One of the great challenges in the life of faith is learning to put God’s mind above our
own. It’s no doubt that we often rely on our own logic and our own understanding to
make decisions regarding faith and morals. That’s why there are so many different
views on issues such as abortion, contraception and same-sex marriage. But of course,
the Church is very clear on these and other issues. The Church, in fact, encourages us
through its teachings to be one with the mind of God. Jesus was encouraging the same
thing back in his day. In fact, he had to chastise Peter once and say that he was
thinking not as God does, but as human beings do. The wisdom of Scripture also
encourages us not to lean on our own understanding, but to rely on God’s wisdom. But
the thing is, as much as we’re told this, we still tend to lapse into our human ways of
thinking far more than is beneficial.
Today is a good example of this. The disciples who were there when Jesus ascended
wanted to hold onto Jesus for as long as they could. They figured, “It’s good for us that
you’re here!” It’s like trying to say goodbye to a friend who’s moving away – you want to
hold onto them because you would benefit from it, and that’s often all you’re thinking.
But in God’s mind, there may be a different plan! How unfair would it have been for
Jesus’ disciples to hold onto him after the Resurrection and not allow him to ascend to
the Father! As much as they wanted Jesus to always be with him, it wasn’t part of the
plan. After his Resurrection, Jesus possessed within himself very clearly this heavenly
glory that wasn’t suited for earth. He wasn’t meant to remain only in the world. He was
meant to be with the Father in heaven. And of course, he did stay with the disciples for
40 days after the resurrection. But he had a plan during that time – to reinforce the faith
of believers, to leave a farewell message of peace, and to prepare the hearts of his
disciples to receive the Holy Spirit. But he was meant to ascend to Heaven.
His disciples didn’t understand this. And really, you can’t blame them. Jesus had
talked about his Ascension, but they didn’t really understand what that was. The mind
of God was somewhat foreign to them, which is so often the case with us – we don’t
think as God thinks. So when Jesus ascended, they did what the other disciples did 40
days earlier, on Easter morning. They looked for Jesus where they expected him to be.
On Easter morning, the women came to the tomb expecting to find his body because
that’s where they laid him, but all they found was an empty tomb. The disciples today
saw Jesus rise up into the sky, and even when he was out of sight, they kept looking up
at the sky, expecting something else to happen. But in both cases, angels appeared to
clarify what was going on. They told them, “Why are you looking here?” To the women
at the tomb: “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” To the disciples today:
“Why are you staring up at the sky?” Jesus isn’t here. Jesus has been raised from the
dead. Jesus has ascended to the Father. And that means, not that Jesus isn’t here,
but that his presence among us takes on an entirely different form. That means that we
don’t look for him in the same way we look for one another – he’s not going to be found
in a merely flesh-and-blood form. After the Ascension, we realize that Jesus still comes
to us, but in different ways – in the Word, in Sacrament, in prayer. No less real, just
different.
That’s one aspect of the Ascension, but there’s another, perhaps more important, part
of it. When Jesus ascended to heaven, he went up body and soul—he was 100%
human and divine. So he took with him our human nature. This is important, because
our human condition was weakened by the sin of Adam and Eve. That original sin
meant that we needed a savior – we needed to be redeemed. We needed healing. We
needed to be restored to the hope of eternal life. Now, with the Ascension, we can say
that our human weakness is no longer the hindrance to heaven that it once was. If we
remain faithful and follow Jesus, we will go to heaven. And if we can say that our
weakness is no longer a obstacle to our salvation, then we can say as well that our
human weakness is no longer an obstacle to the life of grace even now.
The truth is, sometimes life can beat us down. And a lot of times it’s because we fail to
think as God does, we fail to see ourselves as God sees us, as worth the offer of
redemption. We might figure our failures and shortcomings limit us and define us. We
allow others to constantly criticize us to the point that we believe there’s no escaping
our weakness. Others, by their words and their negativity, can make us feel trapped
without the hope of ever breaking free of old habits and beliefs about who we are and
what we’re supposed to be. But when we realize that Jesus takes us in all our
weakness and unites us to himself and lifts us up to heavenly glory, then we begin to
see ourselves as something more. We realize that God created us for more than this
world, and that our human nature, as weak as it is, is still capable of so much more. We
have a capacity for Godly virtue that’s far beyond what we realize, but we realize too
that we haven’t even begun to allow God to fill up that capacity.
 We sometimes say: “I can’t forgive that person that hurt me.” But Jesus would say,
“You have the capacity to forgive. It’s just that you’ve relied so much on yourself
and not on Me.” Jesus Christ is the one who fills your heart with the charity that’s
necessary to really forgive. But it’s about drawing upon the strength and grace that
only He offers to actually do it.
 We convince ourselves: “I can’t be that voice that stands up to the gossipers and the
bullies around me.” Jesus says, “You have the ability to be strong in those
moments.” But it’s about calling upon Christ, who will be with us in the moments of
greatest fear and anxiety. He will give you the words to speak. But you have the
capacity to defend life and marriage and the dignity of all people.
 We think to ourselves, “I can’t control these urges within me to overeat, to
overspend, to seek pleasure in alcohol or sex. They’re just too strong for me to
overcome.” Jesus says, “But you have the will, the choice, to turn to Me in those
times of temptation and call upon My strength to resist.” Again, it’s all about turning
to the one who gave you this incredible capacity for Godly virtue in the first place—a
capacity that you don’t even realize you have. He’s the one who will fill that up when
you need it most.
This is all about recognizing our dignity in Christ, and seeing ourselves as worthy of
God’s love, and striving to acknowledge that by living in a real relationship with Him.
We go to Jesus because he wants to fill us up, and he gives us every opportunity to be
filled—in the Word, in Sacrament, in prayer. He comes to us and he tells us: “You are
made for something more. I lift you up in your weakness and make you strong.”