The Solemnity of the Ascension is a Call to Action.
Homily for the Ascension of the Lord – 16 May 2021
An American priest, Fr Walter Ciszek, worked as a missionary in Russia for 23 years. While in Russia he was arrested and spent 5 years in a notoriously cruel Moscow prison and another 10 years in a harsh Siberian slave labour camp. He was finally released from Russia in 1963, in exchange for two Soviet spies. After his release he wrote a book, “He Leadeth Me’, in which he tries to answer the question: ‘How did you manage to survive in Russia?’ He says: “I was able to endure the inhuman conditions in which I found myself because I experienced somehow the presence of God. I never lost my faith that God was with me, even in the worst of circumstances.” What was true of Fr Walter Ciszek is true of each of us. Jesus is with us; God is with us in the power of his Holy Spirit.
Consider your sense of the presence of Jesus, of him being with you, present to you, listening to you, even right now in this church. This is no small thing: Our spiritual life is based on the premise that God is close to us, that we can talk to him, and that he desires intimacy with us. And then, think about the call to mission: that each of us have a role, a purpose, that what we do and say is important and necessary. Now, both these truths are connected to the Ascension of Jesus.
But, when you think of it, the Ascension of the Lord carries with it some misconceptions. The first is that it would, on the face of it, seem that we are celebrating the going away Jesus, his leaving the earth and his disciples. Why would we want to celebrate the going away of Jesus? The other misconception is that Ascension is not really important. After all it would seem that the really important feasts are the Resurrection of the Lord at Easter, and again the Solemnity of Pentecost, the giving of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church, which we will celebrate next Sunday.
To respond to that first misconception: in actual fact the Ascension of the Lord is not his going away from us, but rather his coming infinitely closer to us. In St Matthew’s version of the Ascension, Jesus promises, “Behold I am with you always, even to the close of the age.” No longer is he just present in one place, at one time, as during his days in Palestine 2000 years ago, he is present in all places, to all people, of all times. So today we celebrate the coming closer of Jesus to all of us, in every place and every time.
To make that clear, the special preface prayer which is used for the Mass today says that Christ, Mediator between God and man, judge of the world and Lord of hosts, ascended not to distance himself from our lowly state, but that we, his members, might be confident of following where he, our Head and Founder, has gone before. In other words, he has passed from our sight, not to abandon us, but rather to be more close to us.
Jesus returns to the Father because his mission on earth is complete and his mission has been effective. God’s purpose has been achieved through the Incarnation, Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus. God’s purpose for us is Heaven, and Heaven is now open to human beings. When Jesus ascended into heaven, he took with him our human nature. He thus is our hope. Where he has gone we hope to follow. He has gone ahead of us to prepare a place for us.
And then, in terms of the great importance of the Ascension, we need to start understanding the Ascension of the Lord as a hinge point between Jesus’ earthly mission, which culminated in his Death and Resurrection, and the beginning of the mission of the Church. Jesus, from heaven directs the mission of the Church. Pentecost then, is the first great act of Jesus directing the mission of the Church. All three readings today tell us something about the Ascension of Jesus, and all three readings tell us to get on with it, to work in the mission of the Church. This Solemnity of the Ascension is a call to action.
The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles describes the Ascension very graphically. Jesus promised the coming of the Holy Spirit to his apostles, and then he was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud took him from their sight. Two angels tell the apostles that Jesus will return one day in the same way that they had seen him leave.
We might well see the angels’ challenge to the disciples as challenge to us. The disciples are asked why are they standing around, just gazing into the sky. In other words, get on with it; you have work to do; you have a mission. They prompt us in the same way.
The second reading from St Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians speaks of Jesus’s ascension far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And we are told of the gifts that Jesus gives us who are the Church. All these gifts that are given to us are for the building up of the Church. Using these gifts, we are told how to live as disciples of Jesus, exercising qualities like humility, service, patience and love. We are told to have a passion for the unity of the Church. In short, we are told how to live and that we need to get on with the business of building up the Church. We have a mission. We have work to do.
The Gospel passage from St Mark tells of Jesus being taken up into the heavens right after he had commissioned his disciples to go out and preach the Gospel. This is St Mark’s version of the Great Commission found in the record of Ascension of Jesus in St Matthew’s Gospel. There we read, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”
Once again, we hear that the disciples of Jesus have work to do; they have a mission. In other words, go, make disciples, baptise and teach them. We, who are the modern day disciples of Jesus, are challenged to get on with the mission of the Church. The greatest tragedy is that so many Catholic Christians see themselves as bystanders and passive spectators. Yet every baptised Christian is called to mission and ministry for the building up of the Church.
We should all be asking ourselves about how we are participating in this mission. How active and engaged are we? We could sum up this mission in terms of missionary discipleship. A disciple is someone who has encountered Jesus, heard the Good News of his life, death and resurrection and chooses to actively follow him. A missionary disciple is one who continues to grow in relationship with God, can easily share his or her relationship with God with others and goes outward to help others find God for themselves.
If this teaching about the importance of every one of us participating in ministry and mission is somewhat daunting to you, keep in mind the promise associated with the Ascension of Jesus. In today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Jesus promises the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise was fulfilled at Pentecost nine days later. The gifts for the building up of the Church, that we read about in the second reading from the Letter to the Ephesians, are the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Imagine if everyone in this congregation would be set on fire by the Holy Spirit and activated for ministry and mission. What would our parish look like in terms of renewal and being missional? What would change in Sea Point? With the celebration of the Ascension of Jesus begins our preparation for a renewal of Pentecost, so that we can be missionary disciples. Each of us can prepare to be clothed with power by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit reminds us of the closeness of Jesus to us, and gives us gifts to play our part in the mission of the Church.