Our Return Ticket

 


Last Sunday we celebrated the joyful  feast of the Ascension, Jesus’ homecoming to the Father; a great feast of HOPE.  He left us, not as orphans, but promising to be with us to the end of time and to continue to work with us through the Holy Spirit.

Hope stretches us beyond what we can see or feel, and our faith assures us that where Jesus now is, one day we hope to follow. 

If we take time to be still and quieten our hearts of all the fleeting, dizzying attractions the world offers, we soon discover, like St. Augustine, that our hearts will be restless until we rest in Him.

Yes, we are wired for eternity.  Our hearts will live for ever and ever.  Heaven is our Homeland.  It’s as if we all come into the world with a return ticket. Like Jesus, we have come from the Father and we are returning to Him, no matter how long or how many twists and turns on our life’s journey...

I find that the elderly help us to reclaim this focus, readjust our radar, as it were.  The lure of life loses its hold, gradually fading away, and a new expansive vision fills their horizon... they wait in joy-filled hope...

We are blessed to have two 92 year olds in our Community...precious beyond words.  Pope Francis has a special love and veneration for the elderly.  ‘They are’, he says, ‘the guardians of our roots from which we have all grown’, ‘the messengers of tenderness’, ‘the messengers of the wisdom of lived experience’. Many times he pays glowing tribute to his grandmother, Nonna Rosa, who taught him to pray and was a great influence in his life.

‘The elderly have the privileged position of seeing clearly and with joy, what the true destination of life is...’

They are Ascension people with their sights fixed on the Homeland...

Let us treasure them in our midst and be drawn into their hope- filled vision...

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