Family Reflection on Readings
Click the link below to read the scriptures from Ascension Sunday. The model we use in this scripture reflection exercise is detailed in this article. For the readings today we will be reflecting on proclaiming the good news everywhere.
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses … to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 1:9
Who wrote the Acts of the Apostles? St. Luke
Biography of St. Luke from Catholic Answers
St. Luke was a Greek and he wrote the story of Jesus and the Christian community for Gentile readers. He also accompanied St. Paul on some of his journeys and shared in his sufferings. Probably a physician, Luke may have pioneered as an early member of the church at Antioch.
The main themes of Luke’s writings were prayer, the Holy Spirit, and mercy. Tradition says Luke lived a long life without marrying and that he died at age eighty-four.
What does it mean to be a witness? It means to provide testimony proclaiming some truth. Or according to the dictionary “have knowledge of (an event or change) from personal observation or experience:”
“For the LORD, the Most High, the awesome, is the great king over all the earth.”
Psalm 47:3
“And he gave some as apostles, others as prophets,
Ephesians 4:11-13
others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers,
to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry,
for building up the body of Christ,
until we all attain to the unity of faith
and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature to manhood,
to the extent of the full stature of Christ.”
“they went forth and preached everywhere”
Mark 16:20
The Lord Jesus Christ only exercised a public ministry for around 3 years. He proclaimed the good news, cured the sick, drove out demons and even raised some people from the dead. But His primary mission was to make a sacrifice of Himself to save humanity from sin and He did that perfectly by His sacrifice on the cross.
It is possible that the apostles and other disciples had no idea that Jesus was going to leave them again after He rose from the dead as evidenced by the reading from the Acts of the Apostles today:
“While they were looking intently at the sky as 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.” Acts 1:10-11
Perhaps we feel that way too sometimes. There are moments when we encounter the Lord in a profound way, and we feel his presence very strongly. He may even speak very clearly to us about a difficult situation in our lives and provide very specific direction on the path to take. While these moments in our lives have an intense effect on us and our relationship with the Lord, He wants us to venture out in the world on our own relying on the Holy Spirit for guidance. Jesus wants us to trust Him and evangelize the world. For most people, our family is our primary field of evangelization, followed by those God puts in our path within our community (work, church, neighborhood).
In the Father’s plan for salvation, we play a vital role in bringing the Good News to the world and as St. Teresa of Avila said:
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which He looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are His body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.
We may feel unworthy of this honor, but this is God’s plan. Jesus gave us 33 years of his human presence on this earth, then He entrusted us with a mission to share the Good News with the world in partnership with the Holy Spirit. Let’s get to work.
Family Activity:
Create your Family Witness. You should be prepared to share why your family is like it is. As you continue to grow in holiness and in relationship with the Lord, your family will become a better reflection of the Love of God. At a certain point, others will notice something about your family, and you may be asked how you do it. It is then that you need to be prepared to share your witness with others to help them to begin or progress further down the path of holiness and a deeper relationship with the Lord.
Use these resources to prepare your family witness:
- The Domestic Church Evangelization (Document)
- Creating your Family Witness (Document)
- Evangelization module from our Family Formation Course
Weekly Virtue:
Evangelization. “Lay people also fulfill their prophetic mission by evangelization, “that is, the proclamation of Christ by word and the testimony of life.” For lay people, “this evangelization . . . acquires a specific property and peculiar efficacy because it is accomplished in the ordinary circumstances of the world.”” –CCC 1808
- Share the good news of Jesus Christ with someone. It doesn’t have to be a big deal, just pray and ask God to put someone in your path that needs to hear the good news and then when the opportunity presents itself, tell them how God has worked in your life.
- Examples of a witness could be:
- We go to mass on Sundays, and we visit with other people of faith who inspire us to love as God loves.
- My mom and dad show me how to love as God loves by their commitment to marriage, they have been married for “#” of years.
- Our family serves the homeless in our community and show God’s love to them. It is hard sometimes, but we feel really good doing God’s work to serve and comfort the poor.
- We used to not attend church, but after we had our 3rd child family life really changed and it felt as though we could never get our heads above water, so we decided to give faith a try. We started attending Church every Sunday and encountered God, his Church and the Gospel. It changed our lives, we found we were chasing all the wrong things in life and once we made Jesus and his teachings the center of our family, we found peace.