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Homily:
The Ascension of the Lord – Cycle B
With this weekend’s opening of the movie Mad Max, among others, it seems like the
summer blockbuster season is already upon us.
Terminator, Jurassic Park, Mission Impossible, The Avengers… the list
goes on and on. As we know, a
“blockbuster” is a movie with a lot of action, violence, usually some sort of
“end of the world” threat, and, of course, plenty of gratuitous
explosions. One of the classic clichés
of these types of movies is what I call the “gasoline fueled warehouse
explosion”. This is where the character
douses a warehouse with gasoline (or, at least, allows flammable liquid already
in the warehouse to flow—and these days, it seems, the warehouses are almost
always full of some sort of explosive material) with the intent of setting it
ablaze and destroying the whole structure.
Then, just as he or she leaves, the character drops a lighter onto the
fuel and walks away, while the flames quickly spread. Then, the “money shot”: a wide angle shot
where the character is walking towards the camera, away from the warehouse,
when suddenly the warehouse explodes in the background, without so much as a
flinch from the character. You’ve seen
this, right? How many of you have seen
some version of this scene in a movie before?
In a way, this feast, the Feast of the Ascension of the
Lord, is kind of like that. Since
Easter, the day of his Resurrection, Jesus, in his glorified body, has walked
among us, teaching about how his death on the cross and resurrection from the
dead has fulfilled all that had been written about the Messiah and preparing us
for this moment when he would ascend into heaven to return to the right hand of
his Father. Then, he ascends: leaving us
the promise of something dramatic that will happen soon. This “something dramatic” is the descent of
the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. In other
words, for 40 days, Jesus “set the stage” by pouring the fuel of his teaching all
over the warehouse, which was his disciples; and as he left he dropped the lighter,
which was the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit; and on Pentecost, the
warehouse exploded as the Holy Spirit descended and gave the Apostles power to
witness to Jesus to the ends of the earth.
In a way, this is exactly how it had to be. The blockbuster “money shot” isn’t when the
character spreads the fuel. If the movie
ended there, we’d all be disappointed.
Instead, the character has to set the blaze and get away for us to feel
satisfied by the explosion. Jesus knew
that God’s plan for the human race was bigger than his band of followers from
Galilee, that it was bigger than the Jewish people, that, in fact, it was so
big that it would encompass the entire world; thus, it had to be that, after
Jesus had accomplished man’s redemption, he would then return to the Father so
that the Holy Spirit—the power by which God’s plan for the whole world would be
accomplished—could explode forth into the human scene.
To use another example:
Many of us have seen what it’s like when 5 year olds play soccer. Even though their coaches try hard to teach
them to play different positions, as soon as that ball is loose, it’s a
free-for-all scrum surrounding it. This
is kind of like the disciples while Jesus was with them. Even though, on occasion, Jesus sent them out
to preach, they always came back around him and followed him wherever he
went. After Jesus’ ascension into heaven
and the descent of the Holy Spirit, however, the disciples looked much more
like a professional team: spread out across the field, using their different
talents towards one purpose, making them much more effective. Jesus ascends so that his disciples could
spread out and be more effective.
I actually think that we can sum this up by referring to a
statement Jesus made elsewhere in the Gospel.
One day, one of the Pharisees asked him “Why don’t your disciples fast
like John’s disciples do?” Jesus replied
and said, “While the bridegroom is with them, they cannot fast, but when the
bridegroom is taken away from them, they will fast.” I don’t mean to change this into a homily
about fasting, but rather to focus on how Jesus acknowledges that there will be
different circumstances while he is here with us versus after he has been taken
up from us. Adapting this idea to
today’s feast, I might re-write it that Jesus says “While the bridegroom is
with them, they will be limited, but when the bridegroom is taken away they
will succeed freely.” Jesus ascends not
to abandon us, but so that we can be “launched”, if you will, to fulfill the
Father’s plan for all humanity.
Thus, the Ascension, particularly in connection with
Pentecost (and it’s always in connection with Pentecost!), has something to say
to us today. Some of us are upset that
Fr. Mike has been reassigned and, thus, is leaving us after 13 years of serving
this parish. But what if this is part of
the Father’s plan to “launch” us—the members of this parish—to the next
level? Fr. Mike has done a good job
“setting the scene”, so to speak; but now, perhaps, he must go so that the
flame that he has ignited can explode into new life for this parish. My brothers and sisters, this is the
hopefulness with which we need to step into this transition: that if Fr. Mike
is going forth from us, it is so that we can continue to grow “to the unity of
faith and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the extent of the
full stature of Christ” as Saint Paul tells us in his letter to the Ephesians.
Thus, today we celebrate and we look forward. We
celebrate that Jesus, Our Redeemer, has gone before us to prepare a place for
us in heaven and to advocate for us eternally before the Father. We look forward to Pentecost: praying that
God will fill us more generously with his gifts—that is, the power of the Holy
Spirit to explode into the world in order to be his witnesses to the ends of
the earth for the building up of Christ’s Body “to the extent of the full
stature of Christ”. Therefore, my
brothers and sisters, let us not be afraid to worship with our whole hearts the
Lord Jesus who, having risen from the dead so as to destroy death forever, has
ascended into heaven and now stands eternally at the Father’s right hand; and
let us not be afraid to pray fervently for God’s Holy Spirit to fill us with
his power: the power to witness to Jesus and his saving love to those suffering
in mind, body, and spirit—the power of Jesus which has overcome the finality of
death—the power that we encounter when we receive his Body and Blood from this
altar.
My brothers and sisters, the summer blockbuster season is
upon us. May our blockbuster—the feasts
of Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost—be the live action film that tops the Box
Office here in our community.
Given at All Saints Parish:
Logansport, IN – May 16th & 17th, 2015
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