If there’s one thing that has proliferated during our pandemic, it’s memes. Memes, if you’re not familiar with the word, is a picture, often with a short phrase, that’s intended to be humorous. One that came to mind today (which I saw in April but would have also been appropriate earlier this month!) was: Anyone else feel like life is being written by a 4th grader right now? “And there was this virus, and everyone was scared. And then the world ran out of toilet paper. Yeah, and then there was no school for like a month, and then it snowed.” If we bring it up to the present day we could also include murder hornets and, sadly, the recent floods in central Michigan and wildfires near Grayling. It does certainly sound like a bad story!
As we go through the main points of the Gospel, it may also sound a little like a disjointed story. You can imagine trying to explain the Gospel to someone who has never heard it before: There’s a virgin, Mary, who conceives a Son. But it’s not conceived with her husband, but by the Holy Spirit. And Mary’s Son, Jesus, is also God’s Son, but he’s not half-God and half-human, he’s fully God and fully human. And Jesus heals people and walks on water, and multiplies bread and fish for the hungry, but then He dies on the cross. But then He comes back from the dead, not like a zombie, but in a glorified body which can pass through doors. And He visits some people during 40 days after the Resurrection, but then ascends into heaven. But He’s not really gone, because His Body is the Church.
Christianity holds in tension so many things: Mary who is mother and virgin; Jesus who is God and man; Jesus who truly dies, but is truly risen from the dead; and what we celebrate today, Jesus ascended into heaven, but did not leave us orphans without His presence. He’s gone, but He’s still here. After all, we heard it at the end of the Gospel today: “‘behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.’”
So how is Jesus still present with us, if, as we heard in the Gospel, He ascended beyond our sight into the heavens? There are two ways. The first we’ll celebrate next Sunday on Pentecost. When the Ascension was celebrated when it should be (on Ascension Thursday, 40 days after Easter), we could point to the first novena in the church. This is where you can insert the bad joke, where a Franciscan, a Dominican, and a diocesan priest are all asked individually by a layman, “Is there a novena for a Ferrari?” The Franciscan, when asked, answers, “What’s a Ferrari?” The Dominican, when asked, likewise answers, “What’s a Ferrari?” The diocesan priest, when asked, answers, “What’s a novena?”
A novena is 9 days of prayer, usually for an intention. There are nine days between the Ascension and Pentecost, and the Blessed Mother, Apostles, and disciples were praying for those nine days to continue the work of Jesus, without really knowing what they should be doing. And their prayers are answered by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, where all gathered in that upper room are empowered to preach the Gospel.
The Holy Spirit continues Jesus’ presence in the world. Through the Holy Spirit, the Good News is still preached, freedom from sin is still granted, the hungry are still fed, the sick are still healed, the dead are still raised. All that Jesus did on earth continues through the work of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes that happens directly by the Holy Spirit, but sometimes it happens by people empowered by the Holy Spirit, like the first Apostles and disciples, who continue that work through the Church.
And the Church is the second way that Jesus’ presence is continued on earth. The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, and is present in heaven with Christ at the right hand of the Father (what we call the Church Triumphant), is present in Purgatory, awaiting the time when they will be ready for heaven (what we call the Church Suffering), and is present here on earth, as St. Paul says, working out our salvation and trying to live the life of Jesus daily (what we call the Church Militant). The Church continues the teaching of Jesus, frees people from sin through the Sacrament of Penance, feeds the hungry of body through food pantries, and feeds the hungry of soul through the Eucharist, heals the sick through the Sacrament of Anointing of the Sick, and prays for the resurrection of the dead in the funeral rites and Mass. And in many more ways, the ministry of Jesus in Judea 2,000 years ago continues throughout the world.
And that’s you and me. Our call through baptism and confirmation is to continue the presence of Jesus in whatever way that we can. People are no less hungry for Jesus than they were 2,000 years ago, and Jesus can satisfy their hunger through the Holy Spirit working through us as the Church.
Yes, there is that tension, that Jesus is both gone and present here on earth. But His presence on earth is both the work of the Holy Spirit and us, in cooperation with the Holy Spirit. This week, let’s make sure that our lives reveal that Jesus is alive and that, while He ascended into heaven, He is still working and active here on earth!