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    Ascension Sunday – June 2, 2019

      Ascension Sunday © 2019

      INTRO: a commonly used phrase these days is:

      “Hang in there!”

      How many of you have used it?

      Now, I cannot image the Gospel writer Luke ever saying to the early church members:
      “HANG IN THERE!”
      This just wasn’t the way people in the early church spoke!

      This expression actually became popular in the 70’s due to a popular poster that bore the phrase. The poster featured a Siamese cat hanging onto a bamboo pole looking determined to stay stuck on it!

      I do believe Luke was trying to tell the Apostles and the early church that something GREAT is coming, referring to the HOLY SPIRIT.

      I do believe the early church thought they were being abandoned by JESUS and questioned,

      “Now, what are we going to do?”

      Likewise, I do believe many of you wonder the same question
      • when senseless tragedies occur
      • when money is tight
      • when loved ones DIE
      • when those who are sick do not easily recover

      We get worried, frightened, concerned and TRUSTING in God’s power becomes somewhat forgotten.

      We are only human when we have that tendency to forget trusting in God, but, these days of Easter and the Ascension and next week PENTECOST are wisely meant to have us recall:

      THERE IS A POWER GREATER THAN US!

      So, when the difficult arrives, when the senseless occurs, let’s first be prayerful and caring, and let’s be empathetic and wise.

      God’s got this. The HOLY SPIRIT DOES dwell among us.
      My first pastor, a priest I greatly admired, saw me as a young energetic, go getter priest and he would hear me MOAN as I would get all concerned and worried
      • That this program or that program wasn’t going right
      • That I was making mistakes
      • It wasn’t easy to get parishioners involved
      And he would say:

      “Jimmy, yes, things are not always going to be S M O O T H …..
      But, it is how we go through these difficult things ….
      We can’t go around them,
      We can’t avoid them,
      We have to go THROUGH THEM,
      Trusting in a power greater than ourselves!

      CONCLUSION
      So on this Ascension Day, God hasn’t abandoned our world. And believe in that power that is greater than us!

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