Vantage Point

A Promise Kept

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Next week we’ll celebrate Ascension Thursday, a feast that always used to make me feel a little sad, because that’s when Jesus left the world and returned to his Father. I know that it’s actually joyous because it shows that Jesus accomplished what he came to do: He saved humanity and founded his Church. His departure was a sign of triumph. Besides, with his true human nature, Jesus is fully human, and human beings don’t remain on earth forever. The Lord’s Ascension points to eternal life.

Still, it seemed a little sad to me until I began looking at it from a different perspective. I thought about what Jesus said to his Apostles before he left them: “Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

He said he would not leave us alone, and he has kept his promise. He is with us in his Church and in its sacraments—most personally and profoundly in the Eucharist. In a more extended sense, he is with us in the people with whom we share our life of faith. Lately I have been thinking about how much that sacred presence of Christ is with us in our parishes. That is where we find Christ in the Mass and the sacraments, in activities and volunteer work, in the ways we help others and they help us.

I saw this recently in my own parish, St. Augustine’s in Larchmont, when one of our members died. He was at Mass regularly with his wife, always on Sundays and almost always on weekdays. His wife is the kind of person who does a lot for the parish in a quiet way, always cheerful and ready to help but never seeking praise.

The man died suddenly, in the very early hours of the morning. His wife came to the 9 a.m. Mass that day, and we prayed for her husband, and for her and their family. After Mass, parishioners gathered around her to offer sympathy and ask how they could help. There were hugs and tears and words of condolence, and it struck me that this is a real community of people who care about each other in and with Christ. In times of sorrow, we unite like a family.

Days later I saw another kind of unity in Christ, only this time the occasion was joyful. My 3-month-old grandnephew, Matthew Chan, the son of my niece Clare and her husband, James, was baptized with three other babies at their parish church, St. Stephen the First Martyr in Warwick. How appropriate, I thought, for these four infants to be baptized together in this church where they likely will come together again to attend Mass with their families, to go to catechism classes, to receive the sacraments of the Eucharist, confirmation and penance, and to participate in activities with other children and families.

How beautiful it was for them and for their families to begin the journey together.

Deacon Thomas MacDougall of St. Stephen’s, who baptized the babies, gave a brief homily to the four families—jubilant parents, grandparents, other relatives and friends—who had gathered at the church. He spoke about the importance of the family, and he quoted Msgr. James Turro, who formerly taught at St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie: “Our greatest possession is a sense of belonging.”

“Family gives us our first sense of belonging,” Deacon MacDougall said. When I spoke with him later, he remarked that family life “prepares us for a sense of belonging to the family of Christ in the Church.”

From the pouring of the waters of baptism to the final commendation at the end of a Funeral Mass, those of us who are privileged to participate in the life of the Church find Christ in the family that is our parish. There is always a place for us there, with our fellow Catholics, no matter what. We find the sacraments there, and where we find the sacraments, we find Christ.

He made a promise to stay with us, and he kept it.

No need for me to feel sad on Ascension Thursday.