Pentecost - Queen of Days

Every year we squeeze ourselves into that upper room and wait. We imagine how wonderful it will be to instantly speak another language; this year I hope it is Italian. Every year we wonder what it really looked liked to see tongues of fire hovering over men's heads. Every year we are amazed and grateful.

This year let's fly to the throne room in heaven, behind the curtain of this firmament and visit God as He prepares to penetrate men's souls.

On the wings of this wish and prayer our hearts soar. Hold my hand, let us dare to approach the conference room where the Holy Trinity has gathered. Sh..., listen to that mighty wind about to descend to earth. It reminds me of the wind of God that swept over the waters on the first day of creation. Can you hear God speak?

"Today I will baptize My people with My Spirit and with fire. We will undo the separation among men that I caused at the tower of Babel. They will be reunited with each other in understanding even as they are reunited with Me.  I will bring together men of all nations Africans and Asians, Arabs and Greeks, Jews and Romans; no man shall be overlooked.  To commemorate the day in which I handed my Laws to Moses I distribute My Spirit to all people. Correctly is it written that from this day forth men will no longer need books because I will write My precepts on their hearts."

As I listened, I thought, "Who can hear these words and not be shaken to the core?" then I heard God speak again.

"From this day forth, everyone who calls on My name shall be saved from destruction at the end of the age. To them I will make known the ways of life and make them full of gladness with My presence. Look below and see the peoples gather to repent and be baptized one by one.  Now let each man receive that which You Jesus promised when You said that it is to mankind's advantage that You go away so that the Advocate could be sent.  Spirit of truth the hour has come for You to go forth upon the earth to guide men in all truth and to help them unto the ages of the ages."

Suddenly I was blinded by a great light and I felt myself falling through the skies. The mighty wind was carrying me back to earth. Time was going by, but it was a pure empty kind of time. A kind of time that I never before experienced. I felt peaceful in its emptiness. Then sound entered our space. Just as I felt the earth approaching, I heard God's say, "On this day I give birth to my Bride, the Church."

Ascension-The Homecoming

“Oh the Son is coming back, the Son is coming back. How glad the Father will be. How joyous the Son. Lets us prepare for His return,” exclaimed Angel Sebastian.

The angels and archangels in heaven were elated when Gabriel told them that the time had come for Jesus to return. You never saw such merriment. The expedition into humanity and onto earth had been a kind of death to them who missed the Son the most. Some of the angels had gone down to participate in the Grand Mission, but most were only given reports of Christ’s activities.

It wasn’t enough to watch Him and to minister to Him in His most difficult hours. They wanted Him back so heaven could be “normal” again.

The Holy Spirit heard that sentiment and corrected Sebastian saying, “It will never again be as it was. Oh, of course We are happy to receive the Son into Our arms, there is much to discuss about the Mission. However, now I must leave to travel the face of the earth, and soon our heavenly realm will be populated with human souls. You must help them to adjust to life here. No, it will never be the same again.”

At that the bellowing sound of French horns, tubas, and trumpets invaded the air heralding the coming of the King of Kings. All the angels quickly fell into formation in rows and rows of Powers flanking the last miles of the pathway to the golden entrance of the heavenly kingdom. Once past the entrance into the kingdom, the Powers were replaced by rows of Principalities who for this occasion were permitted to leave their guard over the nations and leaders of the world.  Behind the Principalities were three rows of Archangels lead by Michael and Gabriel.

Flanking the entrance of the Throne Room for this holiest of occasions hovered the cherubim in disciplined stillness but not in silence. Stringed instruments played Beethoven’s 6^th Symphony, the Pastoral. Beyond the entrance on pedestals stood two majestic thrones with bright red sapphires and sparkling emeralds, amethysts and topaz jewels embedded into the purest gold frame the eye of man has ever beheld.

Hugging these two thrones, except for the wide isle in front of it, were rows of Seraphim to greet the Lord of Hosts, the Chief Commander of all angelic beings. The Throne usually stand around the throne of God, those four winged and four faced charioteers with their fat cheeked faces, who sparkle like the color of burnished brass. Not today. The thrones will return to their posts after the festivities.

Of all the ranks of angels only the guardian angels had to stay back on earth; who could not be involved in the home coming.

“Here they come; here they come!”  Indeed, the brilliant shining Virtues were seen escorting the ascending Christ to the throne of God the Father.

As the Christ approached the throne room, sections of angels followed sections of angels chanting Hosanna in the highest, alternately with long melodious chants of Alleluia.

Only the Seraphim could actually see the face of God when His eyes first beheld the return of His Son, and the holy hug that followed the Son’s deep lunge to His knee.

Following the blessed greeting the Son took His place on His own throne nestled in the sound of all the angels cheering together, and all the instruments sounding, and all the wings fluttering, and all the trumpets trumpeting. This was no cacophony but a rather a symphony of activity so strong and so beautiful that it was hard to believe how quickly the silence returned at the sound of a bell.

God spoke. “There is work to be done. The earth phase of My Son’s mission was only the beginning of the My purpose to immortalize humanity. For now, we celebrate.”

The Son never looked so radiant, so peaceful and so at home. 

We Are Risen!

  

Alleluia. Christ is risen! Since we, the baptized and aspiring immortals, died with Christ, then what does it mean for us to be risen?

Christ came back from the dead and ate and drank with people to prove He wasn’t dead. When we were baptized we put on new clothes and received communion (like Christ ate too). He stayed for forty days back in this old time zone, but for me it has been decades.

The SURPRISE moment of showing up again after being taken for dead, was so much fun, but surprises wear off fast and then you’re just at the party. What next for us after the crucifixion/baptism?

Hint please.

Okay John, what did you say in your gospel? “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of will of man but of God.”

I was reborn into this world by the will of God, a new kind of human being, a new creation. Mmmm…what does that mean?

Okay Paul, help me out. “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.”Corinthians

Wait, I think it’s becoming clear! Christ stayed in the time zone for 40 more days after shocking the world with His return from the dead. But since I died with him, and you too, then we are as good as Christ having united with Him at the crucifixion/baptism and so from God’s point of view we are Christ’s ambassadors on earth whose job it is to continue to reconcile people to God, the Father--with the help of the Holy Spirit. (Thank God!)

Easier said than done!

I spent all of Lent trying to know what it means to be in Christ and to have Him in me, when all along, we are not two people joined together like partners but more like one new kind of person. I was trying to find Christ in me when all along I should have picked up my mystical mirror. No wonder I had such a tough time; all of me is He. When He returned and looked like a stranger He showed us that it doesn’t matter how different we look from Christ, He can still be us, and people can recognize Him in each of us.  

I don’t mean to sound like a cynic, but how can I, a twenty-first century Christ, reconcile others to God without the healing power (God knows I’ve tried) and all the other miracles. I’m sure it would have been hard, even for Christ to be so effective in reconciling people to God if He didn’t help them out in so many miraculous ways.

Perhaps He didn’t reconcile human beings to God through the miracles. He reconciled humanity to God by sacrificing His life for them. I can’t die or be baptized again, but I can put others first and I can show them the way to Kingdom Come, because I know the way and so do you.

This is the bottom line. We aspiring immortals are the only Christ some people will ever know.  Rise and shine!