Marriage & Family Life: Finding Jesus in Our Homes
by Adam Storey | May 14, 2019
On June 2, we’ll celebrate the Ascension of Jesus into heaven.
This is an invitation to reflect on a central mystery in our Catholic faith.
How is it that Jesus has returned to his Father in heaven to prepare a place for us (John 14: 2-3) and yet he remains with us always (Matt 28: 20)?
We are called to wait and long for Christ’s return, and yet we are called to live in relationship with Christ today. If Jesus is still with us, it’s important to ask ourselves where, and how we come to know him.
Most profoundly we know that Jesus remains with us in the Eucharist, and that it is through the Eucharist that Jesus remains in us and we in him (John 6:56).
Jesus also tells us that we will meet him in the least among us (Matt 25:40).
As the diocesan Marriage and Family Life director, I think the Ascension of the Lord is a reminder to us that we should look for Jesus in our homes.
As Catholics we call the family the domestic church, and that’s a fancy way of saying that Christ is present to us in our homes in the ordinary, the mundane and the messy.
This is vital for us to realize, because it reminds us that the key to growing in our faith is not discovering some new secret, or seeking out new experiences or insights.
What is key to growing in our faith is being attentive to what is right before us: The circumstances, the relationships, even the trials that we encounter every single day.
Jesus does remain with us and he is present to us every day.
It’s our job to be attentive and docile to him, and to seek him where he already is: At Mass and in the vulnerable, and in our homes.
The Ascension of the Lord is followed closely by Pentecost, when we ask again for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Through the Holy Spirit we come to know Jesus, and so we should beg the Father to send his Spirit to each of us.
In our world today, we desperately need the peace, joy, and love of the Holy Spirit.
I hope you’ll join me in asking the Father to fill our hearts and our homes with his Holy Spirit!
Through his Spirit we will recognize his Son, and we’ll learn to love each other with God’s love.