Welcome to Finding God in Our Hearts. The following production, Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a weekly program of deep spiritual insight on Scripture, revealing the indwelling presence of God. We appreciate your listenership and if you find this program valuable, please subscribe and share with your friends. Share this program is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you. Make your donation@pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com Today we’re celebrating the Feast of the Ascension. The Opening Prayer Grant, we pray, Almighty God, that we who believe that your only begotten Son, our Redeemer, ascended this day to the heavens.

May in spirit dwell already in heavenly realms, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen. A Reading from the Acts of the apostles first chapter first through the 11th verse in the first book, Theophilus I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught until the day he was taken up. After giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen, he presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the Kingdom of God while meeting with them, he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of of the Father, about which you have heard me speak. For John baptized with water, but in a few days we baptized with the Holy Spirit. Now when they had gathered together, they asked him, lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?

He answered them, it is not for you to know these times and seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Now when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was being lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight. And while they were looking intensely at the sky where he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. They said, men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.

The word of the Lord God mounts his throne to shouts of joy A blare of trumpets for the Lord. All you peoples clap your hands, shout to God with cries of gladness for the Lord the most High, the Awesome is the great King over all the earth. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy A blare of trumpets for the Lord God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy the Lord amid trumpets Sing praise to God Sing praise Sing praise to our King Sing praise. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy A blare of trumpets for the Lord For King of all the earth is God Sing hymns of praise God reigns over the nations God sits upon his holy throne God mounts His throne to shouts of joy A blare of trumpets for the Lord a reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, first, chapter 1723 brothers and sisters, may the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of Him. May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones, and in what is surpassing greatness of his power for all who believe in accordance with the exercise of his great might which he worked in Christ, raising him from the dead and seating him at the right hand in the heavens, far above every principality, authority, power and domination, and every name that is named not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

And he put all things beneath his feet and gave him as head over all things to the Church who is his body, the fullness of the One who fills all things in every way. The Word of the Lord, the Alleluia verse Go and teach all nations, say to the Lord, I am with you always until the end of the world. Hallelujah. The Gospel is taken from St. Matthew 28th, chapter 16 to the 20th verse. The 11 disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.

When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, all power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always until the end of the age. The Gospel of the Lord Take the next few moments as we listen to this music to ponder the images and the thoughts that come to you as you listen to these readings. I’ve been a priest for 56 years, just had an anniversary, and I think about what I’ve been doing those years and what’s the most important thing that I’ve accomplished.

And. And I’m looking at it all and saying, you know, the one thing that I have been doing that has been consistent is certainly ministering Sacraments to people as a Catholic priest, has been an incredible joy. But the real work is not in doing that. That’s something that God does through me, so obviously and directly. But the work of dealing with scripture, struggling with it, listening to it over and over and over again, that’s where the work has been, and that’s where I think I have spent my time as well as I could possibly spend it. Because nothing seems more important to me now that you understand with me this story, because it’s your story.

We’re to live it out, and we get to a very important part of the story. The Old Testament. New Testament is often considered two books and two different stories, but they’re actually one story. The Testament, the inheritance that we receive from God is this story begins with God creating some human beings. Two beings. Whether they were created at that moment, whether they evolved over time, makes no difference.

The evolution of the human species is something that’s really attracted me. And it makes sense that that’s most likely what God had done through the plan that he had from the very beginning, that God planned to create this world. He did it sort of naturally. And as it continues to evolve and grow, and each one of us evolve and grow, the direction is always in one direction. It’s always toward truth. Truth.

If the fullness of the story is in Jesus. And Jesus is depicted by John the Evangelist so beautifully when he says, jesus comes into the world and he is, for the first time, the full explanation of what is real. He is truth. And the truth is something that when we hear it, it ministers to us. It awakens us to see what is true and what is real. And it is filled.

That truth is filled with hope. But we know there’s an oppositional power, so to speak. There’s something that works against the truth. And it’s interesting that the first sin committed in the great story of Old and New Testament, the first sin is a sin of disobedience on the part of the angels. It wouldn’t respond to God’s plan. But then when it came to the first sin of humans, again, it wasn’t so much disobedience.

It was believing in a lie. The most cunning of animals was there and said, oh, no, no, no. What God told you is not true. What is true is it. You want to be like gods. You want to be in charge.

You want to know what’s real. Interesting. The real struggle is between truth and lies. We see that all around us today in the world. And people are always saying, I don’t know where the truth is. And there are people who get caught up in the most amazing lies and conspiracies of what’s going on.

And always when you’re dealing with people in a lie that almost always it seems, that has a negative ring to it, a negative feel. The world is awful. We’re all going to hell in a handbasket. Nothing’s working. There is no hope. So what is the truth that God wants you to believe in?

Well, on one level, it’s believing that Jesus is who he says he is, that God created the world and he came into it and he saved us and then he returned to the Father. Well, that’s to believe that is important. I would agree. But it’s so interesting to me. We listen to in the gospel, which is not about the ascension, but about the resurrection of Jesus and the ascension in all the scriptures. Well, in scriptures other than in Luke, it’s well, in all the four evangelists, they talk about the resurrection happening the same day that Jesus ascended into heaven.

It’s only the continuation of Luke’s gospel where he continues and describes something it’s so crucial to believe in that Jesus didn’t rise right away and return to the Father. No, he stayed for a long time. 40 days is 40 elements of length. It’s a mystical time. 40 years in the desert. 40 days of Jesus in the desert.

The wanderings and the temptation were all under 40 days. But interesting that in this image we see that God comes back and wants to make something clear. And this is what I believe he is trying to say because of the line that’s there in the gospel. It says, when they watched this event happening, Jesus leaving, they were concerned and they doubted. What did they doubt? Did they doubt that he was who he said he was?

Could the disciples possibly doubt that Jesus was the man who could do things beyond any other man, that he was able to heal and he was able to raise people from the dead. He was a miracle worker. And they also believed that this power over death was amazing because he could bring a friend back. And he himself didn’t die when he was crucified, he came back. All of that makes total sense. I don’t see how they could doubt that.

So what were they doubting? They were doubting what truth is. A path of life, a way of life. They didn’t believe, and it’s still hard to believe what it is that God is inviting us into. When he gives you and Me a body and a will and a heart and said, I want you to spend some Time living in this world as it is, and do something for me. And what does he want?

He wants us to manifest a truth to everyone. And the truth is really beautiful. It’s something that I could describe like this. God has come into the world to oppose the power of evil. Evil is a lie. And what’s the lie?

We’re on our own. The world is negative. It has all kinds of problems. When things aren’t going right, that’s a sign that they’re only going to get worse. And as they get worse, it means it’s all going to end up in darkness and destruction. And there is fear and there is revenge and anger against those who are perpetrating lies.

What he gives us is something that absolutely dissolves that. It’s the awareness that we aren’t simply here to remember what Jesus did back then, but we were to receive something that he is now giving, you and me, that is often untapped, unknown, unrecognized, hidden. You have God, the same God in Jesus, inside of you, in your heart. Paul says, open your heart’s eyes so that you can receive a wisdom that leads to a revelation of everything that you’re engaged in in this world. The revelation is you are the same truth incarnate that Jesus was and still is in you. And as you live out this life believing in that power within you, you are like a priest, you are a minister, you are an apostle, you’re a disciple.

And you are not teaching something about something. You are being something for them. You are resonance of life and hope and truth. Truth is, we’re here for one reason only, to minister to each other. A lie is, no, no, you’re here in this world to take care of your needs and your wants and your desires. And when those are on the lower level of our consciousness, you know what happens?

They never work. It never satisfies. You want money, you never have enough. You want pleasure, you never have enough. You want power, you never have enough. That’s a sign that every lie is incapable of fulfilling us.

Yet the truth is so there right in front of us that the thing that really works for us is being engaged in this amazing, powerful source within us that invites people out of that lie into the truth that they are cared for and loved. You know, we live in a country that is so Christian in its roots, its constitution. What’s the first thing the constitution says? Basically, the government has a purpose. It’s to serve the people in Christianity, the presence of God. What’s its purpose?

To serve humanity. Most of Us grew up, at least I did before the council, before I understood about the priesthood of the faithful, that we all share this mysterious, wonderful presence of God inside of us. And it works through us and we can feel it. And yet it happens more often than not without us even realizing it, but we believe it. That somehow that. I just.

I don’t know, somehow I didn’t. It was like I was supposed to serve the church. I was supposed to do things for God. I was. I was serving him to get him to love me. What a lie.

You know, and yet it seemed to. It pervaded my upbringing as a Catholic. We were an elite group of people that were specially preserved from evil by. By. By God. And our religion was the only religion.

And we had a kind of mystical secret society and our liturgy was. And of another language. And we always witnessed something that we were supposed to participate in by making first ourselves pure and then without any sin. And then we could maybe hope that this God that came into us wouldn’t condemn us, but would love us. And now we gather around an altar filled with an awareness of God inside of us. And together with the priest, though he has a role that’s higher than ours, we are all making Christ present.

And then we walk out of that church and we have him resonating out of us. And do we have to use words and explain to people what we believe? No, we just have to live and say and teach the truth. Do you know how healthy the world would be if everybody just told the truth? Do you know what it would be like in a relationship? You do know what it’s like in a relationship when somebody you realize is lying to you.

What happens to the flow between you? It’s severed. You can’t trust them. What an interesting focus for us in this age we live in to simply cry out, I want the truth. Please give me the truth. And whatever truth I believe in, let me always live it out as a truth that is motivating my intentions and my actions without me having to do super selfless things or go around and set up, you know, protests against things that are wrong?

Yes, many people are called to that. But that’s the real issue is can I carry a living presence of God that was in Jesus doing his work? And I believe that’s in me. And that if I believe in it and it reveals to me the power that it is, I am filled with the one thing that lies seem to destroy quicker than anything else. And that’s hope. I don’t believe that things are going to work anymore.

It’s all so dark and dirty and self centered and I want to destroy everything out there that isn’t what it should be. Nothing is further from the truth. To destroy evil is to become evil. To have compassion for evil, to feel sorry for the victims of evil that do horrible, horrible things is the truth. We’re all susceptible to evil. And when one is, we look at them not as the source of evil, but as a victim.

That’s the only way you can love someone who’s done evil. So we have this great hope, we have this trust, and that’s what the Holy Spirit is sent into us for. So this moment in the scriptures is when God really changed the world. No longer does God live in the temple. No longer does he just live in one person that walked this earth. No, he lives in you and in me and in our hearts.

And if we believe as I long for you and for me to believe that it’s stronger than every lie out there, then the confidence we have will overcome the contagious way in which those who talk about the end coming in a negative way, saying the world is so corrupt it’s going to be destroyed, they have a sense, they have a truth that makes sense to them. Otherwise they have to deal with this mysterious thing called God in me doing the work slowly and things getting much worse before they get better. So what a gift we should celebrate today then. This returning the Father in some mysterious way was the thing that closed the full testaments. God is in you. God is the truth.

Share it with a world that is longing, longing for hope. Amen. Sam. Father, your gift, your gift of truth is not an idea, not something we can put into a sentence, but a person. Bless us with an awareness of this gift that dwells within our hearts and allow us to use it in the way you intend to. Bring light into darkness, hope into despair, health into that which is sick.

And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen. This is the time of year when people make a decision to come on a pilgrimage to Tuscany with me. It’s been something I’ve been doing for years and it is by far the most exciting and enjoyable thing I do. So if you’re interested in it, all the details are on our website, pastorreflectionsinstitute.com it’s in the first week of November and we already have a number signed up and so there’s limited to how many we can have. But if you’re interested, please let us know soon so we can save you a place. Thank you.

The music in our program was composed and produced by Ryan Harner for this show. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you. You can make a one time or recurring tax deductible donation on our website pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com we thank you for your listenership and your continued support. Without it, this program would not be possible. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a production of the Pastoral Reflections of Institute, a non profit in Dallas, Texas dedicated to enriching your spiritual journey. Executive Producer Monsignor Don Fisher produced by Kyle Cross and recorded in Pastoral Reflections Institute Studios.

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