Homily for the Feast of the Ascension, A

The Jesuit poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, captures this beautifully in these words from his poem, “As Kingfishers catch fire.”

“Christ plays in ten thousand places,
 Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
 To the Father through the features of men's faces.”

I have Mass on Sunday, May 17th at St. Isidore @ 9:30/11:30 am

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Transcript

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. 

The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.
When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and 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. And behold, I am with you always until the end of the age. 

The Gospel of the Lord. 

Most of you probably heard about the water main break in Auburn Hills last Sunday. I live in Orion Township, where we were under a water emergency for several days. I have a well, so I was not directly affected, but when I drove home Sunday evening through downtown Lake Orion, it was like a ghost town. The restaurants and bars were all closed. By Monday morning, I saw more. Car washes, schools, the gym, coffee shops, all closed. By Sunday afternoon, however, there was a water distribution site set up in my neighborhood. The police reserve were there to direct traffic, and high school kids and neighbors volunteered, handing out free water all week long. 

We often take things for granted and don't really notice them until they're gone. Water is essential. During the emergency, there were severe restrictions on home water use. Tap water was not safe to drink without boiling. But there was water available just down the street. We still had water, but the delivery system had changed. I think we can use this analogy to say something important about the ascension. The ascension is not about Jesus abandoning us or leaving us. Rather, from now on, Jesus is present to us in a different way. 

Notice how the Acts of the Apostles begins. In the first book, Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught until the day he was taken up. That's it. A single sentence summarizing the entire Gospel of Luke. Luke does not seem to think the Gospel tells the whole story. He perceives the past of Jesus as the beginning of Jesus' redeeming work. But now comes another written account of that redeeming work applied to human beings. Luke's gospel, therefore, is the work of Jesus on earth. But the book of Acts, in some ways, represents Jesus' work from heaven. Instead of calling it the Acts of the Apostles, we could call it the Acts of the Ascended Jesus. In the book of Acts, the risen and ascended Christ extends the ministry that began in the Gospel of Luke to the apostolic community, and in turn, to us. 

The ascension is the Son of Man's enthronement, his coronation, his moving into the celestial oval office. This is why Jesus can say right before his ascension, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. In today's reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Jesus says to his disciples, in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit, meaning you're not going to have a lot of time without me. We heard Jesus say last Sunday in John's Gospel, I will not leave you as orphans. Instead, I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to be with you forever. 

The one who has moved into the celestial oval office is also moving into our guest room. The puzzled disciples were to discover that when the Holy Spirit came upon them on the day of Pentecost, God was even more fully with them than he had been before. When Jesus was with them physically, he was limited by time and space. If he was in Capernaum, that's where he was, not in Nazareth. If he was in Bethsaida, that's where he was, not Cana. When he sent out his 72 disciples on mission, two by two, he was unable to go with them because he couldn't be in all those places at the same time. In his ascension, Christ no longer limits himself in time and space. When his Spirit came upon them, they could all experience his presence anywhere and everywhere. 

What began in the Lord's resurrection is now ready to burst forth and flood the world through the work of the disciples. Instead of, Lord, will you now restore the kingdom to Israel? Jesus answers, I want the whole world. You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. 

This is God's plan from the very first act of creating. In the beginning, God did not create a country, but the whole universe. And then God created a human, who's not a Jew nor a Gentile, only Adam, the one from earth. And when God calls Abraham, what does God promise? All the families of the earth will find blessing in you. Everybody gets better because of you, the whole wide world. 

One of the defining moments of Pope Francis's papacy came during his final World Youth Day in 2023. In front of a crowd of 500,000 people gathered in Lisbon, Portugal, from around the globe, Pope Francis led a chant, Todos, todos, todos, everyone, everyone, everyone. With these three words, Francis proclaimed a truth that echoed through the hearts of Catholics and non-Catholics alike. The Church is not a club for the worthy. It is a home for all. No one is excluded. not the doubting, not the broken, not the marginalized. All are welcome. 

The Jesuit poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, captures this beautifully in these words from his poem, “As Kingfishers catch fire.” "Christ plays in ten thousand places, lovely in limbs and lovely in eyes not his, to the Father through the features of men's faces."