Ascension of the Lord
When
it comes to the feelings of parishioners, there are very few, if any
across-the-board statistics that apply to every individual. It is dangerous to make assumptions for
people, especially in a homily, because it might not be true, and you can lose
that person’s attention for the rest of the homily. But, I feel very safe in saying that every person here wants
to go to heaven. Good. No one got up and left. No one is offended to be in a group of
people that want to enter paradise.
What
we celebrate today is the fact that it’s possible. Yes, Jesus opened the pearly gates when He rose from the
dead, but Jesus today takes His seat at the right hand of the Father, and what
gives us hope is that, if we are members of His Body, then we, too, will be
there some day. While it’s a bit
dated, a 2005 poll by ABC News stated that 89% of Americans believe in heaven,
and of those who believe in heaven, 85% of them think they will be going
there. We certainly cannot be
condemned as a pessimistic nation.
But
it’s much easier to take the position of the disciples that we heard about in
the first reading. It’s much
easier to gawk up in the sky and think, “Wow!! That was really cool!!” and just remain there. It took an angel to get the disciples
to go back to the Upper Room and pray for the gift of the Holy Spirit which
would empower them to do what Jesus commanded: “‘be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’” While I may not be a perfect angel,
allow me to communicate a similar message: pray for the gift of the Spirit!!
Because
the only way to go where Jesus has gone before, is to pattern our life on
His. Yes, we all want to get to
heaven, but do we know how to get there?
The way is quite simple: Jesus.
Jesus didn’t say, “‘I am the way,’” to give bumper sticker manufacturers
a job. He said it because it was
true: the only way to heaven, to the Father, is through Jesus. If we truly want to go to heaven, then
we must pattern our lives on His.
What does that look like?
Jesus tells us in our Gospel: suffering, death, and resurrection; and
preaching of repentance.
If
we want to go to heaven, then our life is meant to be full of sufferings,
deaths, and resurrections. These
are the times where we say, “It’s not about me,” and we do something that we
know we should want to do, and then we actually find we enjoy it. Imagine that: doing what we should do
often comes with a feeling of accomplishment. Huh. Fr. Michal
Judge probably had some trepidation about going into the Twin Towers on
9/11. But, as the building
collapsed, I’m quite sure he didn’t think, “I wish I would have concentrated
more on myself.” And standing
before the judgment seat of God, I’m very sure he didn’t think that. Or the volunteers who give of their
time and talent to bring food to the hungry, while it may be painful sometimes,
I’m quite sure they don’t regret living out the corporal work of mercy to feed
the hungry. We have to die to
thinking of ourselves as the most important, which is painful, and then rise to
new life where it is God, Others, Me.
After all, Jesus called His disciples to be His witnesses, which, in
Greek, could also be translated His martyrs.
If
we want to go to heaven, then our life is meant to be a witness to
repentance. Now, in our culture,
we don’t like to use the word repentance, because if you are repenting, it
means you did something wrong, and no one does anything wrong in our
culture. But, the life of Jesus
was a life of preaching repentance.
Jesus didn’t say, “You’re great, just keep up the good work!” He said, “Repent, and believe in the
Gospel!” When we preach
repentance, we preach to ourselves, to remind ourselves that we need to be
formed constantly into disciples, and at the same time we preach to others that
same message. We don’t preach,
“You’re doing pretty well,” because that’s not the message of Jesus. Jesus didn’t preach mediocrity; He
preached perfection, the fulfillment of who we are as human persons created in
the image and likeness of God. We
preach new life, not old life with a few alterations. But new life makes demands, and that’s where we get
squeamish. Who are we to make
demands? We, of ourselves, can
demand nothing. But Jesus demands
that we model our life on His in totality, not just for one hour on
Sundays. And, out of love for
others, and wanting to see ourselves and them in heaven, we, by the grace of
God, change our lives, and ask others to do the same. Mercy is only sweet when someone has done something
wrong. Mercy means nothing if
there is nothing wrong. So if we
wish to receive mercy and be merciful, we have to acknowledge the evil that we
do, and then do our best to begin a new life, and call others to the same.
But
none of this is possible without prayer.
Just as the disciples prayed for nine days in the Upper Room (the first
novena), so we should be praying, not just for nine days, but every day, for
the gift of the Holy Spirit who gives us courage to suffer, die, and rise, who forms
us according to the mind of God, who gives us the words to use when we preach
Christ and not ourselves. Take
these days until Pentecost and pray for an increase of the Spirit. If you are open, God will not disappoint. And then, by the grace of God, living a
life after the pattern of Jesus, you will have firm hope, not just a flimsy
wish, that in Christ, you can be seated at the right hand of the Father.
