5/28/2023

Fr. Karl Barmann is coming the last week of June, then taking vacation the first week in July. I probably will be gone the middle
of July, and he will take the last week of July off as well. I am looking forward to his coming, and we hope to serve both the parish and
the Newman Center. It will be great to have someone else here who can cover emergencies and provide some flexibility for both of us
with regard to saying Masses.
Last Sunday I spoke about the role of the Ascension in our belief. The homily incorporated a few key phrases that need to be
understood and are at the heart of our faith: 1) Jesus as our High Priest, 2) the idea of Total Self Gift which characterizes the relationship of the Person of the Trinity, and 3) why it makes sense that Jesus would go to the Father instead of remain here with us. Let me explain.

1) Jesus is our High Priest. What do priests do? They offer sacrifices, give blessings, and in general stand or mediate betweenhumanity and God. In the Old Testament the sacrifices were things that people produced and offered to God, things likelambs, oxen, or crops. The sacrifices did not truly compensate for sinfulness and were not of value to God (he does not need our sacrifices), but they were important as expressions or signs of OUR desire to be on good terms with God. When the Word became flesh and offered Himself to the Father for the rest of humanity, then that changed. Jesus was a true mediator between both God and man since he was BOTH. His gift of self to the Father on the cross truly atoned for any and all trespasses.

2) Here is where the idea of Total Self Gift comes into play. God is love, and to love perfectly means to give oneself totally for another or to another. From all eternity, before the incarnation, before creation, in the Trinity God the Father gave himself to God the Son and God the Son reciprocated by giving himself totally to the Father. From the mutual Total Self Gift proceeded a bond, and that is what we call the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit revealed to the disciples at Pentecost. In any case, this Total Self Gift of Christ to the Father (that goes on throughout eternity) was expressed in creation as the crucifixion. When God became man as Jesus gave himself totally to the Father (which goes on constantly in eternity), in the flesh it came to look like the crucifixion. Then the reciprocal gift looked like the Resurrection when the Father gave Himself back to the Son. What happens at the Mass is that we humans are invited to participate in the mutual Total Self Gift between the Father and the Son. In the Mass the sacrifice is Christ’s sacrifice of Himself to the Father for humanity. By inviting us to participate, we are called to a higher level of love, to give of ourselves totally and freely to God along with Christ. We call this divinization – the image of God in us is perfected as we strive to make a Total Self Gift in imitation of Christ. It is a long process by which we learn to let go of our own self will and do the Will of the Father, as did Christ. It is the Holy Spirit who allows us to do this. I think that will be what heaven is like when we are perfected.

3) Jesus goes to the Father in order to be our advocate at the right hand of the Father. His Ascension forces us to BELIEVE in Christ, that He is Divine and efficacious in serving as our mediator. It gives us cause for HOPE, since Jesus is a human who is now part of the Trinity. Where he has gone, we hope to go. And by sending the Holy Spirit (along with the Father) he makes possible our transformation into beings who are characterized by LOVE – we become more like God in our ability to give of our selves as a result of the gift of the Holy Spirit.

So the Ascension is no trivial feast. It is the necessary precursor to Pentecost this weekend when the Holy Spirit is revealed to
us totally. We pray and long for that outpouring!
It is a joy to be your pastor.

Father Albert, O.S.B.