Why Are You Standing There Looking at the Sky?

Homily – June 1, 2014 (Ascension Sunday of Easter - A)

Acts 1: 1-11; Ps. 47: 2-3, 6-7, 8-9; Eph. 1: 17-23; Matthew 28: 16-20

As a father of two girls, one a sophomore in college, and the other a junior in high school, my wife Karen and I fondly remember those days when they were younger, and a little more dependent on Mom and Dad. I also remember when we needed that Saturday night babysitter to restore sanity in our lives. A lot of you know the drill, especially when the sitter is a new one. Some type up the directions, while others offer an endless list of how to run the house and the children while we’re gone! You list the things they need most… The First Aid Kit is in the laundry room cabinet. Here’s the poison control number on the fridge. Remember, no matter how much they beg… No Chocolate! Oh yes, prepare the Macaroni & Cheese, the with real butter and milk, along with hot dogs, boiled, not microwaved, cut up into small half circles, hidden on the bottom of the bowl under the Mac & Cheese. They can play in the back yard for a little bit after dinner, then they usually watch their Barney tape after that, and THEN take a bath. Oh, and make sure you read “Owl Babies”, they love that book before bedtime which is at at 7:30 sharp! We should be back no later than 11. Here’s a number where you can reach us. Then looking at the kids, you say, “Listen to the babysitter.” And off you go out the door!

Today, we celebrate the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, as illustrated in today’s First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles: “As they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.” Mark’s Gospel adds that "after [the Lord] had spoken to them, [He] was taken up into heaven, and [seated] at the right hand of God.” The Church offers that this was an entry of his humanity into divine glory, symbolized by the cloud and by heaven, where he is seated forever at God's right hand, a place of honor and glory. The Gospel of John would link all of this to his Jesus’ descent from heaven in the Incarnation, or when “the Word became flesh” and dwelt among us, for only the one who "came FROM the Father" can return TO the Father, namely Christ Jesus the Lord.

Now, I think it's fair to ask WHY. Why did Jesus have to ascend into heaven? Why not just stay here and rule over the known world, as Judas Iscariot might have wanted? One crucial reason, that you will hear spoken by Father in the Preface of today’s Eucharistic Prayer, is that Christ ascends to His kingdom so that we might have the confidence to go where he will forever be. Not only does being seated at the Father's right hand signify the beginning of the Messiah's kingdom of heaven and earth, it also fulfills the prophecy of Daniel's vision concerning the Messiah. The Book of Daniel’s seventh chapter tells us that, "To him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” Our Creed that we profess each Sunday, reminds us that after this event the apostles became witnesses of a "kingdom [that] will have no end”, as Jesus Christ, entered the sanctuary of heaven once and for all, always interceding for us, and assuring us of the permanent outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which we heard in last Sunday’s Gospel, when Jesus said to his disciples that, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate (the Spirit of truth) to be with you always.”

In short, its a lot like the babysitting scenario. Christ ascends from our sight, promising us a babysitter of sorts, an Advocate in His Holy Spirit to guide us and care for us. In His ministry on earth, and through His Word and the Holy Church, Christ leaves the Advocate, the directions in the Scripture and the Traditions of the Church for and us to follow until His return. You see, our children benefit from good sitters and a community around them that helps their parents, because they learn to trust in the care and the love that others have committed to providing them. They learn that even though you leave for a while, you will come back again just like you promised. And they learn to be independent within a family and a community that cares for them, and allows them to know that loved ones are never far away. It is good for us to be placed in this position to have to trust in God our Father, in Christ our Lord, and in the Advocate of the Holy Spirit!

After the Ascension in the Acts of the Apostles, comes one of my favorite scenes in all of the Scripture: “While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?” I can only imagine their faces, with their jaws dropped open, and hands scratching their heads. “This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.” Psalm 104, verse 3 offers us a precedent for this awesome moment, as it sings, “You [Lord] make the clouds your chariot; traveling on the wings of the wind.” I’d like to stop here for a second to recognize that at this very moment, we’re all kind of doing the same thing. The thought of our Lord, rising up from the earth, on a cloud is an awesome sight to consider, but let’s not limit this event to a kind of movie moment with really cool special effects. This past Friday, I had the pleasure of spending the day with a priest friend of mine. He and I were talking about our respective homilies for today, and he reminded me of what he shared with us on this day a year ago. To add perspective, before becoming a priest, he served a few decades as an engineer with NASA. So for those of us scratching our heads to understand, he offers this: We shouldn’t take the Ascension in a hyper-realistic way. Now by that I don’t mean for a second that we not take it realistically, but the Ascension is NOT a journey that Jesus has undertaken within the limits of space and time, as though He lifted off into the sky that day.

If He were to ascend within the space/time, reminded that Einstein said that the fastest speed that anything can travel is at the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second... At that rate, and since that day over 2000 years ago, Jesus has just barely cleared the solar system. At Warp 8, Jesus is only .5% across the known universe. Now I'm not making light (no pun intended) of the Ascension. Actually, we all need to understand it for what it truly is… A call to know the Lord on higher and different dimension! The Acts of the Apostles did not offer a scene where Jesus went up, up and away. No, it said that “He was lifted up, and a cloud took Him from their sight.” Again, it is fair for us to ask WHY.

The Book of Ecclesiastes captures the spirit of the two strangers dressed in white garments standing next to the Apostles, offering them reassurance that this is not an end, but a beginning… Sound familiar recent graduates? Ecclesiastes 11:4 says, “One who pays heed to the wind will never sow, and one who watches the clouds will never reap.” Herein lies the second crucial reason for the Ascension of our Lord: It’s time to lower our heads in humble prayer, and with great acceptance. Christ has ascended, so that with great determination, we might get to work! It’s the message of today’s Gospel from Matthew, and its called the Great Commissioning, or a Missionary Mandate of sorts. Having been divinely sent to baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, the Church strives to become the universal sacrament of salvation in her preaching the Gospel to all!

My friends, that Good News of the Gospel calls us to trust in all that the Lord has left for us in His Word, His Spirit, the love of His Father, and the directions for us to go and make disciples of all nations! Faith has always demanded that we accept a revelation from beyond ourselves, and without the limits of space and time. We are loved by God, who through His Son, dwelt among us, raising us in the Law, and in His Word; feeding us with His Body and Blood that was first raised at Passover, then on the cross, then from the tomb and now raised in our midst at this meal and in the Ascension of our Lord. But remember that this is not an end, but a beginning. Next week we celebrate the descent or coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the birth of the Church, that is, we the people of God, who have our eyes raised to heaven, our heads bowed in prayer, and our hands reaching out, ready to serve one another.

I'd like to conclude with a prayer from John's Gospel, that Jesus offered His Disciples, and you and me here today : “[Father], as you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth… Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”