May 12, 2024 Because I am away from Naples, this homily was not delivered.
Acts of the Apostles 1: 1-11 + Psalm 47 + Ephesians 1: 17-23 + Mark 16: 15-20
There are some silly clichés that get challenged by the reality of the Lord’s Ascension. You know them as well as I do: “Out of sight, out of mind.” Or, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder.” First of all, we need to get something straight. Jesus is neither out of sight or out of mind. It is his very presence that makes our hearts grow fonder, not his absence.
Getting deeper into this reality and this expression of our faith which we profess in the Creed is important for anyone who wants to grow up and grow into real faith in Jesus Christ. We could start by getting rid of the idea that heaven is up, hell is down, and we are in between. The scene given to us by Gospel writers does not mean literally that Jesus “went up”, but that the Lord has been taken into the Father’s glory.
More importantly, the ascension does not mean that Jesus departed from us. It simply means he is out of sight in order to more perfectly come to us. His public life on earth had an end so that the life of the church could have a beginning. He lived and died in an area less the size of Florida south of Tampa. Yet he has come to be known throughout the world because his life was a life of service.
It is not very hard to see Jesus today. All you have to do is drive over to Catholic Charities on a Tuesday morning, and you will see Jesus. He has not left us. He is there in and through the lives of people from this church who feed, comfort, and treat the homeless who come there with respect and care exactly as Jesus did over there in Palestine. The Ascension did not take him away. It empowered us. Those people over there on Tuesday, and anyone else who serve and care for others do so because they have found the life of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. Nourished and fed on the Body and Blood of Christ, they become his very presence to those who turn to them in need never turned away, never ignored, and always ready to say again what Jesus said so often, “Let them come to me”.
Remembering the Ascension of Jesus is a call to active service in spreading the Good News. The Ascension of Jesus shows us who we are, where we are going, and what we must do now. Forget about that up and down image. Heaven and Hell are all around us, and God’s plan for this world will come about bit by bit with our hands. After the death, resurrection, and ascension we are no longer mere earthlings. The truth is we have heavenly dignity and heavenly destiny. If we can just hold on to the fact that the only form of witness most people will initially accept is service, this world would have become totally Christian a long time ago. Real witness to Jesus Christ is not talking, preaching, or arguing about dogma and doctrines. It is laying down one’s life in service for another.