Feast of the Ascension
By Bishop Paul S. Loverde
Special to the HERALD
(From the issue of 5/16/02)
"I am with you always, until the end of the age." Today, we celebrate a paradox: Jesus ascends to His Father in heaven, and yet He tells us He is with us always. How can both be true? How can Jesus go away, and be with us at the same time? A paradox is a seeming contradiction, and Jesus was fond of using them. Among other things, He tells us that it is in giving that we receive, it is in dying that we truly live, it is in forgetting ourselves that we find our true happiness. The paradox of Christ going to the Father, yet remaining with us always, is at the heart of the Feast of the Ascension which the Church celebrates today. It seems odd that the Church would joyously celebrate the Lord leaving Her, but it is the radically new and different presence of Christ that we celebrate today.
Before the resurrection, Jesus was limited in His physical body to a specific period of time and to particular places. After His Resurrection and Ascension, Jesus is no longer limited; He is present in every age and place. His new presence is His Church, His Mystical Body. The presence of Christ remains through the body of believers, through you and me. The continuing presence of Christ is made possible through the existence of the Church, which continues to ordain ministers of the Word and sacraments.
The role of the Church, the mission of the Church, is to witness to the presence of Jesus Christ. This she accomplishes by teaching — spreading the Good News of Salvation and God’s love, by inviting people to return love to God and to each other and by uniting all people to God through Jesus Christ. The Church accomplishes this through her members: you and me. The Body of Christ began with a very small group of believers. The Apostles were ordinary, limited, average men. At the Lord’s Ascension, any intelligent observer would have probably predicted that this small group would never get beyond Palestine. And, yet, the Church of Christ has grown and spread and continued for over 2000 years.
You and I make up the Church in this third Christian millennium. We have the same mission as those first disciples on the day of the Ascension: "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations." It is our responsibility to influence society for the better. Many today may not believe that they are called to fulfill this command of Jesus. Many grow fearful because the task seems too great or complex for them. To some, our problems today seem greater than those the Apostles had to face. In our world, there is widespread lack of faith and hope; some countries are at war; greed and looking out for number one is the international credo; disrespect for human life is epidemic from conception through every stage including death; there is an all out assault on innocence from child pornography to trafficking in women and children for slavery; and violence seems to take a more brutal form with each passing day. Moreover, within the Church and in the public forum, we are facing the deeply-troubling scandal of sexual abuse of minors by some priests and the very volatile — in some areas — and divergent reactions of our people to the manner in which these issues have been handled.
Precisely, in this complex and challenging situation, we are given a second paradox today: through human beings such as ourselves, the presence of Christ can be felt and be attractive to our world. Now, in our day, as in the days of the Apostles during the Roman Empire, we can radically change our world through Jesus Christ. The result of this second paradox is hope. How? In our first reading Jesus instructs His followers to wait "for ‘the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak’ … You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses…." Through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit promised to us as to the first disciples, which we received at baptism and then at confirmation, God enables us to carry out this mission. If we are open to let the Holy Spirit transform us, then we will be given insight to know Jesus and His message here and now, and we will be given the power to live that message each day, precisely in the challenges we face in our times.
We cannot stand around looking up to heaven in an idle way. Through this liturgy, let us recommit ourselves to our mission as a Church, as those who comprise the Church in the third Christian millennium. Let us allow ourselves to be transformed through the power of the Holy Spirit, through prayer and through dynamic sacramental living. Let us witness in our "little worlds" through our words and deeds and be the presence of Christ to those we meet.
Indeed, today we celebrate a great paradox: Christ ascended to His Father in heaven, and yet through His Church and through each one of us, He remains in the world until the end of time. Each of us is called to be the saints of this third Christian millennium, and "to make disciples of all nations," including our own nation. May the Virgin Mary, who was present at the Ascension of her Son, Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church and Help of Christians, accompany us, as she did those first followers of Jesus, as we allow the Holy Spirit to transform us, to lead us and to use us in order that the world might be transformed to the glory of the Father. Amen.
Copyright ©2002 Arlington Catholic Herald. All rights reserved.
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