Homily: Ascension of the Lord

Traditionally, the Feast of the Ascension, a holy day of obligation, is celebrated 40 days after Easter, on Ascension Thursday.  In most of the dioceses of the United States, the Ascension is celebrated liturgically on the following Sunday, which is today.  It is still a holy day of obligation because every Sunday is a holy day of obligation.

Whether it is celebrated on Thursday or Sunday, the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ is very important for our salvation.  It is so important that, we profess our faith in the Lord’s Ascension every Sunday in the Creed.  “He ascended into heaven and is seated and the right hand of the Father.”

In a homily a few years ago, Pope Benedict, always teaching the faith with such clarity, taught though Jesus is with the Father he has not gone away, but remains close to us, now he is no longer in one particular place in the world as he had been before the ascension.  Now in through his power over space, Jesus is present and accessible to all throughout history and in every place.

From his sanctuary in heaven, as the letter to the Hebrews puts it, Jesus is able to be in every tabernacle in the world, he is able to dwell with the Father and the Holy Spirit in every baptized soul.  By going to his Father, he is able to walk with each of us in the dark valleys.  

I celebrated the funeral of a very good parishioner of Saint Columbkille yesterday.  At the Funeral I recalled how I had been able to visit her in her final hours in the hospital.  And when I visited her she was in really good spirits, she was joking how in the months of her illness, her husband had to learn many of the wifely duties, cooking, cleaning the house, doing laundry.  I was struck how, not only was she in good humor, despite the tubes in her arms and the physical suffering from her late stage cancer, she was facing the inevitable with a sort of fearlessness.

Though there was pain, both physical and emotional, especially the pain of being separated from her loved ones, I was really struck by her fearlessness.

And though I went to the hospital last Sunday night to bring Jesus to her in Eucharist and the sacrament of anointing—to bring her the comfort that comes from God,  I found that, God was already there.

Because of the Ascension, Jesus is present and accessible to all throughout history and in every place.  The Catechism puts it, “having entered the sanctuary of heaven once and for all, Jesus Christ, intercedes constantly intercedes for us as the mediator who assures us of the permanent outpouring of the Holy Spirit.” God was there, in that hospital room in an outpouring of comfort; God was there granting her fearlessness; God was there preparing her soul to meet Him, and it was very beautiful to behold. 

There are a lot of reasons that human beings fear death:  we fear the unknown, we fear facing God, who will judge our souls, to whom we will have to give an account of our lives;  we fear the pain involved in dying, we fear for the well-being of loved-ones left behind.

Yet, the Christian faces death with a sort of fearlessness.  The Christian faces God, not with dread or despair, but with trust, for we know that he loved us so much that he sent his Son to make the ultimate Sacrifice.  We know that he wants us to be prepared for that moment, and he’s given us the help of the other Sacraments throughout our life in overcoming Sin and preparing to meet Him. 

The pain of death, the physical and emotional suffering for the Christian, is not to be feared, but embraced, because in our suffering we are able to draw close to Jesus who suffered beyond imagining to redeem us. 

We don’t even fear for the well-being of loved-ones because just as God has given us strength to face the trials of our life, so to, we know that he will be there with them.

And the unknown realm beyond death?  Once we get past Judgment it is clear sailing.  For in the Ascension Jesus has taken our human nature into the inner life of God.  This Feast proclaims that we have a place in heaven, we are meant for heaven.  When Jesus ascends to the Father he takes our humanity with him and our humanity finds its place in the very heart of God.

Pope Francis recently taught that The Ascension of Jesus into heaven acquaints us with this deeply consoling reality on our journey: In Christ, true God and true man, our humanity was taken to God.

Christ opened the path to us. He is like a roped guide climbing a mountain who, on reaching the summit, pulls us up to him and leads us to God.

If we entrust our life to him, if we let ourselves be guided by him, we are certain to be in safe hands, in the hands of our Saviour, of our Advocate.

We do well to reflect on those parts of our lives where we are most resistant to letting Him guide us, and those people in our lives who we are most resistant to loving and serving, and to once again, entrust our whole lives to his care.

On this Mother’s Day, we are particularly grateful in those many ways that our Mother’s have been other Christ’s to us.  Only God knows the hundreds of thousands of loving sacrifices they have made for us over the years.  We cannot thank our mother’s enough for the gift of life, and the many other sacrifices that go unnoticed and unappreciated.  When a Mother pours out her love for her children, she is cooperating with the grace of God.

For again, God is not far from us.  He works through human agency; he works through mothers, he works through parents, he works through teachers, he works through priests, he works particularly through Holy Mother Church, the Catholic Church.  The Catholic Church is not simply a social club whose members share similar ideas and values.  The Catholic Church is the presence of Christ on earth.  You and I are called to be the hands and feet of Christ, bringing Christ to other through the faith we profess and practice in our every-day lives.  So much so, that the individual Christian is called to be alter Christus—which is latin for, “another Christ.”

When Jesus ascended into heaven, he entrusted his mission to his disciples.  You and I have a mission, we have a purpose, to bring Christ to souls and souls to Christ.  May we be faithful to all that our divine mission entails for the glory of God and salvation of souls.