12 May, 2024 06:20

Fr. Rick’s Two-Minute Homily for the Feast of the Ascension and Mother’s Day B
May 12, 2024, Mark 1:15-20
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/051224-Ascension.cfm

Very thoughtfully, a mother handed her son a beautifully wrapped package on his 18th birthday. Carefully, he removed the paper and lifted the box cover. Finally, he parted the soft inner wrapping, revealing the contents: two long, thin strips of tightly woven material that the young man recognized immediately as his mother’s apron strings.

It was the most beautiful gift that the boy’s mother could have given him on his 18th birthday. In that act of self-giving, the wise mother revealed herself. She trusted he would wisely use all that she shared with him to guide and direct him in all his life’s decisions. Think of the mother’s confidence in her son, who just turned 18. Can you picture in your heart what she was feeling?

Please, God, we can all be thankful to our mothers, both living and dead, who have given us many beautiful natural and supernatural gifts and abilities. We cannot put a price on such treasures and graces that have helped us become who we are today.

How appropriate we celebrate Mother’s Day on the day Mother Church celebrates the Ascension of our Lord into heaven. We can see the similarities between the mother trusting her son or daughter to live and succeed in the world and Jesus trusting his disciples and us to continue His mission of saving the world.

Jesus is cutting his apron strings, entrusting the disciples in the sense that He will no longer physically be with them to lead and guide them. Let us take special note from where Jesus will lead them, that’s right, from heaven.

Mothers impart upon their children the wisdom and knowledge to live in this world successfully. So, Jesus imparts wisdom and insight from heaven to us that we cannot attain naturally. Blessed Antonio Rosmini, our Beloved Founder, helps me see this truth more clearly. He writes from the Rules…

Rules Of The Institute Of Charity.

6th Maxim
To direct all the actions of one’s life with a spirit of understanding.

1. The Christian must always walk in the light, never in darkness.
2. To this end, he must, by constant prayer to the Holy Spirit, ask for the gift of understanding, by which he will be able to see into and grasp the sublime truths of faith; for the gift of wisdom, by which he will be able to judge rightly of divine things; for the gift of knowledge, by which he will be enabled to judge rightly of human things; and lastly for the gift of counsel, by which he will be unable to direct his own affairs applying the truths he has learned to the particular actions of his life.

God loves us so much that He gives us everything we need to live in His world, as His sons and daughters. Every morning when I am with Jesus in adoration and look up at Him in the monstrance, I can see Him opening the gates of heaven, which are the door of His heart, and fill me with every gift I need to serve you and honor you as His priest. I don’t want to do anything on my own, even take a breath without Jesus. You deserve the best, nothing less.

Thinking of what is happening in our lives right now, we may need God’s direction and guidance. Or we are struggling to find out what God asks us to do. Maybe a dramatic event has changed our lives, and it doesn’t make sense. Or perhaps we have challenging issues we cannot resolve.

What we cannot figure out by ourselves or what remains hidden from us is not as impossible as we think. We are not alone. We all have received the gift of the Holy Spirit, Whom Jesus received at His baptism.

The same Spirit can do the work He did in Jesus. Remember, Jesus told us we would do what He did and even greater things.

Ask Him for that heavenly insight and wisdom we need at this moment in our lives. We can take great comfort in Mother Mary. Her surrender is so perfect she allows God to do what only God can do. We can pray with her what she told the Angel Gabriel, “Let it be done to me as you say.”

My brothers and sisters, we have received what she received to conceive Jesus, “The Power of the Most High,” Who is the Holy Spirit.

When we pray and ask for this gift of the Holy Spirit every morning, we will find the Lord Jesus handing us another box, and I bet we can guess what’s inside: a new set of apron strings just for today. The apron strings are the trust He places in us that we will not do anything without Him. Isn’t it great! We can’t miss with Jesus.

Love Your Neighbor!

F.r Rick Pilger, IC

www.bscchurch.com