Cycle [C] Ascension of the Lord

 Acts 1:1-11; Ephes. 1:17-23 or Heb. 9:24-28, 10:19-23; Lk. 24:44-53

Today we celebrate the "Ascension of the Lord" Jesus. The visible departure of the Lord concluded the Risen Jesus' sojourn on earth. This also marks the beginning of a new phase in Christ’s relationship to humanity. As his visible presence ends, his "spiritual presence” begins in the Church.

The disciples worship Jesus as Lord when his divine identity was finally confirmed through his Resurrection. His divine authority is revealed as he now departs to heaven, taking his proper place at the right hand of the Father.  How do we know he is at the right hand of God? We get references in two letters and also in Acts where Stephen sees Jesus at the right hand of God when he was being stoned to death.  The line from the Apostles' Creed “He sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty” has both theological and practical implications. The “right hand” is seen as a place of honor and status throughout the biblical text. Therefore, it is affirmation that Jesus has equal status to the Father within the Godhead (Hebrews 1:3, 12:2; 1 Peter 3:22; Acts 7:55-56).

Jesus leads his disciples out of the city towards Bethany, and the word for ‘to lead’ that is used by Luke here is often used in the Old Testament to describe the Exodus from Egypt. Here we have the completion of Christ’s new Exodus which he had been discussing with Moses and Elijah during his Transfiguration (Lk 9:31). The location of the Ascension at Bethany offers a similar sense of closure to the Gospel story, for it was at Bethany that Jesus began his triumphal entry into Jerusalem the week before his Passion (Lk 19:28-44). The beginning of his triumphal entry into Jerusalem becomes the place of his true triumphal entry, as he ascends to heaven. The disciples return to Jerusalem with great joy, where they spent their days in the Temple, blessing God, almost a classic ‘happily ever after’ ending.

This feast is also a beginning as the disciples are given their new mission which will begin at Pentecost, the completion of the Lord’s Paschal Mystery, as he sends the Holy Spirit upon the apostles in visible form, impelling to their new task. In our First Reading from the beginning of Acts, we have the first hints of this new movement as Jesus tells the apostles that they will be his witnesses ‘in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth’ (Acts 1:8). The response of the angels, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?’ (Acts 1:11) sounds a little like an attempt to cajole them into action: what are you doing standing around? There’s work to be done. The Ascension begins that movement from Jerusalem out to the furthest ends of the known world that we have been hearing about day after day as we read the Acts of the Apostles. The book of Acts gives the account of Jesus acting through His followers.

Jesus is alive and will live through us and manifest himself to others if only we become available to him as a medium for him. We have to become his hands and feet, and his tongue and face.  A preacher used to keep a pair of old leather gloves on his desk. Before he would go to preach he would put the old gloves on and flex it several times. Someone asked him, “why do you do that?” He said, “To remind me of this vital lesson, that the gloves are absolutely impotent and powerless until my hands slipped into it.”

 

God prepares us and works in us through His Word, prayer, Sacraments, and sometimes through suffering in our life to strengthen our will and form our character for his ministry.   

The Bible shows many examples. God spent 40 years working in Moses before He could work through him. At the beginning of his ministry, Moses was impetuous and depended on his own strength. He killed an Egyptian and had to flee Egypt, hardly a successful way to start a ministry. But during those 40 years as a humble shepherd in the desert, Moses experienced God’s working in his life, a working that prepared him for forty more years of magnificent service.

There are other examples. Joseph suffered for thirteen years before God put him on the throne of Egypt, as second to Pharaoh. David was anointed king when he was a youth, but he did not gain the throne until he had suffered many years as an exile. Even the Apostle Paul spent three years in Arabia after his conversion, no doubt experiencing God’s deeper work to prepare him for his ministry. God has to work in us before He can work through us.

Ascension does not just mark the beginning of the new story of the nascent Church, but also another new movement, the movement of the virtue of hope. Our hope of reaching our heavenly homeland is not something static, for, as the Collect of today’s Mass tells us, where the Head has gone before in glory, the Body is called to follow in hope. But our following of Christ cannot mean that we are like the men of Galilee standing and looking into heaven. Instead, our hope puts us on a pilgrim journey to heaven.

Let us be willing and ready to submit ourselves in the hands of God that He will work through us to spread the message of hope, the message of Ascension.

Ps. Next two Sundays I will be visiting Greece and there won't be any posting of homilies those Sundays.