Homily for the Feast of the Ascension, C

So before leaving them, he tells his disciples to go back to Jerusalem and there wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit. If they want to find Jesus, they will find him in the Christian community, in the midst of their every day lives.

I have Mass on Sunday June 1, at St. Isidore @ 7:30/9:30 am

The 7:30 am Mass will be live-streamed https://stisidore.church/worship-online/

Transcript

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke. 

Jesus said to his disciples, "Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things, and behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you, but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high." 

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, raised his hands, and blessed them. As he blessed them, he parted from them, and was taken up to heaven. They did him homage, and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple, praising God. 

The Gospel of the Lord. 

Luke is the only Gospel writer to attempt to describe the scene of Christ's departure from this world at the end of his earthly ministry. For Luke, the ascension is an ending, but it also marks a beginning. His Gospel ends with the ascension. Jesus commissions his disciples to bear witness to the things they have heard and seen, and then he blesses them and is carried into heaven. 

Reading Luke's account, one could get the impression that heaven is the place somewhere up there where God lives, and that Jesus, having finished his time on earth, reverted to being God again, and like a helium balloon, floated back to his real home. But listen to these words that the church prays in the Eucharistic Prayer  today. "In his risen body, Christ plainly showed himself to his disciples, and was taken up to heaven in their sight to claim for us a share in his divinity. 

In his ascension into heaven, our humanity is now permanently inserted into the life of God in and through Jesus Christ. We have become a new creation, and God has become new as well." 

We heard this in the last few weeks from the book of Revelation. God is in the midst of humanity. We are not heaven-bound. Heaven is bound for us. We are in God, and God is in us. "Behold, God's dwelling is with the human race."

The time of Jesus on earth has ended. The time of the believers living, speaking, and acting in the power of the Spirit has begun. If the ministries and the salvation offered by Jesus is to continue, it has to come through the believers who have been empowered from on high. 

Within the mystery of the Ascension is both presence and absence. when we look at all the suffering of the world, it may seem as if God is absent. But then we remember this question: What is the only human made thing in heaven?Answer, The wounds in Christ’s hands and sides. Although Christ may not appear in our midst to eat broiled fish. Christ's presence is tangible in soup kitchens, around the kitchen table, and around the altar. We see Him in the breaking of the bread. 

In his general audience, Pope Leo is reflecting on the jubilee theme of Christ, our hope. This week, he reflected on the parable of the Good Samaritan. You remember, a man going down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho is beaten, robbed, and left for dead. In the parable, two people, a priest and a Levite, who we presume are on their way home from the temple, simply choose to ignore him. This, Pope Leo highlighted, shows that religious practice alone does not automatically lead to compassion. It's not a characteristic of religion, but one of being human. Human beings are called to be compassionate, no matter their religion. 

When Jesus left us, He made it clear that He wanted us to carry on the work He had begun. He said that we could do the same things He did, and even greater. So, before leaving them, He tells His disciples to go back to Jerusalem and there wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit. If they want to find Jesus, they will find Him in the Christian community in the midst of their everyday lives. 

The humanity of Jesus is our humanity. To ascend with Christ does not mean we are to go up, but rather to go down into the depths of our lives, to live from a center of humility. As Paul says in Romans 10:8 “The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart” 

Every time we receive the love of a brother or sister, it is the presence of Jesus. Every time we share our love with a brother or sister, we are making Jesus present to that person. We are to be Jesus in this world. We are to be the visible presence of Jesus. 

Saint Irenaeus said, we only have Him in the Latin, not the original Greek, "Gloria enemdei vivens homo." "A living human being is the very glory of God." Christ ascending in our flesh to heaven implies a permanent union between His divinity and His humanity in one person. The ascension informs us not only that Jesus is God, but also that Jesus is fully human and remains so. The incarnation continues. 

When people see me, do they see Jesus? When people see me, do they want to know Jesus? When people see me, do they want to join our community, share our life, and take the gospel as the foundation of their life? 

On the feast of the ascension, the book of the gospel draws to a close, but the story does not come to an end. You and I are sent out to live the gospel, not found in a book, but written on our hearts.