Ascension of the Lord (A); May 21, 2023

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

Deacon Jim McFadden

            In the closing scene to the 1999 movie The Matrix, the main character Neo played by Keanu Reeves—who’s been trying to figure out whether or not he’s “The One”—shoots upward in the sky.  Along with the Shawshank Redemption, Neo is among the most famous pop culture Christ figure of the 90s.  Neo had to embrace the fullness of his powers for him to defeat death, and it seemed, learned how to fly. 

            Taken at a literal level, Jesus’ Ascension at opening of the Acts of the Apostles (1:1-11) reminds me of the Matrix scene.  Following a conversation with is disciples in which he promised the coming of the Holy Spirit who will empower them to give witness to all corners of the earth, Jesus just doesn’t return home to his heavenly Father, but he was “lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight” (v. 9).  “Lifted up”—what does that mean?  Is heaven an actual place, occupying some “galaxy far, far away.”  Does Jesus actual fly like Neo in Maxtrix.  When we’re resurrected from the dead, are we going to fly as well?  St. Thomas Aquinas has taught to us interpret Scripture on two basic levels: the literal and the spiritual.  Regarding the latter, we can understand scripture at the allegorical/metaphorical, moral, and anagogical level.

            However,  we choose to interpret this rather strange story, Jesus’ Ascension marks the end of his mission that he had received from his Father during his public ministry.  I think that’s what Jesus may have meant when he said right before he died: “it is finished” (Jn 19:30b).  Jesus has accomplished what he had set out to do: we are saved!  When Jesus returned home to his Father, his mission, while accomplished, did not end because it  will continue through the Church, which is a visible sign of the Risen, Glorified, and Ascended Christ.  As such, the Church is a Sacrament of Jesus, who is the primary Sacrament.  Christ’s presence in the world is now mediated by the baptized, who are members of his mystical Body, the 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).

            The presence of the Risen and Glorified Christ can only go to a deeper level if he is no longer with us physically which occurred during the 40 days following his Resurrection.   During Jesus’ public ministry, his disciples were moving towards worshiping and following him.  But, with the Resurrection, Ascension, and Pentecost, his disciples now PARTICIPATE  in the divine life in which we are gradually transformed into Trinitarian Love: as such, we become Christified or divinized.

      Prior to Holy Week, the disciples had encountered Jesus and were engaged with him to a very personal degree, but there was still a distance as seen by their betrayal, denial, and missing-in-action when the Lord was arrested, scourged, and crucified.  But, following the Ascension and Pentecost, they are now IN God; they and we are participating here and now in his divine life.  As Jesus was “lifted up” to his heavenly Father, we draw closer, we “fly” in the direction of Heaven in our here-and-now circumstances to the extent that we “move, live, and have our being” in Jesus (cf. Acts 17:28).  For this reason, the Ascension of the Lord invites us to be in profound communion with the Risen Christ, invisibly but really present in the life of each and every one 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 choose the right road.  Let us enthusiastically and steadfastly accept the mission of Christ 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” (Mt 28:19-20b).  And, as we do that, we will experience great joy because through Faith we will know that the Risen, Glorified, and Ascended Christ is alive within us as we experience him through the power of the Holy Spirit.  The Ascension does not mean that Lord has abandoned us.  The Word has come to us and then he went.  But, he is coming back again at the Second Coming, which is one of the great mysteries of our Faith.  You see the Incarnate Word of God must leave for God’s Holy  Spirit to stay (cf. Jn 16:7).  So, as the Psalmist instructs us, “lift up a song to him who rides upon the clouds, whose power is in skies,” (Ps 68:5)  because God is the one who “gives power and strength to the people” (v. 36).  Blessed be God!  Amen.