St. Anthony the Abbot Catholic Church

We don't think much about this, but it is the truth behind everything we believe. If Christ had not ascended into heaven, we would not be able to pray to Him at any time and in any place. We would not be able to have Him close by in the Eucharist, because He would still be limited by time and space. One of the saints who the Church commemorates today, May 17, thought about this truth a lot, and learned to take advantage of it.

St. Paschal Baylon was a Spanish peasant, a shepherd for the first 24 years of his life. He could barely read, but he loved Christ, and he had a special understanding of Christ's real presence in the Eucharist. He had to stay with his sheep from dawn to dark, which made it impossible for him to go to Mass every day. So he did the next best thing. At the hour Mass was being celebrated, he would kneel on the hillsides, gazing at the church in the valley, and pray, uniting himself to Christ who was renewing his sacrifice and presence through the priest's ministry. 

Eventually, St. Paschal found his vocation to become a religious brother. He joined the local Franciscan community and encouraged everyone by his virtue, joy, and good humor. During free moments between duties, he could almost always be found in the chapel, speaking with Christ in the Eucharist. To casual onlookers he was kneeling on a hard stone floor here on earth, but in truth he was enjoying the presence of our King who sits forever on His throne in heaven. He died when he was only fifty-two, at the very moment that the bell rang to signify the consecration at Mass.

We owe Christ's continuing presence on earth - through the Church, the sacraments, the Holy Spirit - to this great event of the Ascension, by which Jesus, true God and true Man, became the everlasting bridge between heaven and earth.

In today's world, it takes an effort to keep our awareness of this magnificent, mysterious truth, fresh. In today's world, everyone is concerned about being tolerant. We are afraid of offending people who don't share our beliefs. That's good. Every human being deserves our respect, because Christ died, rose, and ascended in order to save every human being. His love embraces them all.

But in today's world, it's easy for us to let that respect turn into indifference, to become slaves of what Pope Benedict has called the "tyranny of relativism". It's easy to do that, because that's more comfortable than actually defending and spreading the truth. And yet, Christ is the only King of the universe, the only Lord of history.

Only Christ has ascended to the throne of heaven - not Buddha, not Confucius, not Mohammed. There is only one Savior. True, God is gracious; His mercy is not limited in any way. But He has made His mercy known by sending Jesus Christ. And He desires to extend His mercy to every person through spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. This is why He has given His Church, and us, the mission of "preaching repentance for the forgiveness of sins in His name to all the nations.”

Today let us ask for the strength never to be ashamed of the truth of Christ, the only Truth that will truly set us free.