Ascension of the Lord (A); May 24, 2020

Acts 1:1-11   Ps 47   Eph 1:7-23   Mt 28:16-20

Deacon Jim McFadden

 

            For the last two Sundays, we reflected upon Jesus’ Farewell Discourse which was his last will and testament; there, the nucleus of our Christian faith was on full display. Moreover, he promised us that he will not leave us orphaned as the Father will send the Holy Spirit, who will be the presence of the absent Christ and who will empower us to learn the art of loving. Today, we celebrate Jesus’ Ascension into heaven, which takes place 40 days after Easter. The scene is set in Galilee, the place where Jesus had called his disciples to follow him and to form the first nucleus of his new community, which would become the Church. In so doing, our Faith is elevated to a level unimagined previously.

The setting of the Ascension is important. In Ezekiel’s prophesy, God’s glory leaves the Temple during the Babylonian Exile (586 b.c.). The abandonment of the Temple in Jerusalem is a stunning development because it was the epicenter of Jewish worship. But, the people’s constant idolatry and hypocrisy led to the wrath of God’s justice. God then takes up residence over the mountain east of Jerusalem (Ez 11:23). This height was called Mount Olivet, which is where Jesus’ Ascension happens and implies that the Son of God has gone, quite literally, up to his Father. From that place at the Father’s right hand, Jesus will rule the universe and someday (the 2^nd Coming) he will return.

Jesus’ Ascension into heaven marks the end of his mission that he had received from his Father during his public ministry. This mission will continue through the Church, which is a visible sign of the Risen, Ascended, and Glorified Christ. From this moment of the Ascension, the Christ’s presence in the world is mediated by the baptized, who are members of his mystical Body, the Church.   The mission of Christ has now been given to his Church   and it will succeed because she will have the assistance of the Risen Lord who assures: “I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20).

At Easter, our sadness turned into joy at the Lord’s resurrection. As Saint Leo the Great noted in a sermon, our ‘present rejoicing is on account of ascension into heaven.” When Jesus was visibly and physically present to his disciples, their relationship, while promising, remained at the surface level, which was dramatically exposed when they abandoned Jesus during his Passion. Now, the presence of the Risen and Glorified Christ goes to a deeper level in which his divine life has been passed into the Church through the Sacraments.   During Jesus’ public ministry, his disciples were moving towards worshiping him and following him. But, with the Resurrection, Ascension, and Pentecost, his disciples now PARTICIPATE in the divine life in which we are divinized into Trinitarian love.   Prior to Holy Week, the disciples had encountered Jesus and were engaged with him to a degree. But following the Ascension and Pentecost we are now IN God; we are participating in the divine life. Just as Jesus was lifted up to be with his heavenly Father, we draw closer to Heaven in our here-and-now circumstances to the extent that we “move, live, and have our being” in Jesus. For this reason, the Solemnity of the Ascension invites us to be in profound communion with the Risen Christ, invisibly but really present in the life of each and everyone of us, who are the People of God.

Brothers and sisters, as St. Catherine of Siena once said, “The road to Heaven is Heaven; the road to Hell is Hell.” Let us chose the right road. Let us enthusiastically and steadfastly accept the mission of Christ, the mission of the Church to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (vs. 19-20). And, as we do, that, we will experience great joy because through Faith we will know that the Risen and Glorified Christ is alive within us as we experience him through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Ascension does not mean that the Lord has abandoned us, but that he is really present to us in a way that is absolutely life-giving and unitive. Amen.