READINGS:    Acts 1: 1-11   /   Psalm 47: 2-3. 6-7. 8-9   /   Ephesians 1: 17-23   /    MARK 16: 15-20

HIS WORD… GO INTO THE WHOLE WORLD AND PROCLAIM THE GOSPEL TO EVERY CREATURE. WHOEVER BELIEVES AND IS BAPTIZED WILL BE SAVED; WHOEVER DOES NOT BELIEVE WILL BE CONDEMNED…

my words…“Father, mission accomplished!” can be the best theme to celebrate the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ, 40 days after He rose from the dead. And the mission was done in 3 years! Thus, the Baptism of the Lord, His public life and preaching and healing ministries, and His paschal mysteries form a one unit missionary event that He culminates by ascending into heaven in order to be seated at the right hand of the Father. Thus, mission accomplished! And this we perpetuate as a mystery by praying it as the Second Glorious Mystery of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Brothers and Sisters, major accomplishments of our life are marked by Graduation Exercises.When we graduate, it is the time that we shout: Mission accomplished! And the feeling is: We are in the highest heavens of our life! It is an experience of “ascensions” in our life. That is the mystery that Jesus did for us; an experience of feeling God is with us in our endeavors, in our missions, and in our successes.

The Ascension of Jesus is a pattern of life for us to follow. When and how? It is when the time comes for us to pass from this world to the next. Catholic tradition incorporates in our prayers for our beloved dead the 40^th day after death, alongside with the 9-days novena prayers, and the death anniversary prayers. What does the 40^th day after death prayer mean? Like Jesus, it is the official entry into heavens of our beloved dead. Jesus is the head of the Church, we are members of His Body, the Church by the sacrament of Baptism that we received; therefore where the head is, the members of the His body will hope to follow… thus, the ascension mystery for us.

Brothers and Sisters, as commissioned by the Risen Lord in today’s gospel, the Apostles must go to unfamiliar roads and faces in the whole world to give witness to the Risen Lord and to evangelize. They communicated the WORD of Jesus to the world! Today, we celebrate the “49^th World Communications Day” with the theme: “Communicating the Family: A Privileged Place of Encounter with the Gift of Love.” Pope Francis thought it appropriate to have the family as the center or point of reference in communication; after all, it is in our family that we first learn how to communicate. Like Jesus, before He ascended into heaven, He ordered His men to communicate the Gospel to every creature (Mk 16:15), and this communication of HIS WORD mission is perpetuated in the preaching ministry of the Church. Let us therefore continue communicating the Word of God in our times not only by mouth but more importantly in the modern gadgets of communication in our technological generation.

May the Word of God communicated to us and to the whole world, make us ascend into heaven to also say to our Father in heaven: “Father, mission accomplished!”