May the joy of the Easter Season be with you! As we continue in these days to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ, it is a time in which we ponder and reflect upon the great gift and mystery of the Resurrection. We must cherish this time in the liturgy when the resurrected Lord is with us, as we hear proclaimed in the various Gospels the account of Jesus appearing to the apostles and disciples, strengthening their faith, and giving powerful witness to the reality of his Resurrection. This is truly a blessed time in the Church year, and a time to truly rejoice in the hope and joy of the Resurrection.
Soon, however, we will celebrate the feast of the Ascension, when the mission of Jesus on earth is complete and He ascends into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father. The Ascension, in many ways, is a feast that presents us with mixed emotions. On the one hand, there is a certain kind of sadness in the departure of Jesus, but then there are the reassuring words of Christ who promises us that “I will be with you until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). This promise of his presence is not just a comforting platitude as He departs, but as we have already seen in the appearance of Christ on the Road to Emmaus, Christ is really and truly present to us in the breaking of the bread, in the Eucharist through which Christ is really present to his Church until the end of time.
The feast of the Ascension is also a great time of joy and hope for us, as it is through his Ascension into heaven that Christ becomes the eternal and heavenly High Priest who enters into the heavenly sanctuary on behalf of us and opens again the gates of paradise. Jesus, through the sacrifice of his own blood, now becomes the mediator of a New Covenant, and becomes the one mediator and way to the Father. We see this most convincingly described in the Book of Hebrews:
But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come to be, passing through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by hands, that is, not belonging to this creation, he entered once for all into the sanctuary, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of a heifer's ashes can sanctify those who are defiled so that their flesh is cleansed, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God. For this reason he is mediator of a new covenant: since a death has taken place for deliverance from transgressions under the first covenant, those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.
— Hebrews 9:11-15
There is also another dimension to the Ascension and the departure of Jesus. Along with his departure also comes the promise of the sending of the Holy Spirit: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses to Jerusalem, throughout Judea, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). In fact, earlier during the Last Supper in the Gospel of John, Jesus even tells the apostles that it is good that He goes, so that He can then send the Holy Spirit: “But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you" (John 16:7). Blessed Pope John Paul II eloquently teaches us the meaning of this passage:
The Holy Spirit comes at the price of Christ's “departure”. While this “departure" caused the Apostles to be sorrowful, and this sorrow was to reach its culmination in the Passion and Death on Good Friday, "this sorrow will turn into joy," for Christ will add to this redemptive "departure" the glory of his Resurrection and Ascension to the Father. Thus the sorrow with its underlying joy is, for the Apostles in the context of their Master's "departure," an "advantageous" departure, for thanks to it another "Counselor" will come. At the price of the Cross which brings about the Redemption, in the power of the whole Paschal mystery of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit comes in order to remain from the day of Pentecost onwards with the Apostles, to remain with the Church and in the Church, and through her in the world.
— The Role of Holy Spirit in the Church and the World, Dominum et Vivificantem, 14
This coming of the Holy Spirit after the Ascension of Jesus leads us to the Pentecost event. After nine days of waiting and praying, the Holy Spirit comes in the fullness of his presence and power upon the apostles and the disciples who then burst out of the upper room and begin to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This coming of the Holy Spirit constitutes the beginning of the Church and her mission on earth. In fact, the Pentecost event itself manifests all four marks of the Church. The Church is seen as one as all the nations that are present there are made one in the Holy Spirit. The Church is certainly seen as holy as she is literally impregnated with the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. The Church is also clearly presented as apostolic as it is the apostles themselves who begin to teach and minister with the authority of Christ Himself. The Church is also seen as Catholic, or universal in that she encompasses in her mission all of humanity and becomes incarnate in every race and culture throughout the world. This is especially seen in that each person present in Jerusalem from all the corners of the ancient world heard the Gospel preached in his own language.
It is this mark of the Church as Catholic that I would like to highlight because one of the great gifts of our diocese here in Fort Worth is that our local Church is comprised of so many different cultures and ethnic backgrounds. One of the great gifts I have as bishop is when I travel all around the diocese and interact with the many different cultures and see how the Catholic faith is truly universal and has become incarnate in every culture. Unfortunately, there is always the temptation in the Church to see cultural diversity as a divisive force, or to see differing cultural expression in the Church as a threat to unity. Nothing could be farther from the truth! The Church is all the richer because of her catholicity, and it is in and through the power of the Holy Spirit that we are all made one — in fact the catholicity of the Church is at the service of her unity, of the Church’s spirituality of communion. Pope Benedict XVI, in his homily for Pentecost last year preached on this exact point:
The account of Pentecost in the Book of the Acts of the Apostles we listened to it in the First Reading (cf. Acts 2:1-11) presents the "new course" of the work that God began with Christ's Resurrection, a work that involves mankind, history and the cosmos. The Son of God, dead and Risen and returned to the Father, now breathes with untold energy the divine breath upon humanity, the Holy Spirit. And what does this new and powerful self-communication of God produce? Where there are divisions and estrangement the Paraclete creates unity and understanding. The Spirit triggers a process of reunification of the divided and dispersed parts of the human family. People, often reduced to individuals in competition or in conflict with each other, when touched by the Spirit of Christ open themselves to the experience of communion, which can involve them to such an extent as to make of them a new body, a new subject: the Church. This is the effect of God's work: unity; thus unity is the sign of recognition, the "business card" of the Church throughout her universal history. From the very beginning, from the Day of Pentecost, she speaks all languages. The universal Church precedes the particular Churches, and the latter must always conform to the former according to a criterion of unity and universality. The Church never remains a prisoner within political, racial, and cultural confines; she cannot be confused with States nor with Federations of States, because her unity is of a different type and aspires to transcend every human frontier.
May we always strive for a deeper unity within our diocese, and a deeper awareness of the spirituality of communion not only in our local Church, but also with the wider universal Church, to which we are called within the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church.
I am also very happy to announce that we will be having two different ordinations in the coming days. On May 31, Manuel Holguin will be ordained to the Transitional Diaconate at Immaculate Conception Parish in Denton. On June 4, Deacons Richard Kirkham, Khiem Van Nguyen, and Philip Petta will be ordained to the priesthood at St. Patrick Cathedral. Please pray for all these men as they are ordained that they may be extraordinary servants in the vineyard of the Lord. In addition, two of our seminarians who are preparing to begin their studies at the North American College in Rome, Matthew Tatyrek and Joe Keating, will make the public declarations of being a candidate for Holy Orders on Saturday, May 21 at St. Patrick's Cathedral. I am continuously encouraged by the increasing number of seminarians that are being called by the Lord to serve in our diocese, and this is another great sign of the Holy Spirit active and moving in our diocese as we move forward in this graced time in the Church.
I would also like to express my heartfelt congratulations to all of those who were received into the Church at Easter, all those who are receiving their First Holy Communion, and the many young people who I have had the privilege of confirming over the past several weeks. I am also looking forward the Confirmation of Adults from all across our diocese on Pentecost Sunday at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. I also want to thank all of you who work very hard and give generously of yourselves in the catechetical and sacramental preparation of all of those who are receiving these sacraments.
May the joy of this Easter Season remain with all of you as we prepare to celebrate the great gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
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