[media presentation below] GospelThink Sunday, May 21, The Ascension of the Lord MATTHEW 28:16-20 I gave my disciples the directive to teach all nations, and it disturbed me that they were still doubting. Prayerthoughts a. The mountain always signifies a “prayer place” in the Gospels. Do I spend a significant time in prayer every day? b. They worshiped, but they doubted. The Apostles were still not totally convinced that the Lord was risen. What is the most difficult part about faith in Jesus for me? c. All power is given to the Lord. Do I sometimes want too much power in the sense of feeling superior to others? d. We are all called to be the bearers of the Gospel to others. What part of the Gospel is most important to me and why? e. The Lord continues to be with us. It is the last sentence of Matthew’s Gospel and therefore is a sign of hope for us. What is the most hopeful part of the Christian religion? f. My prayerthoughts… Today I will list the signs of hope that I have felt during my life. Some Thoughts on the Liturgy EVERYTHING IS MEANT TO HELP US           On December 26, 2004, the worse tsunami in history hit Thailand, killing literally hundreds of thousands of people including many foreign tourists. At least one of those tourist families that we know of survived. The family was made up of the husband and wife, and three children; they were caught in the destruction, yet unbelievably were united together. The story is told in the movie “The Impossible.”           At the end of the movie, Maria, the mother, is headed home by plane to a hospital along with her family. Even though she is immensely happy that her family was together, as she looked at the damage from the air, the only thing she could do was cry with sorrow because of the losses of family members that most of the people involved in the tragedy felt as a result of the calamity. You can read her thoughts in her sorrow: how and why is God working in such a way that some families will be happy while some will never feel happiness? It is a question that not only comes as a result of this particular tragedy, but every tragedy.            The feast of the Ascension is a classic spiritual example of good coming from something that was not so good. The “not so good” is Jesus’ departure, his leaving the disciples. We can well imagine his disciples begging him not to leave. But the good was—as Jesus promised—that he would always be with us. Jesus accomplished that by the gift of the Holy Spirit, the “power from on high” that he promised. It was the beginning of our understanding of how God is part of everything that happens.            For the believer, everything that happens must be looked at as God’s plan in some way because we have the Holy Spirit acting within us. Or another way of saying it in a personal way: “Everything that happens to us is meant to help us in one way or another.”            There are a couple of applications to the feast of the Ascension, but I like this one—Jesus promising the Holy Spirit as he left makes our lives part of the Holy Spirit’s work. Therefore a Christian must look at everything as a gift from God. There is no such thing as luck. It is an extremely difficult belief because it is not easy to see tragedy or sudden accidents or severe pain or terminal illnesses as gifts from God. But if we believe what Jesus said, given the fact that he is always with us, the power from on high has been and will always be there as long as we believe in him. We can count on the things that happen to us to be only the working of the Holy Spirit within us.            I recommend some homework for you: to re-read the interesting story of Joseph in the book of Genesis, chapters 37-45. In general, Joseph, the son of Jacob is treated dreadfully by his brothers, and was nearly murdered by them. At the end of the story when he is in a superior position over them, and he recalled what they did to him, his response was:           It was really for the sake of saving lives that God sent me here ahead of you. The rational person would say—God did not send him there at all—it was evil that did it. But Joseph could say, and we should be able to say—in every circumstance—God sent me here with these circumstances, with what has happened in life, and it is for the good—somehow, some way.            One of the lessons of this feast is that Jesus had to leave in order to have the Holy Spirit active in our lives. Once that Spirit is part of our lives, then it becomes true that “everything is meant to help us in one way or another.” If we have that attitude, we will look at the whole of life a little differently. MEDIA PRESENTATION Movie: “Rogue One” — beginning session ADDRESSING THE EVIL The Gospel MARK 11:15-18 They came to Jerusalem and, on entering the temple area Jesus began to drive out those selling and buying there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. He did not permit anyone to carry anything through the temple area. Then he taught them saying, “It is written: my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples, but you have made it a den of thieves.” The chief priests and the scribes came to hear of it and were seeking a way to put him to death, yet they feared him because the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching.

Gospelthink: I became angry that the people did not understand what the house of God was. Have I sufficiently understood the importance of God in our world?

The Death Star which the Imperial forces were developing was about finished. A man by the name of Galen Erso was responsible for it and summoned by the Empire, he watched his wife be killed but his daughter Jyn escaped. He is taken by the forces to finish the Death Star. Friendly to the Rebel forces, however he built a way to destroy the Death Star deep within its core. After Jyn grew to be a rebel leader, she and an her eventual friend Cassian Andor together with other rebel leaders went out on their own to discover the plans that Jyn’s father had as he built the Death Star with the way to destroy it.

The chief priests and scribes of Jesus’ time were not evil people as such. They were religious leaders who suddenly were challenged by a man whom they considered uneducated, but at the same time was very popular. Jesus told them to think about their involvement in religious matters and to change some of their thinking. Specifically, the religious leaders allowed the temple area to be a place of profit for the people who were supplying the animals for sacrifice. Jesus considered it to be an evil, perhaps even an incredible evil because work for profit might go work directly against prayer. There are certainly instances of incredible evil in the world that you and I live in. They are not nearly as devastating as the Death Star of the Imperial forces in the movie “Rogue One,” but there is little doubt that comparable evil exists in our world. Some people consider the nuclear weapons that we possess to be the incredible evil of our day. Jyn and the rebel leaders in the movie could not stand by and do nothing in face of the evil of the Death Star. Generally speaking we cannot do much to eradicate the incredible evils that exist because we are not in a position to do it. But we can study the evils that do exist in our own little worlds, and resolve to do something about them. These are the evils that people cause, and often even committed Christians cause in one way or another. In fact, we may be responsible for the evils, for example, such as spreading prejudice and hatred that will influence our children forever, or evils that destroy family happiness. Our world is a giant temple in the sense that God has made it. It could be that we are desecrating that temple by the evils that we allow to exist in it.

PRAYER Good and gracious God, Your Son wanted the temple of His day to be a true house of prayer. Therefore when He experienced evil within it, He reacted strongly. Give us the grace to treat our temple, our world, with the sacredness You desire. Be with us, we pray.

+++++ GUIDE FOR CLASSROOM PRESENTATION AND PERSONAL ENRICHMENT Theme: We must do what we can to overcome incredible evil.   DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: (session: approximately 63 minutes) 1. What scene during this session of the movie is most striking? Why? 2. In your opinion, is there anything comparable to the “money changers” in our Churches? 3. In general, do you feel that most Christians treat God’s house with respect? Yes or no and why? 4. Do you think that the war between the rebel forces and the Empire was a “just” war?  Yes or no and why; See Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition, numbers 2310-2317. 5. Do you believe that there are truly evil people in our world? Yes or no and why? 6. In your opinion, are the nations of the world doing enough to control nuclear weapons? Yes or no and why? 7. What is the greatest evil that exists in the world and why? 8. Do you believe that we treat our temple, our world, with the respect it deserves? Yes or no and why? 9. How do you define “The Force” in the movie? 10. Scene analysis: The Empire tests the Death Star by destroying a planet. In your opinion, does this type of destruction influence the young movie-goers mind? Yes or no and why?