Ascension homily – June 2, 2011. Fr. Joseph T. Nolan
If you were going to church in a small town in Italy, the feast of Ascension means they
hoist the statue of Jesus up, up into the sky – well, at least into the rafters of the church.
The children are delighted—there he goes! It’s called a visual aid.
What we really should do is think about God. But not the way most theologians do – one
of them, for example, describes God in these words: ―the ultimate and determining
principle of all reality.‖ It is a profound statement but I suggest we think about God as
Jesus did. He told us to call God Father. Our Father. The plural means all people are
included. And Jesus could have said ―Mother‖. Our Mother. What is he really telling us
is that God is the source of life – all life. And like all fathers and mothers, he loves us. To
contemplate that should be enough to deliver us from all pessimism. Indeed, it should be
enough to change our lives.
The Ascension means he is no longer with us, either in the physical body he received
from Mary or in the risen body which he received from God. Where is he? With God.
Often we forget that with God there is neither time nor space. That is why some deep
thinkers understand the risen Christ as present throughout creation – not just in people but
every part of creation. Teilhard de Chardin thought this way. Their writing is not easy to
understand. We humans just thank God for Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And the church
finally hammered out, over two great councils, that Jesus is God as well as man. And
then they assign him those titles of king, messiah, Savior, Lord.
There is a cathedral in Cefalu, Sicily that many people visit because the entire apse is
filled with a huge mosaic of Christ in judgment. It is a common theme; the Greek name
for this type of image is Pantokrator, the ruler of all things. This one is more stern than
most, and this is what the Latin inscription says: I, THE MAKER OF MAN, AND THE
REDEEMER OF WHAT I HAVE MADE, HAVING MYSELF A BODY, JUDGE THE
BODIES AND SOULS OF MEN, FOR I AM GOD.
It is a very different picture of Jesus from the Christmas scene, the infant in the crib. Both
are true.
But if Jesus the Christ is the exalted and divine, how can he be close to us? The Holy
Spirit makes him present. That’s why every Mass invokes the Holy Spirit to bring it
about. And why should he be present to us? Because his work on earth is left in our
hands. It is called bringing about the reign or kingdom of God—in us and the world.
The resurrection of Jesus, his Ascension, and now the gift of Holy Spirit which we
celebrate on Pentecost, are all connected. In the past we have not fully understood the
Holy Spirit as the power that makes the risen Christ present in us and in the world. It is a
power that prompts us to be just, loving, compassionate, and to be of service, as Jesus
told us. And hopeful of a blessed ending to life, despite the evils that persist.
So, God who made us. God who became one of us. God who is present to us. This is the
richness we possess, we who have faith, who are baptized, and who wish – more or less –
to follow him. As wars rage and evils prevail, it could be easy to lose heart. Don’t. A
poem puts the message thus:
Jesus, weary teacher of the blind,
some day we’ll see
that all your resurrection-spirit scheme
is neither theory nor a dream.
Our plodding ways just make it seem
like words that did not make it to the flesh.
They did, though. That’s why we’re here on earth,
And all our birthdays are your day of birth.