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Homily:
The Ascension of the Lord – Cycle A
I’d guess that we’ve all had the experience of how
disruptive to one’s life it can be to host a visitor in your home for a
time. Perhaps many of us are
experiencing that even now as the season of celebration parties (First
Communions, graduations, and such) as well as family reunions is upon us. No matter how long our guests stay, there’s
always a level of disruption that occurs that can be frustrating for some. From making the necessary preparations, to
sharing your space with another, to tidying up after they leave, hosting a
visitor in your home can often leave you feeling “upended” and as if you don’t
quite know how to get “normal” back.
(Don’t worry, Joe, this homily isn’t going to be completely about you.)
This level of disruption is magnified, of course, when the
guest comes with a mission. For example,
Padre Pedro is here from Guatemala visiting the community of Guatemalans who
are living here in Cass County. He has
come with a mission to bring news reports of the status of things back in their
home state, to give catechesis in their native dialect (believe it or not, for
some, not only are they unable to speak English, they don’t even speak Spanish;
but rather only their native dialect!), and to present to them the mission for
evangelization that their bishop in their home diocese is promoting. For many in our Guatemalan community this
time of Padre Pedro’s visit is upending their lives: practically (as they
collaborate to transport him to the different places he needs to go and provide
him with meals), intellectually (as he provides them with much to think and to
pray about), and spiritually (as he challenges them to adopt a more missionary,
evangelistic disposition in their faith).
For them, the return to “normal” after he leaves won’t really be the
same.
This is the experience that we see presented to us today in
our Scripture readings on this, the Solemnity of the Ascension of the
Lord. Jesus, God Incarnate, has spent
three years disrupting the lives of his disciples. He pulled them out of their daily routines
and asked them to follow him, to provide for his daily needs, and to listen to
him as he taught them about the salvation he was ushering in by his teaching
and by his way of life; and which he brought to fulfillment in his death and
resurrection. And now, forty days after
his resurrection, having spent that time unpacking for them how the events that
unfolded in his Passion, Death, and Resurrection truly fulfilled all that the
Prophets foretold of him, he leaves them definitively to be seated at the right
hand of God the Father and his disciples have to face a new reality: “normal”,
as they knew it, no longer exists; rather, they have to forge new paths.
In a way, this is the continued experience of seminarians
studying for the priesthood. Having felt
Jesus’ call, these men leave “normal” to spend six to eight years being formed
in a particular style of discipleship meant to prepare them for a life of
service to the Church. For two of these
men in our Diocese, the experience of the Ascension is about to become very real. Next Saturday, Peter Logsdon and Stephen
Duquaine will be ordained priests for our Diocese and will be sent forth to
forge a new path of ministry for their lives.
For them, the Bishop’s admonition to “Go” at the end of their Ordination
Mass should feel like a weighty command; for “normal” as they knew it, will
never be that way again.
Nevertheless, this isn’t an experience given only to the
Apostles nearly two-thousand years ago, or only to those being ordained priests
today. Rather, this is an experience
that we should all be having even now, as we prepare to close this Easter
Season. Just like those original
Apostles, we have spent the last forty days celebrating Christ’s resurrection
from the dead and seeking to unpack the mystery or our participation in this
new life through baptism. Our
celebration today of Christ’s Ascension into heaven ought to fill us with the
same wonder that filled the Apostles as they watched him be taken up in a cloud
from their sight; and perhaps the same “what now?” fear that caused them to
remain there, staring at the sky. Thus,
we should also feel the same jarring jolt that comes from the two men, dressed
in white garments, who say: “Why are you standing there looking at the sky?” In other words, today, more than any other day,
we should hear the dismissing admonition to “Go” with all the weight that it
carries: for just as the Apostles had to go forth and forge a new way to a new
normal from the mountain of Christ’s Ascension, we too are being told to go
forth and forge a new way to a new normal from the renewal of baptismal grace
that we have received from this Easter celebration. Our Easter Guest is leaving and if we have
done our job right (that is, if we have allowed ourselves to be formed and
inspired by our Easter celebration) then we ought to be looking at the coming
Ordinary Time with a bit of trepidation: wondering how it is that we will find
a new “normal” in this renewed sense of mission that we have received.
My brothers and sisters—and please forgive me if I seem too
blunt—it is not enough for us to come, as the Apostles did that day to the mountain
of the Ascension, and see Jesus and worship him only (although that is, of
course, an essential component). Rather,
we must also go, make, and teach. Go.
We must go out into the world to bring this Good News of salvation. Make. We must make disciples of those who hear the
Good News and receive it into their hearts.
Teach. We must teach them to observe all that Jesus
has commanded us; and all in the power of Jesus, for he has promised and so is
with us always, here in the Eucharist, until the end of the age. Let us, therefore, take courage in this
promise, filled with hope, and go forth, truly proclaiming the Good News by our
lives.
Given at All Saints Parish:
Logansport, IN – May 31st and June 1st, 2014
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