… BUT ONLY GOD CAN MAKE A TREE

He was an Italian polymath whose areas of interest included invention, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, and cartography. He has been variously called the father of paleontology, and architecture, and is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time. Sometimes credited with the inventions of the parachute, helicopter, tank, and other war machines. Many historians and scholars regard Leonardo da Vinci as the prime exemplar of the "Universal Genius" or "Renaissance Man.

Not everyone is a Leonardo, but a person could have attended to the most notable Universities and graduated ‘Summa cum Laude’. Yet, though this person possessed all knowledge about material things, and applied his intelligence and ability, but, when it comes to understanding the secrets of God, these are not easily understood. They are unfathomable and mysterious. Only HE can reveal them.

If we recall that even Mary, the Mother of Jesus, was surprised and amazed when God’s Plan begins to be fulfilled in her child Jesus, when they found Him in the Temple … and the child’s surprising declaration: "Did you not know that I had to be in my Father's house?" But she did not understand what He was saying to them, she was groping in the dark. Mary started to put things together, to put the pieces together, all the happenings, words and actions, in the life of her Son, day by day in various events, to discover the meaning. She might have understood the child’s Declaration, many years, later on when after three days He rose from the dead.

Only He, can reveal the Truth. This is the line we read (Luke, 24:46-47): “Thus it is written, that Christ had to suffer, and to rise again from the dead.” The light that illuminates the events of Easter can come only from the Word of God, as prophesied by the Prophet. It had been already foretold that the Messiah would die and rise again. I believe the disciples came to a point when they realized that this Messiah was very different from what they had expected.

According to Luke, Christ told them: ‘… that penance and the remission of sins should be preached in His Name, to all nations.’ (v.47). They must have recalled Isaiah’s words: “I will make you the light of the nations that my salvation will reach to the ends of the earth.” Now to perform such a task, such an apostolate, the Apostles could not rely on their own, personal power and strength, for as we said before, ‘Only He can reveal the Truth.’ For this reason Christ admonished them: “So remain in the city until you are clothed with power from above” (v. 49).

They are now expecting the Paraclete, not to teach them the Truth, but to make them realise the Truth which Christ had given to them, to draw away the veil from over their eyes. Then Jesus blessed them, and then they returned to their work, fully confident that the Lord was with them. This ‘blessing’ was the unwritten ‘Guarantee’ of success in their new work. What is amazing, is the note put by Luke that they returned to Jerusalem ‘full of joy.’ Luke is the Evangelist of ‘joy’ (Zechariah, shepherds). But, why were they filled with joy when their Master had departed, not to come again?

The disciples, now, felt convinced, they realised that even death should no longer cause fear, if you believe in the Lord. Jesus transformed ‘death’ in a birth to life with God. They realised that Christ’s ‘going away’ meant remaining permanently with His people, and therefore with us.