"Why do you stand here looking up?"

"Why do you stand here looking up?"

Fr. Voigt (Ascension Thursday) 

 

Our Lord will return and when He does all will see Him from the least to the greatest and it will be an amazing moment in the history of man.  So what should we learn for the fact of the Ascension of our Lord?  

First, that in order for our souls to ascend into heaven they must be 

detached from the concerns and pleasures of the world in which we live.

Consider the bird caught by the little boy.  The boy tied the feet of the 

bird to a little stake in the ground.  He put four strings around the little 

legs and the bird could only rise six inches off the ground as hard as 

his little wings tried.  Now one other boy came along and saw the poor

bird struggling and cut a string.  Three strings still held the bird to the

earth.  Two other boys came along and each cut a string so that only

one string remained but the bird could rise no higher than six inches.

Finally, a little girl took pity on the poor bird and cut the final string and 

up, up and away the bird flew.

We cannot rise in our spiritual journey to heaven if we have any attachments to the world in which we live.  Cut the strings that attach you to family, friends, power, prestige, pleasures, and especially sin.  Do that and your soul will rise.  Then we can go to the next truth presented by the Ascension of our

Lord:  the question of faith begotten by the message of the Gospel.

Our mission is to preach the good news which most Catholics do not have a 

clue to what this good news is all about.  Even with the new evangelization there is more confusion than ever.  So our mission is to preach the good news that "God so loved this world that He sent His only-begotten son

to shed His precious blood for our souls that whosoever believes and 

is baptized will be saved."  The sad news is that those who are hard hearted

and worldly will not believe and so be condemned for their unbelief.

Finally, Catholics who believe will see the Lord seated not standing at the right hand of the Father.  Seated because He will be the judge of every soulever chosen to enter this theatre of redemption.  Those who believe will speak new languages; they will handle serpents; they will drink poisons and not be harmed; they will conquer the evil one who threatens us all.  They will find the narrow path that leads to life eternal.  Believe dear friends in the Ascension of our Lord and pray for the detachment necessary to save our souls.  

In the hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,

Fr. Richard Voigt