Making Each Day Like Pentecost (Pentecost Sunday - Cycle C)

After Jesus was crucified, the disciples hid away behind locked doors for fear of suffering the same fate themselves. When Jesus rose from the dead and revealed himself to them, the disciples still remained in hiding. But on Pentecost they went forth to proclaim the Good News and they kept on proclaiming it, despite threats and persecution. In fact, eleven of the twelve apostles were martyred for their faith.

What made the difference was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Once they received the Holy Spirit, they had the courage and the strength to go forth. They were empowered for ministry. In the same way, we too derive our spiritual strength from the grace we receive through the Holy Spirit. Indeed, the Holy Spirit is the animating principle of the Church.

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What the Ascension Enjoins Upon Us to Do (Ascension Sunday - Cycle C)

In Greek mythology, the belief was that gods could become incarnate for short periods of time. They could take on human or animal forms just for a day or two and then could shed their incarnate shapes as if nothing had happened. The Catholic understanding of the incarnation is quite different. As Catholics, we believe that the incarnation was not a temporary, passing action of Christ, but a permanent act, which transformed the whole history of creation.

God is love and he created the world out of love to share his love with his creation. Humanity was created good and lived in the blessed state of Paradise in the beginning. But through the sin of our first parents, humanity fell from grace, resulting in a wedge between God and his creation. But even when human race was in darkness, God did not abandon us. He became incarnate as Jesus Christ - that is, he came among us as one of us, taking on a human nature, becoming like us in every way but sin.

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