HOMILY ASCENSION SUNDAY – C
Redeemed and Sanctified into New Life
(Acts 1:1-11; Psalm 47; Heb 9:24-28, 10:19-23; Luke 24:46-53)
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The readings today call us to be witnesses to a new and living way.
In the Gospel, we see that we can now enter the sanctuary by a new and living way, through the curtain of Jesus’ flesh. This of course refers to the curtain of the Temple that was torn in two from top to bottom the moment that Jesus died upon the cross.
That Temple veil was to separate the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Temple, and from the ordinary people. Only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies, and that once a year. That veil was to keep people out of the Holy of Holies. With Jesus’ death and resurrection, the separation between heaven and earth is now removed. We can now see within the very heart of God.
What we find in the heart of God is mercy, compassion, unconditional love, total non-violence and forgiveness. In that light, repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed to all nations, spreading out from Jerusalem. This new life, eternal life, is ours when we take stock of our lives, admit our wrong-doing especially in sacramental confession, receive God’s forgiveness and healing, and filled with the Holy Spirit, are sent out to share that good news of God’s love and forgiveness with all others.
The twofold mission of Jesus was to redeem and to sanctify our wounded and alienated humanity. He redeemed us by his death. As the reading puts it, Jesus removed sin by the offering of himself, and will come back to save us. He will return a second time not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. So here is the twofold mission: Jesus redeemed us by his death, and will save us by his second coming to take us into the fullness of eternal life with him.
This spiritual reality is so real and so present to us that we are to approach him with a true heart in full assurance of faith and repentance, that is, with hearts sprinkled clean of an evil conscience. So, we are to wait for Jesus with faith, hope and repentance and so enter into his sanctuary.
There is another dimension to the readings today. In the reading from Acts, we are told that after his suffering he presented himself alive to the apostles by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking to them about the Kingdom of God. Imagine what those precious days must have been like – the Risen Lord appearing to the apostles and his disciples, walking and talking with them, and teaching them especially two things: the first, as mentioned, is all about the Kingdom of God. The other would have to be the need to grieve and mourn his loss. That is, they would no longer have him with them in the flesh, but if they believed, they would have his presence to them in an even better way – through the gift of his Holy Spirit.
Jesus came to inaugurate the Reign of God here, among us, and especially in and through the Church, which was to become his Body, his presence here on earth. What a lofty mission has been given to us. We are to make present his love and caring, and in that way do what he did, make present to humanity the love and caring of the Father for all peoples, and for all of creation.
Patty attended a 12 Step Pilgrimage. A fashion designer, she stood out from all the rest of the participants with her brand name clothing and flashy jewellery. As the program progressed, however, it became apparent to her group that she was out of touch with her reality. She was very unemotional, with an intellectual approach to everything, including pain. She would interrupt someone’s sharing to ask questions like, “Well, what is pain anyway?”
When it was her turn to share before crowd with her family group the next morning, however, she broke into tears, fell to the floor, and began to hyperventilate. Luckily, the director was very experienced with this phenomenon. With some help he took her into the sacristy, opened a window to give her fresh air, and calmed her down. He mentioned to the team that she would be okay. She had simply bottled up a lifetime of emotion such as hurt and guilt, and it all tried to come out at once.
Part of her story was fighting with her husband, who then raped her. She told him she wished him dead. He died in a car accident the next day, which left her riddled with guilt and in shock. In her pain and numbness, she aborted their child. Finally, through the secure environment and caring process of the pilgrimage, she was beginning to experience the understanding, the compassion, the forgiveness of a loving God from whom she had run for so many years. She was beginning to enter into a new and living way of life that Jesus promised to give us.
The Eucharist that we celebrate together now is an appearance of Jesus to us, like the meal in the inn at Emmaus, the meal on the shore of Lake Tiberias and the fish Jesus ate before the eyes of the Apostles. It is an experience for us of acceptance, love and forgiveness that empowers us to do same, to let go, and experience the Ascension which leads to living Pentecost each day of our lives, in peace and joy.
