Ascension of Jesus & Christ's Blessing

   

Today we celebrate the solemnity of the ascension of Jesus into heaven. In most of the world, the ascension was celebrated last Thursday because Jesus ascended into heaven 40 days after He rose from the dead on Easter Sunday. But in many dioceses in the United States and other countries, the Ascension of the Lord is transferred to Sunday.

During the forty days between His Resurrection and Ascension into heaven Jesus appeared to His apostles many times instructing them and teaching them. He trained His apostles for their high calling and comforted them because they had been scandalized by His death on the Cross. He taught them about the kingdom of God which they were to establish on earth. He inflamed their hearts for a longing for His heavenly kingdom and excited them to love God ever more fervently. He surely instructed them on the sacraments and how to pasture the people. Maybe He told them to ask for the advice and prayers of His Mother, while She is on earth and later pray to Her after She would go to heaven. She would help them, console them and guide them to form the early Church.

The apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary gathered on top of the Mount of Olives. It was at the base of the mountain where Jesus had His agony in the garden. Now, from the top of the mountain Our Divine Lord appeared to them. Curiously, though they gazed upon Him, they doubted out of human weakness. Some still mistakenly wondered when He was going to restore the kingdom of Israel.

The Gospel tells us, just before Jesus ascended into heaven, “He raised His hands, and blessed them. As He blessed them, He departed.” So the last action of Jesus before He ascended to heaven on a cloud was He blessed His apostles, and His Mother, the Virgin Mary. There were two angels who appeared to the apostles after Jesus went to heaven.

Because the Apostles were ordained as priests and bishops at the Last Supper, they also received the power to perform the sacraments and to give blessings. Every priest and bishop today through the power given to them at ordination, also raises their hands to bless and perform the sacraments.

The blessing of a priest is much more powerful than what we imagine. Did you know, the last action of St. Philip Neri and Pope St. John Paul II was they raised their hands and blessed those who were present just before their soul departed from this life and ascend to the throne of Jesus for their judgment.

What I would like to do is give you real examples of the power of a priests blessing.

At Sacred Heart parish in Halstead, we moved the parish office from the rectory to the Parish Hall. In the process of the move we had to re-connect the printer with the computer. But no matter what we did the printer would not work. Finally, I told the parish secretary. “Have you heard of St. Maximilian Kolbe? His religious order had the world largest non-commercial printing press in which they printed the magazine, “Knight of the Immaculata”. It had a circulation of 1 million copies. One day, the printing press would not work. And St. Maximillian said, “The devil must have his tail caught in it.” He then blessed the printing press and it immediately began to work. So I said, well, let’s give the printer a blessing.” Then I raised my hand and said, “May almighty God bless this printer and computer that they may work for the glory and honor of God. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” The secretary pushed the button and immediately the printer started working.

One day, a woman called and told me her son, Thomas’ cat was dying and she wanted me to come to give the cat Anointing of the sick. But I told her the sacraments are only for humans, but I can come and bless the cat if she wants. When I arrived the cat looked terrible and was having difficulty breathing. It had black bumps all over the body of the cat including its head and she told me the veterinarian said the cat had cancer. I said, why don’t we pray to Fr. Kapaun? So I said this prayer, “Through the intercession of Fr. Kapaun, if its God’s will, may God grant the healing of this cat and if not may all accept what is to come. May Almighty God bless and heal this cat, through the intercession of Fr. Kapaun. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” I then left the house and two weeks later, I saw Thomas, and since it was his cat, I said, “Thomas, I am sorry, your cat died didn’t it?” He said, “No father, the cat was healed. All the bumps went away and the cat is now fine.” Shocked by what he said, I asked his mother, “Is that true?” She said, “Yes, the cancer is all gone and cat is doing well.” I said, “The cat must not have had cancer, that was probably just pus pockets or something.” and she replied, “No! I am a nurse and I know cancer when I see it and besides that the veterinarian said the cat had cancer, but now its all gone and the cat is fine.”

Another true story: I was assigned as pastor to Sacred Heart parish due to the sudden death of Fr. Baxter who died in the rectory. A few weeks after his funeral, when I arrived at the parish, I was speaking with the parish secretary and also the bookkeeper and we were getting to know each other. Fr. Baxter’s car was still outside in the driveway. And as we were talking, his car started honking on its own due to it security system, as though someone had bumped the car or tried to enter it. But nobody was outside and the bookkeeper turned took the fob and made the honking stop. Then we began to talk some more and few minutes later the car started honking again. We were dumbfounded by it all. The bookkeeper once again pressed the button on the fob and the car stopped honking. Later that night when I was sleeping, about 3am, on its own, the car started honking again. I got up and tried to get the car to stop honking by using the fob, but it kept honking. So I raised my hand and blessed the car saying, “May almighty God bless this car, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen” And the car immediately stopped honking. I was shocked that it actually worked. The next day I told the secretary and bookkeeper what happened and the bookkeeper said, “Let’s look inside the car, maybe there is something in the car that Fr. Baxter wants to get out of the car.” We looked inside the car and found a glove, a hat and a badge to get into the Hutchinson Correctional facility because father was a prison chaplain. Our idea was that Fr. Baxter from above, tried to get our attention to remove the badge so next owner of the car would not have access to the prison.

People from other countries value the priests blessings much more than in our own country. When I was in Medjugorje, when I happen to come to the church, there was a group of German pilgrims praying and they were very excited to see me. A few of them spoke broken English and I was barely able understand what they were wanting. They told me, they just finished praying the Rosary, asking the Virgin Mary to send a priest to give them a blessing and they looked at me and said, “You are the priest. Father, will you give us your blessing?” I was so humbled by it all. I raised my hand and gave them a blessing. It was a reminder for me, that Jesus wanted to use me to give them His blessing and that I should more freely give it.

The point in mentioning these stories is that even though Jesus ascended into heaven, He is still with us and acts through His priests. Through priests, Jesus changes bread and wine into His body and blood to feed us spiritually in the Eucharist. Jesus uses priests to raise His hand to absolve sins in Confession, to baptize, to give the sacrament of Confirmation with the permission of the bishop, Jesus gives His blessing to anoint the sick and dying so as to heal, give strength and to forgive sins. When dying He gives His Apostolic Blessing to remove punishment due to sin and He gives an ordinary blessing through the priest to bestow God’s graces into the hearts of those who receive it and can use His blessing to show His dominion over creation to reveal His glory.

You can ask a priest to bless you on your birthday, on your wedding anniversary, for safe travel, before having surgery, when undergoing temptation, or just to receive God’s graces.

The Book of Blessings has blessings for food, for cattle, for blessing houses, to bless religious articles, and many other things including blessing unborn babies and their mothers. We have blessings for mothers on Mother’s Day and Father’s on Father’s day and blessing of families, etc..

Jesus wants to be part of our daily lives and He wants to bless us in all the things we do, so that all we do, will be for His glory and to help us to someday be with Him in heaven. Today’s Solemnity of the Ascension is a reminder, Jesus is preparing a place for each of us in His Father’s house and that He has not abandoned us and because He is with us in priests and wants to give us graces through the priest to save us. May the Virgin Mary, inspire us to ask for and receive all the blessing we can receive in this life.

And may, Jesus bless you, through me, an unworthy priest, as I say, “May the blessing of almighty God, the Father, and the Son, +, and the Holy Spirit, come down on you and remain with you for ever.” Amen.