Dear friend:

In the next few days --closing Easter and returning to the ordinary time - the major solemnities of the liturgical year will reach us: the Ascension, The Pentecost, the Holy Trinity, Corpus Christi and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

These are not feast days of "ours" that we celebrate with God, but God’s feast days He celebrates with us. I would, therefore, like to join you with a few words on each one of these celebrations, by including a brief comment (one per week) and by anticipating – through the use of links - some of our evangeli.net contents.

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With His Ascension to Heaven, Christ does not disappear nor abandon us; He is not gone to some remote place... It is just the contrary: never before God had been so close to men as in His Ascension. For the first time in history, a human Body – Jesus – enters Heaven that day, in the glory of God. Never ever had that happened!

To be in Heaven! It does not mean to be in some other planet, but to enter a new level of life: the human face of Jesus Christ appears in divine intimacy with the Father. Thus, in communion with the Father, Jesus sees us and assists us, wherever we may, be at any time. We, therefore, live Jesus’ presence among us in a different way. We would like to touch Him and join Him in his Humanity, but... now we have something much bigger! we can 'touch' and live his Divinity. The Holy Spirit, the Eucharist and the Word are the way to "touch" and live with this Jesus who, in His "going away" – has actually - "come back". God is God!.

«I am going away and I am coming back to you» (Jn 14:28), Jesus Christ had told them. And so the Apostles felt Him. In fact, «they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy» (Lk 24:52). From that moment on, they could "touch" the "intimate God," better than ever before. A great gift! which, at the same time, entailed a great task: «going into the whole world to proclaim the living Christ» (cf. Mk 16:15). Into the whole world? This was impossible and unfeasible. But they could do it, because now Christ the King of the world is with us more than ever before (read more).

Fr. Antoni Carol i Hostench

(General Coordinator of evangeli.net)