Today we celebrate the Ascension of Christ the Lord to heaven. Pope Benedict while he was a cardinal wrote an insightful book called Dogma and Preaching. In it, he discusses some of the liturgical seasons of the year. Regarding today’s solemnity, I share with you some of his thoughts. They are insightful and reveal more about why this solemnity is important:
Christ desiring to become ever more present in our activities is the purpose of the strange words that we find in the gospel for today’s celebration:
These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will pick up serpents (with their hands), and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." [Mark 16:17-18]
In the ancient world, these signs manifested the truth that God was with a certain person. Unfortunately, today these signs can be used by some to show that they are “true” believers or that one’s person’s faith might be greater than another person’s faith. That is not the purpose. If Christ is present on earth in his Body – you and me – we are commissioned to make his presence visible.
In my homily at Mass [you can access it via the parish website], I focus on this idea of manifesting Christ’s presence on earth now that he has ascended into heaven. For instance, about deadly things that don’t harm us, what about anger? Jesus, in the Beatitudes, taught us about this dangerous emotion:
You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, 'You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, 'Raqa,' will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, 'You fool,' will be liable to fiery Gehenna. [Matthew 5:21-22]
How do we deal with this destructive poison? Paul in his letter to the Ephesians today often uses the word “One:”
one body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
When we are angry, does our anger unite or divide? Unity manifests God’s presence with us, division doesn’t. Saint Ambrose wrote about putting a door over our mouths to prevent us from allowing our anger to create further division in our divided world:
Let there be a door to your mouth, so that it can be shut when the need arises. Let that door be carefully barred, so that no one can rouse your voice to anger, paying back abuse with abuse. You heard it read at Mass today: “Be angry, but do not sin- Ephesians 4:26. So even if we are angry (since anger first arises from the movements of our nature, not as a choice of our will), let us not utter with our mouth a single evil word. Otherwise we might fall into sin. Instead, let there be a yoke and a balance to your words - that is humility and moderation – so that your tongue will be subject to your mind. Let your tongue be held in check with a tight rein. Let it have its own means of restraint, by which it can be recalled to moderation. Let it speak words tested by the scales of justice, so that there may be seriousness in our meaning, weight in our speech, and due measure in our words.
On this World Communication Sunday, our mission, our daily mission, is to manifest Christ’s presence in the world. He is at the right hand of the Father, a position of power and authority over the whole world.
Tomorrow we celebrate Ascension Sunday. I think that it was 21 years ago that most bishops transferred this solemnity from Thursday, 40 days after Easter, to the following Sunday. The reason for the change was the importance of the Ascension and the dwindling number of Catholics who attend Mass on Holy Days of Obligation. The attendance at Mass is another problem, but the idea of the importance of the Ascension is the principle one. Is this solemnity important to us? It is part of the Paschal Mystery, the story of our redemption and salvation, so it is very important. For me, the yearly celebration helps me dig more deeply into the mystery. I share with you some thoughts about this solemnity, one written by an early Christian author and the second, a Wednesday audience reflection by Pope Francis on the ascension.
Saint John Chrysostom wrote:
God and the human race have become a single family. Paul says in one place that «We are all the children of God,» (Acts 17,29) and in another that «We are the body Christ, each of us being a different member of it,» (1Cor 12,27) Because Christ has cloth himself in our flesh we are his kin. Consequently we have his pledge heaven in the body he took from us, and we have the Holy Spirit with us here on earth. Why wonder at the Holy Spirit being with us as well as in heaven, when Christ's body too is in heaven and also with us? Heaven received his holy body and earth received the Holy Spirit. Christ came to earth and brought with him the Holy Spirit; he ascended to heaven and took with him our body. O marvelous ordering of divine providence!... As the prophet said: «O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is your name in all the earth!» (Ps 8,2).
Your godhead is raised: «As they watched he was lifted up,» (Acts 1,9) he who in every way is great, the great God, the great Lord. But if he is the great God and the great Lord, he is also a great king, «a great king over all the earth» (Ps 47[46],3). He is a great prophet, a great priest, a great light, in every way he is great. His greatness lies not only in his divinity, but in his humanity as well. As in his divinity he is the great God, and Lord and king, so also he is a great priest and a great prophet. How has this come about? Paul says: «Since then we have a great high priest, who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to the faith we have professed» (Heb 4,14). If he is a great priest and a great prophet, then surely God «has visited his people» and «raised up a great prophet in Israel» (Lk 7,16). And if he is a great prophet, priest, and king, he is also a great light: «Galilee of the Gentiles, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light»(Is 9,1f.; Mt 4,15) . Let us then hold fast to the pledge of our life in heaven where we have been taken up with Christ
Pope Francis in his Wednesday audience on April 17, 2013 said:
In the Creed we say that Jesus “ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father”. The Jesus’ earthly life culminated with the Ascension, when he passed from this world to the Father and was raised to sit on his right. What does this event mean? How does it affect our life? What does contemplating Jesus seated at the right hand of the Father mean? Let us permit the Evangelist Luke to guide us in this.
Let us start from the moment when Jesus decided to make his last pilgrimage to Jerusalem. St Luke notes: “When the days drew near for him to be received up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Lk 9:51). While he was “going up” to the Holy City, where his own “exodus” from this life was to occur, Jesus already saw the destination, heaven, but he knew well that the way which would lead him to the glory of the Father passed through the Cross, through obedience to the divine design of love for mankind. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that: “The lifting up of Jesus on the cross signifies and announces his lifting up by his Ascension into heaven” (n. 662).
We too should be clear in our Christian life that entering the glory of God demands daily fidelity to his will, even when it demands sacrifice and sometimes requires us to change our plans. The Ascension of Jesus actually happened on the Mount of Olives, close to the place where he had withdrawn to pray before the Passion in order to remain in deep union with the Father: once again we see that prayer gives us the grace to be faithful to God’s plan.
At the end of his Gospel, St Luke gives a very concise account of the event of the Ascension. Jesus led his disciples “out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God” (Lk 24:50-53). This is what St Luke says.
I would like to note two elements in the account. First of all, during the Ascension Jesus made the priestly gesture of blessing, and the disciples certainly expressed their faith with prostration, they knelt with bowed heads, this is a first important point: Jesus is the one eternal High Priest who with his Passion passed through death and the tomb and ascended into heaven. He is with God the Father where he intercedes for ever in our favour (cf. Heb 9:24). As St John says in his First Letter, he is our Advocate: How beautiful it is to hear this! When someone is summoned by the judge or is involved in legal proceedings, the first thing he does is to seek a lawyer to defend him. We have One who always defends us, who defends us from the snares of devil, who defends us from ourselves and from our sins!
Dear brothers and sisters, we have this Advocate; let us not be afraid to turn to him to ask forgiveness, to ask for a blessing, to ask for mercy! He always pardons us, he is our Advocate: he always defends us! Don’t forget this! The Ascension of Jesus into heaven acquaints us with this deeply consoling reality on our journey : in Christ, true God and true man, our humanity was taken to God. Christ opened the path to us. He is like a roped guide climbing a mountain who, on reaching the summit, pulls us up to him and leads us to God. If we entrust our life to him, if we let ourselves be guided by him, we are certain to be in safe hands, in the hands of our Saviour, of our Advocate.
A second element: St Luke says that having seen Jesus ascending into heaven, the Apostles returned to Jerusalem “with great joy”. This seems to us a little odd. When we are separated from our relatives, from our friends, because of a definitive departure and, especially, death, there is usually a natural sadness in us since we will no longer see their face, no longer hear their voice, or enjoy their love, their presence. The Evangelist instead emphasizes the profound joy of the Apostles.
But how could this be? Precisely because, with the gaze of faith they understand that although he has been removed from their sight, Jesus stays with them for ever, he does not abandon them and in the glory of the Father supports them, guides them and intercedes for them.
St Luke too recounts the event of the Ascension — at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles — to emphasize that this event is like the link of the chain that connects Jesus’ earthly life to the life of the Church. Here St Luke also speaks of the cloud that hid Jesus from the sight of the disciples, who stood gazing at him ascending to God (cf. Acts 1:9-10). Then two men in white robes appeared and asked them not to stand there looking up to heaven but to nourish their lives and their witness with the certainty that Jesus will come again in the same way in which they saw him ascending into heaven (cf. Acts 1:10-11). This is the invitation to base our contemplation on Christ’s lordship, to find in him the strength to spread the Gospel and to witness to it in everyday life: contemplation and action, ora et labora, as St Benedict taught, are both necessary in our life as Christians.
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 lordship of God, present in every space and time, close to each one of us. In our life we are never alone: we have this Advocate who awaits us, who defends us. We are never alone: the Crucified and Risen Lord guides us. We have with us a multitude of brothers and sisters who, in silence and concealment, in their family life and at work, in their problems and hardships, in their joys and hopes, live faith daily and together with us bring the world the lordship of God’s love, in the Risen Jesus Christ, ascended into Heaven, our own Advocate who pleads for us. Many thanks.
Hope that this helps your understanding of the importance of this solemnity and increases your desire to be present at Mass on the day of the Ascension.