Hey, everybody. This is Father John Ricardo with Acts 29. And in the middle of all the craziness

and the uncertainty that's going on right now, it seems from our perspective as a team that it's

worth using these days to reflect in a more deliberate way on the scriptures every day, which

for many of us now is the only spiritual food that we're receiving. And so we're going to do a special podcast series simply entitled, Be Not Afraid, God's Word in

Uncertain Times. And we'll try to post something every day, usually reflecting on the scriptures,

so that we can listen in on what God is trying to say to us in these days.

In some of the diocese around our country today is the feast of the ascension of our Lord Jesus into heaven. For us here in the Archdiocese of Detroit, and for most diocese, for that matter,

Ascension Thursday is, interestingly enough, celebrated this coming Sunday. Regardless,

we're coming to the close of the Easter season with the Great Feast of Pentecost right up ahead

now for all of us. And we've been trying to make the case throughout these 40 days of Easter so far

that the message of Easter is not Jesus has risen

and you will too. In other words, Jesus has risen and you will get to heaven. Although,

goodness gracious, that's true by all means, at least if we stay faithful to him, right? But the message

of the gospel over and over again, as we see in

the acts of the apostles, and yet again here today in the reading that's given to us for the

weekday, not for Ascension Thursday, is that Jesus has risen, there's work to do. That's why in the first reading that will be given to us for the Feast of the

Ascension, whether it's today or Sunday, depending upon where we live, has that little passage in it

in Acts chapter 1, where as the Lord is ascending and the apostles are looking up into the sky,

these two messengers, these two angels,

come to the apostles and basically rebuke them,

saying, guys, what are you doing?

Why are you looking up into the sky?

...