The Angels and the Ascension: What We Didn't Know - Explaining the Faith with Fr. Chris Alar

追加: 2026-05-12

[00:00:07]Well, good morning everybody and thank you for joining us. I'm Father Chris here at the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy for a special edition of Explaining the Faith. Uh this is an excellent opportunity for me to talk about something I've never done on a Saturday talk before and it really surprised me. I've we have now um over close to 250 talks in our explaining the faith series and I was sure I had done the ascension and I realized never had I done the ascension on a Saturday talk so we're going to do that today and um I have to say this though you might say well father you've talked about it other times well actually I've never talked about something specific and the ascension has to do with the angels And that's very interesting. We don't think about that. We don't know about that. But I'm going to go back to the church fathers and show you something really amazing about the ascension. So let us begin in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit.

[00:01:14]Amen. Heavenly father, we ask you send the holy spirit down upon us to open our minds and hearts to receive the grace you wish to bestow. the grace to lead us all to eternal life. And through the intercession of our blessed mother Mary, St. Fina, and all the saints, may almighty God bring us through the passion, death, and resurrection and ascension of your son to heavenly glory.

[00:01:38]We ask this through Christ our Lord.

[00:01:42]Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. So great, everybody. Like I said, this is powerful and we want to go through with you because the title of the talk is the angels and the ascension of Jesus.

[00:02:00]Something I've never talked about in the fact of the angels. All right. Now, the Easter Easter Sunday and its octave, which you've heard me talk about before, the eight days of Easter, they're all celebrated as one day as you know. Not going to go into all that now, but the Easter and its octave, those eight days are the highest somnity celebrations in the church, the highest feasts in the church. Okay?

[00:02:29]There are four semnities that rank right behind Easter and its octave. The next big four, what are they?

[00:02:40]>> Christmas, >> not the assumption.

[00:02:45]Pentecost Epiphany and what's the title of this talk?

[00:02:53]>> The ascension, not the assumption of Mary, the ascension of Jesus. Right? So you have Easter is the main thing with its octave including divine mercy Sunday. So you have those eight days from Easter Sunday to divine mercy Sunday and in the days in between.

[00:03:10]That's the biggest. Okay. Then you have the Tridawam. All right? And so those are that's the biggest that's the most holy 11 days of the year. But as for feasts, this is it because you have Easter and then right behind it, Christmas, Epiphany, Ascension, and Pentecost. Now, the reason we're talking about it today is Pentecost is coming up this Thursday. Now, we think of the resurrection as the completion of Christ's work, but it's actually the ascension.

[00:03:44]It's actually the ascension. That's why we say the passion, death, resurrection, and ascension is the pascal mystery. But we always forget the ascension. We say passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

[00:03:57]Passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We forget to add the ascension.

[00:04:01]Now some dascese in fact most have moved ascension to Sunday and actually it screws it up lurggically. Pope Benedict said. Now don't go yelling at your bishop and say father Chris said that you screwed everything up. I already get beaten up for enough stuff. But this is true. It's really Ascension Thursday due to the numbering of days and what the meaning is uh theologically is important. Do you know there's only five dascese left in the United States that don't move it to Sunday that actually celebrate or I should say provinces.

[00:04:46]So there's only five provinces in the United States that maintain the uh celebration of ascension on Thursday.

[00:04:57]Let's have brother Mark show it. These are the ecclesiastical provinces.

[00:05:02]Boston which we in the Springfield dascese are part of that province. So you'll have like Fall River and others. So the the province of Boston, the province of Hartford, the province of New York, the province of Philadelphia, and the province of Omaha, Nebraska.

[00:05:25]That's it. That's it. None in California, none in Florida. This is where it's important to keep those numberings. Now again, it's not invalid, but it's important. This day of ascension is so important that Acts of the Apostles opens with it. And so what we refer to as ascension tide are the 10day period between the ascension and what?

[00:05:58]>> Pentecost.

[00:05:59]The next 10 days. So on Ascension Thursday, we will celebrate here in Springfield. We're part of the Boston province. And then the next 10 days are called Ascension Tide. And it goes from Ascension Thursday to Pentecost Sunday.

[00:06:15]If you only go to Sunday Sunday, you you don't have 10 days between Ascension and Pentecost. But okay, again, please don't tell your bishop. I don't want to get in trouble. So now it's also common to do the oldest novena that we know in the church. The oldest novena is the one in preparation for what?

[00:06:41]Pentecost.

[00:06:43]Pentecost from Friday through Saturday before Pentecost.

[00:06:48]That's the preparation. And so let's go to our next slide. So from the end of the 4th century, the church has celebrated the ascension as a somnity.

[00:07:01]This is big. It's second only in importance along with other somnities to the pascal triduum as I mentioned before. Now let's get into the angels.

[00:07:14]Never had I learned this. And a friend of mine, manior Charles Pope, have any of you heard of him? I just spoke with him not long ago at a conference and I had a chance to catch up with him. He's really good. If you if you get a chance to see man senior Charles Pope, he's really good and I like speaking with him on on at different conferences. But anyway, he wrote an article called the role and experience of the angels at the ascension. But it's it's not his view. It's the view of the church fathers.

[00:07:51]Now the fundamental source that he took from is Cardinal Dan Leu Danloo the book the angels and their mission according to the fathers of the church.

[00:08:05]Now what does he say?

[00:08:08]starts with by saying Jesus told two parables, two parables that the fathers of the church interpret to represent the angels.

[00:08:19]Okay.

[00:08:21]Then Jesus told him this parable. Now I'm reading from Luke. What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the 99 in the pasture and go after the one that is lost until he finds it. And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders, comes home, and calls together his friends and neighbors to tell them, "Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost sheep." In the same way, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who reports re repents than over 99 righteous ones who do not need to repent.

[00:09:08]Who's the 99?

[00:09:11]Do you know 99 people who don't need to repent?

[00:09:15]I don't hold that thought. Then there's the other parable in Luke, Luke 15.

[00:09:23]Or what woman who has 10 silver coins and loses one of them does not light a lamp, sweep her house, and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she uh calls together her friends and neighbors to say, "Rejoice with me, for I have found my lost coin."

[00:09:45]In the same way I tell you there is joy in the presence of God's angels over one sinner who repents.

[00:09:54]Now he's starting to tell you who's rejoicing.

[00:09:58]God's angels. So let's go to the church fathers. Gregory of Nanzenzis interprets this as Christ's enter Christ entering into heaven at the ascension.

[00:10:13]And after having recovered the lost sheep and the lost coin, he calls together who to share his joy?

[00:10:23]The angels.

[00:10:25]The angels.

[00:10:27]So there is a tradition among the church fathers but even goes back earlier than them which sees the lost sheep as human beings and the flock which the good shepherd leaves in order to search for that lost sheep is the angels.

[00:10:49]Jesus left the angels to go get you.

[00:10:55]origin said, "We must see the 99 sheep as a representation of the powers, principalities, and dominions and other angels whom the head and shepherd Jesus has left behind to go down and seek out the one who is lost."

[00:11:18]So Jesus left the angels to come get you. Gregory of Nissa says, "We mankind are the lost sheep and have strayed from the other spiritual creatures, the angels."

[00:11:36]The angels are the righteous, the 99 that don't need to repent.

[00:11:43]We're the lost sheep. Hence, we are given a picture of joy as Christ re-enters heaven with the lost sheep now in his arms on his shoulder. You ever see that picture of Jesus carrying that lamb?

[00:11:57]That's leaving the angels coming down getting you and going back now with you on his shoulders. And that's exactly what happens in the meaning of the mass which I have talked about before but I'm going to reiterate here at the end of this talk. This is fascinating.

[00:12:13]Now, hence we are given a picture of joy. Then Jesus prophesies his ascension in John's gospel that it's something Nathaniel will see.

[00:12:26]Jesus's description also shows the role of the angels in his ascension. Here's John chapter 1.

[00:12:36]Chapter 1, verse 50. Jesus said to Nathaniel, "Do you believe just because I told you I saw you under the fig tree?

[00:12:48]You will see greater things than these.

[00:12:51]You will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man."

[00:13:02]H interesting.

[00:13:05]Now go to the Psalms.

[00:13:10]The church fathers Ucius John chrostm Justin Martyr and Athanasius say that the virtues the angels of heaven seeing him begin to ascend, rise and surround to form an escort proclaiming Jesus's ascension as they cry, "Rise up eternal gates, the King of glory will enter.

[00:13:40]We pray that in the Psalms in the liturgy of the hours.

[00:13:46]Gregory of Nissa adds that at first the higher angels do not recognize Christ since he has put on a poor tunic of humanity and because his garments were stained with blood they didn't recognize it. Now, Ucius, he cites Psalm 47 as fulfilled in the ascension through the praises of the angels.

[00:14:13]Now, the exaltation of our humanity in the ascension is developed in scripture and by the church fathers. Here's where it gets to get interesting.

[00:14:26]Though the angelic nature, okay, let's let's go back. This you've heard me say before.

[00:14:33]Who's higher, man or the angels?

[00:14:39]>> Who's higher?

[00:14:41]>> Okay, I heard some angels. I heard some man. Who's higher?

[00:14:46]>> By nature.

[00:14:49]The angels are higher. They were created superior to man. They have superior intellect. They're not constrained by space and time. They don't get sick.

[00:14:59]They they they they they're not that they're they're just superior by nature.

[00:15:07]But by grace of the incarnation and the immaculate conception, man has been elevated above the angel.

[00:15:18]So by grace, we've now been lifted above although we don't deserve it. So listen to this. Though the angelic nature remains superior to human nature in the order of creation, Christ's incarnation, resurrection, and ascension have exalted our humanity above the angels by grace.

[00:15:49]The book of Hebrews says this, "For it is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come about which we are speaking, but somewhere it is testified in these words." What is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you care for him? You made him for a while lower than the angels and now you have crowned him with glory and honor and placed everything under his feet. This is Hebrews 2 meaning Jesus in his humanity.

[00:16:29]This speaks to Christ being superior to the angels. But we know that everybody knows Jesus is superior to the angels as God. He was always superior.

[00:16:40]But in the hypothatic union which is where Christ in his in the second person of the trinity divine person with the divine nature now assumes a human nature. So in this hypoatic you uniting himself to human nature cuz when he was conceived now he assumed a human nature raising human nature gloriously and ascending with that glorified human nature. He has exalted us above the angels.

[00:17:20]We don't think that. We don't realize that when we hear angels, we get all excited because they're so much better than us. No.

[00:17:30]St. John Croast said this of the ascension. Let's go to our next slide.

[00:17:34]Brother Mark could put up the next slide. Today we are raised up into heaven. This is about the ascension.

[00:17:42]This is John Croastam talking about the ascension.

[00:17:45]Today we are raised up into heaven. We who seemed unworthy even of earth in Christ and as members of his body, we are exalted above above the heavens.

[00:18:01]We arrive at the heavenly throne.

[00:18:05]The human nature which caused the cherubim to keep guard over paradise is now seated today above the cherubim.

[00:18:18]was not such a glory beyond all expression.

[00:18:22]But he rose above the angels. He passed the cherubim. He went higher than the seraraphim.

[00:18:31]He bypassed the thrones.

[00:18:34]He didn't stop until he arrived at the very throne of God. Well, yeah, but but father, that's Jesus.

[00:18:43]Actually, the feast of the ascension is our feast, too. Cuz he's now united to our humanity. He's not united to angology.

[00:18:56]He's not united to the angel's nature.

[00:18:59]He's united to ours. In baptism, we died with Christ and rose with him to new life. In the ascension, we also ascend with him.

[00:19:11]in Christ and as members of the body through baptism, we are mystically seated with him at the Father's right hand.

[00:19:20]Do you ever think of this? This is what you're destined for in Christ. And by his ascension, our lowly nature is glorified. And we hear the call, come, come up higher. Remember in the scripture we said take the low seat and then the master will come and say come take a higher seat. This is it for now. We never cease to honor the angels and that's good. Who by nature are superior to us and take care of us and protect us. That's good.

[00:19:57]Yet by grace alone in Christ, we have ascended with Christ to the highest place on account of which the angels marvel and sing God's praises. You know, the ascension is the counterpart to the fall of Eden.

[00:20:16]But we are not simply restored to an earthly paradise like Eden. We are taken to the heavenly paradise.

[00:20:26]You ever hear the term, oh happy fault?

[00:20:29]Yeah, Adam and Eve had it pretty good.

[00:20:31]They had the the pre-ternatural gifts.

[00:20:33]They didn't get sick. They didn't get COVID.

[00:20:38]Then they messed up.

[00:20:40]Then God sent the redeemer and actually elevated them to a level higher than they were to begin with.

[00:20:49]This is why Satan rebelled.

[00:20:53]There is an ancient tradition that the angels were shown God's plan and Lucifer, the highest ranking angel, spit at it. He recoiled at the idea of God joining himself to the mere mud dolls of humanity, the scum.

[00:21:15]So he inspired a rebellion. He waged war in the heavens and was cast out by Michael and the other angels that were loyal. Now he roams the earth deeply envious of human beings seeking to destroy him.

[00:21:32]I'm sorry, seeking to destroy them because they are the reason he was evicted.

[00:21:40]This is shown really in Revelation 12.

[00:21:45]But the details of the reason for Satan's wrath, yeah, they're not specifically spelled out in scripture, but we have this sacred tradition.

[00:21:56]Now, I want to share with you some of my seminary notes that I took when I we studied this in in class.

[00:22:04]First of all, Christ says, "It is better if I go if I send to the father for then I can send the pariclete."

[00:22:14]Okay, this is the birth of the liturgy.

[00:22:20]Really? I'm sitting in class going, "Huh?"

[00:22:25]And I had a real good priest professor who said when Jesus said, "It is better if I go then I can send the pariclete."

[00:22:31]This was the birth of the liturgy, a theology of the Trinity. And I'm like, "Huh?

[00:22:40]How in his humanity, Jesus takes place beside the father.

[00:22:48]After Christ's ascension, the river of life, the Holy Spirit can now flow down from the throne of God.

[00:22:59]Jesus takes his place at the right side of the father and from it pours the gift of the holy spirit. Now you have the trinity.

[00:23:08]the second person at the right hand of the first person of the trinity and then flows down the Holy Spirit. This is a continual ascension and Pentecost.

[00:23:20]What is ascension? Jesus rises. What is Pentecost? The Holy Spirit comes down.

[00:23:26]Our whole faith is based on the ascension of Christ and the descent of the Holy Spirit. It is now and wow. This is so amazing. It is not by himself though.

[00:23:45]Jesus left the angels to go down and get who?

[00:23:49]You.

[00:23:50]Now when he comes back, he's not alone.

[00:23:56]He's with his adopted children whom he repaired.

[00:24:01]The doors of heaven are now open from Easter.

[00:24:05]And on the eighth day when you enter into eternity, you can now walk through them. Divine mercy Sunday. That's why Jesus wanted you cleansed clean so you can be that spotless bride for him to take through that open door into the wedding feast.

[00:24:21]Amazing.

[00:24:23]Let's go to our next slide. The Catechism of the Church says Christ's ascent marks definitive entrance of Jesus's humanity into God's heavenly realm. Notice it doesn't say Jesus going into the heavenly realm by himself.

[00:24:40]Christ's ascent marks the entrance of his humanity into God's heavenly realm. That's us.

[00:24:48]He's tied to us. So, the ascension celebrates humanity's elevation to the highest heavens. We now share in the divine nature. Last page. And it's only one side.

[00:25:02]The ascension of Christ is our elevation.

[00:25:07]The glory of the head in the body of Christ. Who's the head?

[00:25:13]Who's the head in the body of Christ?

[00:25:16]>> Jesus.

[00:25:18]Who's the body?

[00:25:20]>> We are.

[00:25:22]Who's the neck?

[00:25:25]>> Mary.

[00:25:27]Somebody on YouTube a while ago when I mentioned this said the scathing comments. you heretic, you you blaspher, you don't even know the you don't even know what heretic means if you claim that because the the the the church fathers have taught this.

[00:25:45]So the glory of the head Jesus has preceded us. He went first.

[00:25:52]So there is hope for us the body to follow the head. So Jesus is the head.

[00:26:02]Now this is where everything comes from.

[00:26:04]But if you eat something to get the nourishment to the body, it's got to go through the neck. This is why the grace of God goes through Mary. She's the the the mediatrix of grace. She's the neck.

[00:26:19]And by the way, we are allowed to talk about co-mediatrix and co-redemptress that the dash made it very clear. They clarified themselves. What they meant by it's not allowed is in church official documents as a priest up here at an ambo. I'm allowed to speak about it. I'm allowed to mention the word.

[00:26:42]Now the Holy Spirit will come once we Jesus is ascended. Now the Holy Spirit will come in Pentecost and give us the grace to evangelize the world.

[00:26:54]confirmation and through the Holy Spirit, the liturgy finds embodiment in the church and the Holy Spirit gives life to men by bringing them into communion.

[00:27:12]In the Bible, it says Jesus will remain.

[00:27:15]I will remain with you until the end of time. Well, wait a minute. How? He ascended to the father. He's gone. No, the sacraments have replaced his bodily presence with spiritual presence. The Holy Spirit in the mass when I say the Lord be with you and you say with your spirit and I say lift up your hearts. We lift them up to the Lord. You are lifting them up. You're sharing in the Lord's resurrection.

[00:27:45]I'm sorry, his ascension.

[00:27:48]You're sharing in his ascension. Now let's go to our next slide which is a um a a clip of um Ratzinger I mean a quote Ratzinger said in lurggical celebration there is a kind of turning around of exituse to readituse of departure to return of God's descent to our ascent The shepherd takes the lost sheep on his shoulders and carries it home.

[00:28:27]This is the meaning of the mass.

[00:28:31]Now, let me go through it.

[00:28:34]You've heard this before. I'm not going to spend a ton of time on it, but it is bam.

[00:28:40]Because you've heard me say at the feet of Father Saraphim, I learned so much.

[00:28:48]And Father Sarapim, the world's expert on divine mercy, used to talk about the three great acts of God's mercy.

[00:28:56]That three great acts of mercy, he used to say, ties to the entire teaching of our faith. Do you remember me teaching you that our entire faith can be explained by a circle? kind of like a descent of Jesus or I should say an ascent of the of Christ, a descent of the Holy Spirit. The ascent of Christ is kind of like this, right? And our whole faith is explained in a circle. All comes from God just like the Holy Spirit. All will return to God. Now, here's the thing.

[00:29:36]This One symbol of a circle explains our entire faith. Exitus all comes from God.

[00:29:44]Readitus all returns to God. So Thomas Aquinus said our whole faith is summarized in a circle. And so did the church fathers. Now father saraphim took it and said don't you see it ties to the great acts of mercy. The first great act of mercy. And before I remind you what it is, let me ask you a reverse question. What's the greatest evil in the world? And people think abortion or murder, even though do you know using God's name in vain is a higher commandment than murder.

[00:30:23]Do you realize that it's a more serious sin?

[00:30:26]I mean, that blows the mind, doesn't it?

[00:30:30]Because it's a sin directly against God.

[00:30:34]And so what is the worst evil? Is it abortion? Is it murder? What is the worst evil?

[00:30:42]It's actually not to exist.

[00:30:48]Not to exist.

[00:30:51]That's why Jesus said it'd be better if this man was never born.

[00:30:55]So here's what we got everybody. Here's the trinity. Father, son, and holy spirit. So the first great act of mercy is creation because the worst evil is not to exist.

[00:31:09]So the first great act of mercy is creation. Who do we usually attribute it to?

[00:31:15]>> The first person of the trinity, God the father. So here's the trinity all happy.

[00:31:21]They decide they want to share their love. They want it to flow outside of the trinity. That's mercy.

[00:31:28]And the first great act of mercy is creation by the first person of the trinity. Then what happened? We got broken.

[00:31:36]So in the second great act of mercy, the second person of the trinity, the second person of the trinity came down to redeem us.

[00:31:46]Redemption. The second great act of mercy.

[00:31:50]Now, the third and the final and the greatest act of mercy is returning back to God the Father. But we can't do that until we are sanctified.

[00:32:07]Sanctification, the third great act of God's mercy. And who do we normally attribute that to?

[00:32:15]>> The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity.

[00:32:20]And so that first great act of mercy, creation, it's done. The world's created. Even though, yeah, we have little acts of creation within like my executive assistant Jackie was here today for the ordinations with the little baby. It's only a month. She's only a month old.

[00:32:37]The cutest little thing. And her husband there is just holding her and his hands bigger than the baby. It's just funny. I mean, it's it's beautiful. But there is new life in that sense of creation. But the world has been created. Creation is done. After six days, God rested.

[00:32:56]So the work of the of the of the of the father, the first person of trinity is done.

[00:33:02]It's done.

[00:33:05]Then Jesus came down and redeemed us.

[00:33:07]The second great act of mercy, redemption. And what did he say on the cross?

[00:33:12]>> It is finished.

[00:33:15]The work of redemption is done. Every single human being who's ever lived or ever will live has been redeemed.

[00:33:22]Not every will be saved, though. So, the only work yet to be done is to be made holy. We've been created.

[00:33:34]We have been redeemed.

[00:33:37]The only work left is for us to be made holy, to be sanctified.

[00:33:42]And that is the work of who?

[00:33:45]>> The Holy Spirit. And now we go back to the father repaired.

[00:33:53]Now when does this happen? When is this sanctification?

[00:33:59]Some will say at baptism. Good guess.

[00:34:01]Some will say at the beatotific vision.

[00:34:03]Good guess. But where does this happen?

[00:34:05]Every day. Somewhere around the world.

[00:34:08]Every minute of every day.

[00:34:10]at the mass.

[00:34:13]At the mass, this is where I want to get to because you've heard me say this before, but I think this talk about the ascension actually brings it to life. I've isolated this part of the mass before, but I've never related it to the ascension like this because what is the high point of the mass?

[00:34:33]We always say the consecration, but if if it's not fulfilled, I can consecrate bread and wine all day long.

[00:34:40]and he could just be sitting there unconsumed, not not fulfilled and and and and and it's not the high point. What is the high point of the mass? It's that concluding doxology where the priest takes the patent and the chalice and he lifts it and he says through him and with him and in him oh God almighty father in the unity of the holy spirit all glory and honor is yours forever and ever what's going on exitus ready touse all came from God all creation you're here present at the mass we are at Calvary Whether you're you're you're in the pew or you're in on the live stream, when you come to mass, you are at Calvary.

[00:35:29]All of creation is here present. Then what happens? Christ redeems us on the cross. That's why there's a crucifix in every mass. At every mass, like we see on the altar, there's a crucifix with the corpus of Jesus on it because you're at Calvary as Jesus is paying your debt to sin. Now, is that it? You're redeemed. Okay, I'm redeemed right now.

[00:35:57]Have you been redeemed yet?

[00:35:59]Yes, you are redeemed.

[00:36:02]But are you guaranteed heaven?

[00:36:05]>> No, you got to be sanctified. So now what's happening in the concluding doxology through him and with him and in him oh God almighty father the prayers are to the father okay all glory this this is what's going on okay basically what's happening is all creation is present Jesus came in this mass we're at Calvary and he redeems us now through the ascension Jesus is taking us back to the father by the power of the holy Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has cleansed you and sanctifies you and cleans you and makes you holy so that Jesus puts you on his shoulders and now he ascends back to God the Father. But this time he's not alone. He's with you.

[00:36:57]And this completes this completes going back to the father.

[00:37:03]And so this is our whole faith summarized in exitus readyitus. And it all happens right there.

[00:37:14]It's right there. And this is what's so incredible.

[00:37:19]Now that the incarnate son of God has ascended into heaven and sits at the throne of God, we can now follow.

[00:37:29]He now takes us with him, united to the son through baptism, through communion, through reception of the holy eukarist and the other sacraments. The hope of heaven is now ours.

[00:37:45]This is why you need the mass.

[00:37:49]This is the way to get back to God the father from which you came.

[00:37:54]You know, this is what many people just don't understand. But this is what the power of the mass is. It's where you are sanctified.

[00:38:04]Where you are purified and and made cleansed and and sanctified so that you can go back just like Jesus where the head went, you follow. Now he's got you on his shoulders.

[00:38:16]But we need the grace of the sacraments.

[00:38:18]Confession to be cleansed and communion to be united. Communion.

[00:38:24]And so, you know, don't you think that the death of a family member or a friend must really be sad and almost unbearable in the life of an atheist?

[00:38:36]You ever you ever thought about that?

[00:38:40]An atheist is one who really is convinced that there is no God.

[00:38:45]So, the death of a friend or a lovely loved one, no future life is possible.

[00:38:51]and and therefore that that friend or relative is just going to turn into dust in the grave, never to be met with you again.

[00:39:01]That's got to be pretty demoralizing.

[00:39:05]Thank God, our faith, in our faith, we know the truth that death is not the end.

[00:39:13]It is rather the real beginning.

[00:39:17]The ascension of Jesus in his human nature to our father's home is the confirmation and the guarantee of our faith. We shall all rise from the grave with new glorified bodies and ascend to heaven as Christ did.

[00:39:37]He gave this to us. There will begin our true life of eternal happiness. not here. Jesus never promised that in this life.

[00:39:47]It was written and foretold that Christ should suffer and then enter into his glory. And remember, the servant is not above the master.

[00:39:59]We have no right to bypass that suffering that Christ had to go through.

[00:40:04]I too must suffer. I too must accept the hardships and trials of this life. If I want to and I do enter into the life of glory.

[00:40:17]Christ who was sinless suffered hardship and pain.

[00:40:23]I have and I think this is what you should ask yourself. Say to yourself, do you say this? I have earned many if not all of my hardships by my own sins.

[00:40:35]Yes, you have. I have. And so we should be glad of the opportunity to make some atonement for our past offenses by willingly accepting the cross crosses that God sends.

[00:40:51]These crosses are signs of God's interest in my and your welfare. Through him, he is giving us a chance to prepare ourselves for the day of reckoning. for the moment that our death will decide our eternal future.

[00:41:09]For every every player and prayer, I should say every prayer that we make for success in life.

[00:41:21]Lord, help me pass this exam. Lord, help me get through. Help me get this new promotion. Help us get this new house.

[00:41:27]That's not bad. But for every prayer that you pray for success in life, you should say three for the successful death.

[00:41:40]You ever think of that? For every prayer that you say for success in life, you should say three for a successful death.

[00:41:49]A death free from sin and at peace with God.

[00:41:54]Then you'll be ready for him to put you on his shoulders and take you back to the father.

[00:42:00]That's what happens at the mass. It's a foretaste of heaven. At first glance, I admit the ascension seems to be sad.

[00:42:09]Christ in his human body is leaving the world for the last time.

[00:42:15]Sad.

[00:42:17]But we need to look at the liturgy.

[00:42:21]This is actually a joyful feast. It's the fulfillment of Christ's mission.

[00:42:29]And it has to do with leaving the angels to do it.

[00:42:34]And he comes down and he gets you at the mass.

[00:42:39]That is amazing. The ascension is the final leg of the pascal mystery.

[00:42:45]passion, death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. This is what's mentioned in the eukaristic prayer of the mass.

[00:42:55]So, it is not until Jesus ascends and returns to his father that his act of redemption is complete.

[00:43:06]It's not until Jesus ascends and returns to his father that it is complete. Is it complete now?

[00:43:15]Yes, redemption is complete. He's ascended to the Father. But is our salvation and working out our salvation complete?

[00:43:25]>> Nope. And we need the Holy Spirit to come back down.

[00:43:30]Every mass you're brought back up in ascension.

[00:43:35]And every time we sin or we screw up, we go to confession. Here comes down the Holy Spirit.

[00:43:43]It's a continuous ascension of the of Christ and descent of the Holy Spirit according to Pope Benedict the 16th.

[00:43:51]Our place in heaven is prepared at this feast.

[00:43:58]Think of that. Your place in heaven is prepared at this feast of the ascension.

[00:44:05]We will now share in Christ's glory.

[00:44:10]So let's go to the last slide.

[00:44:14]This is a picture and the title of it is Psalm 47. So I looked up Psalm 47. Like what's going on in that picture? Psalm 47 says, "God mounts his throne because remember Jesus ascends and sits at the right hand of the father to shouts of joy, a blare of trumpets for the Lord."

[00:44:39]And that is what we Marian pray in the psalms of the liturgy of the hours.

[00:44:47]And so here I've never done in a talk on the ascension. I did on exitus ready.

[00:44:53]I've talked about that many times. But now it makes sense to me even more because it's tied to the ascension and Christ brings us back to the father from which we came.

[00:45:08]But this time, he's not alone.

[00:45:11]He found that lost sheep and he left the 99 righteous angels that didn't need to repent to find that lost sheep. And when he takes you back to heaven, back to the father, they rejoice.

[00:45:27]They rejoice.

[00:45:29]This is beautiful. And coming up this Thursday, at least in our province of Boston, we will celebrate the ascension.

[00:45:40]If you're in a dascese that moved it to Sunday, don't not go.

[00:45:46]You have to go.

[00:45:48]The church has this authority. She can move it to Sunday. And that's why because the church doesn't want people to miss the obligation.

[00:45:59]Is the ascension a holy day of obligation?

[00:46:03]Yes. And that's why they made it on Sunday so you wouldn't miss it. In our dascese, it's on Thursday.

[00:46:13]And some of those others, same of those other dascese I mentioned, Philadelphia, New York, Omaha, Hartford, it's a holy day of obligation.

[00:46:23]And so let us not look at it as a look at it as a yeah and that is what our faith is about.

[00:46:34]Praise be to God. All right. So let's finish now. I want to finish with the slide. Brother Mark, if you can show it.

[00:46:41]I've explained to you before. Praise be to God. Um we are now um we have so many vocations now. We just ordained three deacons. Um and and and and Father uh Patrick is being ordained uh today. This is Saturday. This video will be showing on Saturday to the priesthood. We've got many more men coming up in formation.

[00:47:04]We've now sending them to the best seminary in the country, St. Patrick's, out in California.

[00:47:10]But like a proud papa, there's a lot of mouths to feed. There's a lot of mouths to feed. So God sent the answer. He sent us uh nativity tours that do pilgrimages that the owner is so moved by divine mercy. He said, "I want to give back."

[00:47:31]Father Chris, the proceeds from your pilgrimages, I will give to the seminarians.

[00:47:37]We are now using these pilgrimages and it kills me. I trust me. I I got some really mean letters saying, "All you're doing is boondoggling all around the world and spending your donor's monies."

[00:47:48]I'm not spending a dollar of donor money. Nativity Tours is paying us and feeding our seminarians, paying their tuition, helping at least not all of it, but I use these pilgrimages to fund raise for our seminarians.

[00:48:09]And so that's why I do them and that's why we want to invite you on them. So, let's look at the first next pilgrimage is coming up uh coming up already and there's still a few seats left if you're interested. June 7th, so just a month away, we are going on the footsteps of St. Fina. We're going to Poland. Um and I will take you to the World Apostolic Congress of Mercy in Lithuania to see the original image of divine mercy that St. Fina had painted. And so, we will go there. I was invited to speak by the bishop of Vnius and I want to take you the sheep with me so that we can go there and experience mercy. So we'll visit the areas of St. Fina, Poland and Vnius. That's June 7th. Then we are still on track for the Holy Land.

[00:49:02]The owner of Nativity is from uh Jerusalem. He was born in the Holy Land.

[00:49:07]He was raised there. He still has a house there. and he knows exactly what's going on, when to go, where to go, how to go, what's safe. He knows it. So, we're planning on September 14th through the 23rd to be able to go on the Holy Land pilgrimage. And we will not ever even go with the slightest little danger. That's not going to happen. But he is he's stating, and I was just there. I was just in the Holy Land. I was walking the streets at 2:00 in the morning in a collar. No problems whatsoever. So, we'll keep monitoring that. If you wish to join us in the Holy Land, that is September 14th through the 23rd of this year. And then I'm excited about our Old Testament pilgrimage to Jordan and Mount Si, which will piggyback off of that. I'm going to be staying in the Holy Land and going to Jordan, Mount Si, and Egypt. I'll teach you about the Holy the Old Testament.

[00:50:00]And then we'll do a Nile River. We'll go on the Nile River. That's all included.

[00:50:05]And so you could be part you could do part of this just the Holy Land or you can do do both parts. And so again that is in September going into October. And then next year we're going to be going to Magigori. We have a new house there with brother Father Jason Lewis and Father Matt Lamaro. And we will do be doing a cruise um of the Adriatic and going to Croatia. And the cool thing about that is um uh that's where my family's from. this tiny little town in Croatia. It now has uh it's interesting.

[00:50:37]It's a tiny little town, but they all watch the Marian fathers even way over in Croatia. And so when I announced uh that I'm Croatian, they started watching. And then I said, I'm from this tiny little town. My greatgrandfather was born, Pod La Patch or Pod La Patcha.

[00:50:53]Palapacha. It's a little tiny town. And so they're they're inviting us to this little town. I I laugh because it's like getting the key to the city, but the town only has 55 people. So there there's only there's only 55 people, but how exciting to go to Magigori and to be able to to see some of the most beautiful de Bronik is amazing. And so again, how neat that that what you pay to go on this pilgrimage goes to our seminarians. Of course, they got to pay the cost with it, of course, but the proceeds above that goes to our seminarians. And so, you can you can do two things on this. You can see a beautiful tour. You can get an experience of a pilgrimage. And you can also help our seminarians. It's a beautiful thing. So, God bless you. And then lastly, today we just talked about the sacraments. Uh, pick up a copy. My newest book is called Understanding the Sacraments. If you can't afford it, I'll give it to you. I'll send it to you for free. Um the information is there on your screen. If you'd like to order a copy, visit shopmercy.org.

[00:51:58]Uh keyword is sacraments. You can call us at 8004627426.

[00:52:04]That's just 8004 Marian. Um and again, if if you can't afford it and you still will read it, I'll send it to you. Not a problem. And so we hope that you'll enjoy that. God bless you and remember the importance of what's coming up this Thursday or in your dascese on Sunday, the ascension. God bless you. The Lord be with you.

[00:52:28]>> And may almighty God bless you. The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

[00:52:33]>> Go in peace. The talk is ended. Thanks be to God. Thank you everybody. God bless you. Thank you for joining us.

[00:52:40]Thank you.

[00:52:42]Any qu?

[00:52:45]Now, we have created together with our friends at Ascension the Divine Mercy Catholic Bible. This is a beautiful leatherrett Bible that has just an absolutely important message for you.

[00:52:57]Not only is it all the words of scripture that you're familiar with, but in it we have great contributions from people like Father Sarapim, Dr. Robert Stackpole and others that explain exactly where you see God's mercy in each of the passages of both the Old and the New Testament. So, please join me and get a copy of this incredible new Divine Mercy Bible and help you to understand the Bible from the perspective of God's divine mercy. So, you can get your copy at shopmercy.org or or please call us at 800-4627426.

[00:53:36]Thank you. And we hope you'll pick up a copy.