians EPH 1:17-23
Brothers and sisters: May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him. May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe, in accord with the exercise of his great might, which he worked in Christ, raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens, far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things beneath his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY From the Gospel according to Matthew MT 28:16-20
The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER Joy is not living from laughter to laughter. No, it's not that. Joy is not being funny. No, it’s not that. It's something else. Christian joy is peace. The peace that is in the roots, the peace of heart, the peace that only God can give us. This is Christian joy. It is not easy to safeguard this joy. Christian joy is the breath of the Christian, a Christian who is not joyful in the heart is not a good Christian. It is the breath, the way of expressing oneself as Christian, joy. It is not something that one buys or I make it with effort, no: it is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. What makes the joy in the heart is the Holy Spirit".(Santa Marta, 28 May 2018)
FAUSTI - The text gives a synthetic overview of whole Matthew's Gospel. Like the finale of a symphony, he resumes and merges into one single harmony ,the themes developed in his Gospel . The text is addressed to readers so that they too the experience of the first disciples They have to go to Galilee, "on the mountain" indicated to them by Jesus. There they see Him and worship Him. It is also part of the meeting the doubt , the faith represents the overcoming of it . Whoever goes up to the mountainmeets "the Son" and to this person it is given His own power. It is that of becoming brother of all, so that every man be immersed in the only Love of the Father and of the Son, who makes able to do what Jesus has commanded. In this way He is God-with-us, to lead the world to its fulfillment. His being with us makes it possible our being with Him. The Nazarene, Crucified and Risen, is present every day. He meets us each day and every hour when, faithfully and wisely, we listen and do what He has done and said. His ascension - exalting his humanity to the dignity of the Son of God - is certainty of blessing for every man. In Him we see the hope to which we have been called, the treasure of glory that encloses our heritage. (Eph 1:18). In Jesus ascending to heaven, we fully know the mystery of man and his body. We know where He comes from, because we see where He goes: He comes from the Father of light, and He returns to Him. Our life is no longer suspended in the void, it found its principle and its aim. Jesus does not leave us orphans and without homeland . Precisely with His staying away He shows us the Father and His home, where He preceded us. Our homeland is in heavens and our life is now hidden with Christ in God. In Him we too have already been resurrected, have sat down in heavens and glorified. (Fil.3,20). Where is our treasure, there is also our heart, and where is our heart, we will be there too. The commandment of love is the way to reach it. Now we finally know the One whom we are looking for and how to find Him. For this reason the disciples are filled with joy! The Lord, ascending up, He has accomplished the greatest wonders in our favor. He has destroyed slavery that separates us from the homeland of desire, winning our death and giving Himself as the sense of our life; He has distributed all His gifts, offering to us His Spirit and the opportunity to live His life. Now we are free, similar to Him and we see through Him what we are: sons in the Son, finally adults and responsible, we can testify and proclaim to the brethren Father's Love, going on to do and to teach to the extreme ends of the earth as much as He began to do and to teach from Galilee to Jerusalem. "Go therefore and make disciples of all peoples," says Jesus to eleven ones. When He ended His own mission, those who welcomed Him ,they begin their journey. It is the same one of the Son, who witnesses Father's Love to the brothers who do not yet know Him. The one who, in Him, has discovered his son's name, realizes, as He does, going toward his brothers, until the Father's name is sanctified throughout of the earth. Time is a journey, the goal of which is to be with He who is always and forever with us. This will be when, through the testimony of the disciples, we all will become sons and brothers.
P. E. Ronchi - The disciples have returned to Galilee, to that mountain they knew well. When they saw Him, they prostrated themselves. Jesus left the world with a deficit: He was left with only eleven afraid and confused men and a small group of courageous and faithful women. They followed Him for three years on the streets of Palestine, they did not understand much but they loved Him very much. And they are all there on the last mountain. This is the only guarantee Jesus needs. Now He can return to the Father, reassured that he is loved, even if not completely understood. Now he knows that none of those men and women will forget him. But they doubted... Jesus performs an act of enormous, illogical confidence in people who still doubt. There He not yet remains a little, to explain better, to clarify the dark points. But He entrusts His message to people who still doubt. There is no true faith without doubt. Doubts are like the poor, we will always have them with us. If you question them with courage, from apparent enemies they will become defenders of the faith, they will protect it from the assault of superficial answers and sentences. Jesus entrusts the dreamed world to the fragility of the Eleven, and not to the intelligence of the first of the class; he entrusts the truth to the doubters, he calls the claudicants to go to the ends of the earth, he has faith in us who have no firm faith in him. I have been given over to every power in heaven and on earth... Go then. That therefore is beautiful: therefore my power is yours; therefore all things mine and yours also: therefore I am the one that dwells in you and presses you. Therefore, go. Make disciples of all peoples... To what end? Enlist devotees, strengthen the ranks? No, but for a contagion, an epidemic of life and birth. And then the last words, the will: I am with you, every day, until the end of the world. With you, always, never alone. What Ascension be, we understand from these words. Jesus did not go far or high up, in some remote corner of the cosmos, but he became closer than before. If before He was with the disciples, now He will be inside them. He did not go beyond the clouds, but beyond the forms. He has ascended into the depths of things, into the depths of creation and creatures, and from within He presses as an ascending force toward more luminous life: "The Risen One mysteriously wraps the creatures and orients them to a destiny of fullness. The same flowers of the field and the birds that He contemplated admired by his human eyes, are now filled by His luminous presence" ( Pope Francis -Laudato si', 100). He who knows how to feel and enjoy of this mystery, walks on the earth like inside a tabernacle, inside an endless baptism.
READING OF THE DAY
RispondiEliminaFirst reading from the Acts of the Apostles
ACTS 1:1-11
In the first book, Theophilus,
I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught
until the day he was taken up,
after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit
to the apostles whom he had chosen.
He presented himself alive to them
by many proofs after he had suffered,
appearing to them during forty days
and speaking about the kingdom of God.
While meeting with the them,
he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for “the promise of the Father
about which you have heard me speak;
for John baptized with water,
but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
When they had gathered together they asked him,
“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons
that the Father has established by his own authority.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
throughout Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth.”
When he had said this, as they were looking on,
he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.
While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going,
suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.
They said, “Men of Galilee,
why are you standing there looking at the sky?
This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven
will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”
Second reading from the letter to Ephesians
EPH 1:17-23
Brothers and sisters:
May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation
resulting in knowledge of him.
May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened,
that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call,
what are the riches of glory
in his inheritance among the holy ones,
and what is the surpassing greatness of his power
for us who believe,
in accord with the exercise of his great might,
which he worked in Christ,
raising him from the dead
and seating him at his right hand in the heavens,
far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion,
and every name that is named
not only in this age but also in the one to come.
And he put all things beneath his feet
and gave him as head over all things to the church,
which is his body,
the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY
From the Gospel according to Matthew
MT 28:16-20
The eleven disciples went to Galilee,
to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.
When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.
Then Jesus approached and said to them,
“All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER
Joy is not living from laughter to laughter. No, it's not that. Joy is not being funny. No, it’s not that. It's something else. Christian joy is peace. The peace that is in the roots, the peace of heart, the peace that only God can give us. This is Christian joy. It is not easy to safeguard this joy. Christian joy is the breath of the Christian, a Christian who is not joyful in the heart is not a good Christian. It is the breath, the way of expressing oneself as Christian, joy. It is not something that one buys or I make it with effort, no: it is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. What makes the joy in the heart is the Holy Spirit".(Santa Marta, 28 May 2018)
FAUSTI - The text gives a synthetic overview of whole Matthew's Gospel. Like the finale of a symphony, he resumes and merges into one single harmony ,the themes developed in his Gospel .
RispondiEliminaThe text is addressed to readers so that they too the experience of the first disciples
They have to go to Galilee, "on the mountain" indicated to them by Jesus. There they see Him and worship Him.
It is also part of the meeting the doubt , the faith represents the overcoming of it . Whoever goes up to the mountainmeets "the Son" and to this person it is given His own power. It is that of becoming brother of all, so that every man be immersed in the only Love of the Father and of the Son, who makes able to do what Jesus has commanded. In this way He is God-with-us, to lead the world to its fulfillment. His being with us makes it possible our being with Him. The Nazarene, Crucified and Risen, is present every day. He meets us each day and every hour when, faithfully and wisely, we listen and do what He has done and said. His ascension - exalting his humanity to the dignity of the Son of God - is certainty of blessing for every man. In Him we see the hope to which we have been called, the treasure of glory that encloses our heritage. (Eph 1:18).
In Jesus ascending to heaven, we fully know the mystery of man and his body.
We know where He comes from, because we see where He goes: He comes from the Father of light, and He returns to Him.
Our life is no longer suspended in the void, it found its principle and its aim.
Jesus does not leave us orphans and without homeland . Precisely with His staying away He shows us the Father and His home, where He preceded us. Our homeland is in heavens and our life is now hidden with Christ in God. In Him we too have already been resurrected, have sat down in heavens and glorified. (Fil.3,20).
Where is our treasure, there is also our heart, and where is our heart, we will be there too.
The commandment of love is the way to reach it.
Now we finally know the One whom we are looking for and how to find Him.
For this reason the disciples are filled with joy! The Lord, ascending up, He has accomplished the greatest wonders in our favor. He has destroyed slavery that separates us from the homeland of desire, winning our death and giving Himself as the sense of our life; He has distributed all His gifts, offering to us His Spirit and the opportunity to live His life. Now we are free, similar to Him and we see through Him what we are: sons in the Son, finally adults and responsible, we can testify and proclaim to the brethren Father's Love, going on to do and to teach to the extreme ends of the earth as much as He began to do and to teach from Galilee to Jerusalem.
"Go therefore and make disciples of all peoples," says Jesus to eleven ones.
When He ended His own mission, those who welcomed Him ,they begin their journey. It is the same one of the Son, who witnesses Father's Love to the brothers who do not yet know Him. The one who, in Him, has discovered his son's name, realizes, as He does, going toward his brothers, until the Father's name is sanctified throughout of the earth. Time is a journey, the goal of which is to be with He who is always and forever with us. This will be when, through the testimony of the disciples, we all will become sons and brothers.
P. E. Ronchi - The disciples have returned to Galilee, to that mountain they knew well. When they saw Him, they prostrated themselves. Jesus left the world with a deficit: He was left with only eleven afraid and confused men and a small group of courageous and faithful women. They followed Him for three years on the streets of Palestine, they did not understand much but they loved Him very much.
RispondiEliminaAnd they are all there on the last mountain. This is the only guarantee Jesus needs. Now He can return to the Father, reassured that he is loved, even if not completely understood. Now he knows that none of those men and women will forget him. But they doubted...
Jesus performs an act of enormous, illogical confidence in people who still doubt. There He not yet remains a little, to explain better, to clarify the dark points. But He entrusts His message to people who still doubt. There is no true faith without doubt. Doubts are like the poor, we will always have them with us. If you question them with courage, from apparent enemies they will become defenders of the faith, they will protect it from the assault of superficial answers and sentences.
Jesus entrusts the dreamed world to the fragility of the Eleven, and not to the intelligence of the first of the class; he entrusts the truth to the doubters, he calls the claudicants to go to the ends of the earth, he has faith in us who have no firm faith in him.
I have been given over to every power in heaven and on earth...
Go then. That therefore is beautiful: therefore my power is yours; therefore all things mine and yours also: therefore I am the one that dwells in you and presses you. Therefore, go. Make disciples of all peoples...
To what end? Enlist devotees, strengthen the ranks?
No, but for a contagion, an epidemic of life and birth.
And then the last words, the will: I am with you, every day, until the end of the world. With you, always, never alone.
What Ascension be, we understand from these words.
Jesus did not go far or high up, in some remote corner of the cosmos, but he became closer than before. If before He was with the disciples, now He will be inside them. He did not go beyond the clouds, but beyond the forms.
He has ascended into the depths of things, into the depths of creation and creatures, and from within He presses as an ascending force toward more luminous life:
"The Risen One mysteriously wraps the creatures and orients them to a destiny of fullness.
The same flowers of the field and the birds that He contemplated admired by his human eyes, are now filled by His luminous presence" ( Pope Francis -Laudato si', 100).
He who knows how to feel and enjoy of this mystery,
walks on the earth like inside a tabernacle,
inside an endless baptism.