Father Augustin Mang - May 17

St. Philip Catholic Church: Brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ, today we celebrate the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. This ascension celebration feast day marks the moment when Christ is exalted the heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. We can read that from a second reading. In the gospel, we see that at that moment in that celebration is that all power in heaven and ⁓ earth has been given to him. Therefore, this celebration is celebrated as a victorious and also a joyous celebration. We see that in our response to the Psalm, that God mounts his throne to shout of joy. And even the Psalm said, clap your hands, sing with joy that God is King. So in that sense, it's very a joyous celebration on top of that because Jesus takes our human nature in the incarnation. At that incarnation moment, Our nature is participated in the divine nature. In that nature, our Lord destroys sin and death. Through your nature and through my nature, He resurrected. And through that nature itself, that He ascended into heaven. He ascended to heaven in our nature. Therefore, it is a joyous celebration that our nature is being participated in the Triune God. Today we celebrate the ascension where Christ is physically taken up into heaven, but He's never truly absent with us. He reminded us in the gospel that I am with you always. St. Augustine on the office reading that our priests, we read at our office reading, he reminded us that Jesus continued to be with us in a new way, that our Lord is still present with us by His divinity and His power. That is what we see whenever we celebrate any sacrament. That is His ways of being present with us in the Eucharist, at baptism, confirmation, confession. He always continued to be with us in His divinity. We will celebrate baptism today. That is one way that He is still with us. His making purified us. His turning sinners, reconciled and turning into children of God. Another thing that how the Lord is always He's ⁓ absent with us, that we are always in union with God is also that in our second reading the church is explicitly called His body. His body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way. The Lord continued to be with us not only His divinity and His power, but ⁓ is now the head and we are the members, we are the body. ⁓ we will go to where the head has gone, the body will follow. That if Jesus continue with us in His divine divinity and in His power, how are we to remain in Him then? Saint Gustav continued to say that our faith, our hope, and our love serve as the spiritual bond that allows the body, the church, the faithful to remain in constant union with us. constant union with His head, with His Jesus Christ. So, the way we can be in union with God is our faith, hope, and charity. On this celebration, we cannot follow Jesus physically into heaven. We cannot go there yet. But brothers and sisters, say, Augustine, remind us that the faithful do not need to wait for death to experience heaven and to be in union with God. What we can do is that simply allow your hearts, let your hearts ascend with Jesus. We cannot follow Jesus with our physical body because our body is not resurrected body yet. One day we will be resurrected like Jesus and then at that time physical body and soul we will follow Jesus where he is. But at this time let our hearts ascend. with Jesus. And if our heart is assigned with Jesus, then we must seek the things that are above where Christ is. That's one way to know whether our heart is truly assigned with Jesus. Then you can pay attention what you are thinking in your daily life. Because our minds remind us, our mind tells us where our heart is. hearts will be where your love is. ⁓ mind will tell where your heart is. Therefore, prayer, meditation, contemplation are so important. We will be with our Lord one day. But on this celebration, let our hearts ascend with Him and let us seek the things that are above where Christ is.