The Missionary again smiled and replied, "Ah ha! But that's just it, and it makes all the difference. Mohammad, the founder of Islam, is dead, and he is in his coffin. But our Leader has risen from the dead and has ascended to the throne of heaven."
Some people these days say that all religions are the same. But the Feast of the Ascension celebrates one of the things that makes Christianity different from all the other religions in history.
Most religions, of course, have a founder. Someone who was born, who lived, who taught, and started the religion, and who eventually died. A man named Zoroaster born in somewhere around the Iranian Peninsula around the year 1000 BC, compiled the ancient religious ideas stories of his day, mostly from the old polytheistic religions into a new monotheistic religious system containing a lot of very noble ideas. But, Zoraster died. He was buried. And now all his followers have is a memory, and some ancient texts.
Gautama Buddha was born in modern day Napal around 500 BC. He practiced meditation and asceticism, he taught and built a monastic order. And again, his religious system contains some very noble ideas. But, he died. And now all his followers have is a memory, and some ancient texts.
Muhammed was born around the year 570 AD in Mecca in Saudi Arabia. He was a cunning social and political leader and claimed to be divinely inspired in founding the religion of Islam. But he died, and is buried. And yes, his followers have a tomb and some ancient texts. Good for them.
But Christianity is a bit different. Yes our founder was born, he gathered and taught disciples, and died. And, yes his followers continue to reflect upon and incorporate his teachings into our lives. But our founder was God Himself. And while he suffered death in the flesh, he also rose from the dead in the flesh. And not only did he rise, but he has Ascended, in the flesh, to throne of heaven where he lives and reigns now and forever.
And in ascending to heaven, Jesus has not abandoned in his Church. He because he is in heaven, and not some geographical place, he is able to be present to his Church in all places and all times. Not simply his memory, but supersubstantially. In his Papal Audience a few years before his retirement, dear Pope Benedict XVI wrote: “Dear brothers and sisters, the Ascension does not point to Jesus’ absence, but tells us that he is alive in our midst in a new way. He is no longer in a specific place in the world as he was before the Ascension. He is now in the dominion of God, present in every space and time, close to each one of us.” And so we are never alone, simply with a memory, or even simply his example.
The Ascension means we are never alone, and that is something no other religion can claim about their founder. The followers of Zoroastrianism can’t invoke the assistance Zoraster to help them in their trials. He’s dead and powerless. The followers of the Buddha can call to mind his teachings, but they cannot know his immediate assistance. He’s dead and powerless. The followers of Islam, can imitate the example of Muhammed and read the book that he compiled, but he’s dead and powerless.
But Jesus Christ lives and reigns from his throne in heaven in majesty and power. And, through Divine Grace, he makes his dwelling in the thrones of our hearts. Not in a metaphorical way, like when we say, I carry my grandma in my heart wherever I go. That’s just a memory of grandma. Christ truly reigns in us. He is truly close to us. Our souls become an extension of heaven itself, when Christ dwells in us.
I saw a sign outside of a protestant Church one time, it said, Jesus’ ascension means that he works from home from now on. And that’s true. He is at work from his heavenly throne and truly in our lives. He’s not just a memory, or a character in a fairy tale. Christ is alive and he reigns and works in His Church and through his faithful ones. The Church IS his body on earth through which God is really at work.
In our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we heard St. Luke’s account of the Lord’s ascension: how the Lord ascended before the very eyes of his apostles. And St. Luke offered a very interesting detail. He tells us, “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?” As if to say, why are you just standing around. The Church isn’t supposed to just stand around, immobile, paralyzed. Don’t just stand there. It’s time to act, in order to allow Christ to act through you. It’s time to preach--to allow Christ to preach through you. It’s time to be the hands and feat and mouth of Christ. And his hands and feet and mouth are anything but immobile.
A few years ago, Pope Francis reflected on this line from the acts of the apostles He said, “Christians who stay still and don’t go forward in their Christian lives, who don’t make the Beatitudes bloom in their lives, who don’t do Works of mercy… they are motionless. Excuse me for saying it,” the Pope said, “but they are like an (embalmed) mummy, a spiritual mummy. There are Christians who are ‘spiritual mummies,’ motionless. They don’t do evil but they aren’t doing good.”
Christians, rather, are to be on the move, using our hands and feet and lips to spread the kingdom, to console the sorrowing, to instruct the ignorant, to feed the hungry and clothe the naked.
Christians are to be so much more than spiritual mummies. The Lord said, I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly. Christ is alive and his life is to animate us and propel us and guide our hands and feet and fill us with the conviction and spiritual gifts for the building-up of the kingdom, but so often fearful to step forward, afraid of making a mistake, fearful of appearing too Christian.
But Christ truly works, when we go forward, into the world, when we engage in the works of mercy, when we share the Gospel we strangers, when we console them in their afflictions. May we be attentive to those opportunities the Lord gives us to speak and act and console and heal and preach and teach in his name, that others may encounter Him through us for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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