The
Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord – May 16, 2021
Seventh
Sunday of Easter
The word process is a word we use often. Process, a sequence of actions directed
to some end,
happens in stages, one stage begins to end and another stage
begins. A process with many
stages calls for patience, for perseverance and for
a hopeful attitude. People who like instant success, who want it all to happen
now, will be impatient with any process. Yet, our experience of life shows us
that it advances in states. As we go through life, we find ourselves moving
th-rough stages or seasons. The transition from one stage to another always
involves some element
of letting go and moving on. Our challenge is to address
and deal with the various moments of
letting go and moving on that a process
demands.
The life of Jesus,
even as a unique person, as he was God in human form, like every human life,
was a process of stages. His hidden years in Nazareth might be understood as
one stage, his pub-lic ministry as another stage. His baptism was the transition
moment between these two stages.
His death on the cross was another transition
moment between his public ministry and the short
period during which he
appeared in bodily/risen form to his disciples. The Ascension, that we
celebrate today, is another transition moment between that short period of the
post-resurrect-
ion appearances and the much longer period that endures to this
day, during which he is no lo-
nger present in his bodily/risen form. Like the
time of baptism and crucifixion, the Ascension
was a moment when Jesus moved on
in some way, and those closest to him had to let him go. The
struggle that his
disciples had to let him go at that moment is captured very well by St. John
in
his gospel when, outside the empty tomb, the risen Lord meets with Mary
Magdalene and says
to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet
ascended to the Father.”
Yes, our gospel
reading for this Solemnity makes clear that the moving on of Jesus as a result
of his Ascension did not require his absence from his disciples, but a
different stage of his
presence. At the end of the gospel reading we hear, “The
Lord Jesus was taken up into heaven.”
Yet, the very next sentence states, “The
Lord was working with the disciples and was confirming the word (they preached)
by the signs that accompanied it.” The Lord was taken up, he was taken away,
and yet he was working with them. The Lord did not ascend to distance himself
from the co-mmunity, but to be closer to it. Today’s feast is more about
presence than about absence. We ce-lebrate the Lord’s presence to his community.
His Spirit has been poured into our hearts and,
together, we are his body. As
the second reading reminds us today, the Lord ascended in order
to give gifts
to his followers, “for building up the body of Christ.” Today’s feast directs
our gaze to the new community of Christ presence here on earth.
That is why the
question was put to the disciples in today’s first reading, “Why are you men
from Galilee standing here looking into the sky?” We don’t need to look into
the sky to see
the Lord. We only have to look into the eyes of those around us.
We believe that the Lord does
not cease to work with us, even though we are not
yet all that he is calling us to be. In the
second reading, the church is not
yet “fully mature with the fullness of Christ himself.”
Those of us who are the
church are not yet fully mature in Christ. But that does not make us
any less
the body of Christ. We, the church, are in process; we are on a journey towards
that
state of being fully mature with the fullness of Christ himself. That is
our goal, and the Lo-
rd works with us, remains present to us, to reach that
goal. To reach that goal, we are to
live lives worthy of our vocation, bearing
with one another charitably, in complete selflessness, gentleness and patience.
In this way we proclaim the good news with our lives. This is the
task today’s
feast puts before us, and as we engage in that task, the Lord will work with
us.
We have each been given our own share of grace for accomplishing that task.
We pray on this fea-st of the Ascension that we would be faithful to the task
that the Lord has given us, and that
we would come to recognize the ways the
Lord is working with us in a new way as we progress th-
ough the stages of our
own life.
Fr. Don, cp