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Human DNA Enthroned as God

Human DNA Enthroned as God

Last updated on: May 13, 2021 at 7:20 am by Fr. Stephanos Pedrano, O.S.B.

Human DNA Enthroned as God 2021-05-13T07:20:16-08:00 Fr. Stephanos Pedrano, O.S.B.

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Human DNA Enthroned as God. Prince of Peace Abbey. Fr. Stephanos Pedrano, O.S.B.

Human DNA ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

For the Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Acts 1:1-11. Ephesians 1:17-23 or 4:1-13. Mark 16:15-20.

With the words of the Creed at Mass every Sunday of the year, we proclaim our faith that after Christ rose from the dead he:

ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead….

Besides sitting at the right hand of his Father in heaven, what is Christ doing until he returns?

What are we to do until he returns?

The Scriptures today give us answers to these two questions.

The Gospel today tells us that until Christ returns in glory as judge, we are to go throughout the whole world proclaiming his Gospel, inviting everyone to faith, to Baptism and salvation.

As we go about that work, the Gospel today tells us what Christ is doing.

So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them
was taken up into heaven
and took his seat at the right hand of God.
But they went forth and preached everywhere,
while the Lord worked with them….

In other words, our work on earth reaches its goal because Christ has already reached his goal of being at the right hand of the Father in heaven.

What is the connection between Christ in heaven and us on earth?

The connection is as straight, unbroken, direct and immediate as flesh and blood.

When the Son of God rose from the dead, he kept his full share in our human nature, flesh and blood.

As he sits this very moment in the presence of the Father in heaven, Christ has our human nature, flesh and blood.

His glory in heaven lives within our human nature, flesh and blood.

The Gospel tells us that on the day he rose from the dead, he gave the Holy Spirit to his disciples by breathing the Spirit right out of his own human lungs.

That is the work of Christ as he sits in heaven until he returns: Christ breathes the Spirit on behalf of all human nature, flesh and blood.

In the person of Christ himself, the Spirit of God fills our human nature, flesh and blood

This is not magic.

We remain free either to work with the Spirit or to refuse.

God will not do it without us.

The Scriptures today— the Acts of the Apostles, the Letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, the Holy Gospel— the Scriptures today weave into a piece of cloth that speaks of the Spirit’s power, Christ’s work and our work.

Looking over the fabric of today’s Scriptures, we can easily review what we celebrate in Christ’s Ascension.

Christ has human flesh and blood together with us.
With him, you and I have one human nature, one flesh, one blood and one Spirit.
So, we can speak of the Church as the fullness of Christ who fills all things in every way by breathing the Spirit.
Christ came down to the earth and then also ascended to heaven that he might fill all things.
We have power from the Holy Spirit to be the witnesses of Christ.
Christ makes us missionaries, leaders, teachers, to prepare his people for work and service, to build the body of Christ, until we all reach the unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God, until we all reach the fulfillment of our own humanity, to the extent of the full stature of Christ himself.

In the prayers of the Mass for the Ascension of Christ, we give thanks as we celebrate God’s plan of glory for the human race.

The Preface prayers for today acknowledge of Christ that:

… after his Resurrection he plainly appeared to all his disciples and was taken up to heaven in their sight, that he might make us sharers in his divinity.

Mediator between God and man, judge of the world and Lord of hosts, he ascended, not to distance himself from our lowly state but that we, his members, might be confident of following where he, our Head and Founder, has gone before.

Christ sits in flesh and blood at the right hand of the Father.

There he breathes the Holy Spirit on our behalf.

As the sign and the real presence of this, he extends to us his Eucharist by which we eat and drink his flesh, his blood, his glory and his Spirit.

Our final prayer after communion today will declare the whole reality for us.

Almighty ever-living God,
who allow those on earth to celebrate divine mysteries,
grant, we pray,
that Christian hope may draw us onward
to where our nature is united with you.

Turn. Love. Repeat.

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