“God
has raised us up with Him and enthroned us with Him in heaven. And though by
right the honor of being seated at the Father’s right hand is reserved for
Christ Jesus alone,” since Jesus Christ became fully human, he also is seated
there “as one who is in all respects like ourselves…and in a great and
mysterious way he passes this honor on to us.”
- St. Cyril of Alexandria
Around
this time of year many students are graduating. Others are looking for jobs.
There is uncertainty in the air.
Some
of us know the uncertainty surrounding the dying man or woman who assures his or
her family that all shall be well. He or she has all of his or her affairs in
order and when the time comes when he or she dies, all the family will have to
do is follow the directives that are contained in a manila folder on his or her
desk.
It
can be very difficult to transition to the undergraduate world to college or
university or to the workaday world of 9-5, just as it is difficult to move on
after the death of a loved one.
In a
way, this is where we find ourselves this evening/morning with Jesus’ disciples
as He leaves them.
On
this feast of the Ascension of Christ, all of us can think of a time or two when we have been at similar crossroads as were the first disciples and asked:
“Now what?”
This
must have been how the disciples have felt after Jesus Ascended into heaven to
return to the right hand of his and our Father.
Yet Jesus
assures his disciples that he will be with us, that all shall be well.
Jesus
had tried to prepare his disciples for his earthly departure, but instead they
are rather clueless with their question, “Lord,
are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
Jesus
told us last week that “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. ‘I am
going away and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice
that I am going to the Father….”
But
today two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. They said, "Men
of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?”
Isn’t
that like us, to be so dumbfounded we would stare in the sky instead of getting
to work at doing what he commanded us to do?
Maybe
that’s where we are right now: Looking up into heaven unsure about what to do
next.
But
let us not misunderstand this feast or its meaning. It is not really about
Jesus going “up there.” When we think of heaven we tend to think of a place,
but it is more than a place; it is a state of being in the presence of God—God
who exists everywhere, not just “up there.”
When
Jesus ascended INTO heaven, he makes himself available to us without limits of
space and time.
There
are those who wish they could have walked and talked with Jesus when he lived
on earth, but we cannot get lost in this kind of thinking.
Jesus is present to
us now and we can walk and talk with him in an extraordinary way, we receive
him in His Word and the Eucharist, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, we begin
to see all things new and through his eyes.
In a
way I can see why the disciples might have been stuck. We know that they did
eventually return to Jerusalem…and all of them devoted themselves to prayer,
together with some women, and Mary, the mother of Jesus. From there, well, the
rest is history. The Holy Spirit blew away all their old fears, gave them the
fiery passion for the gospel and enabled them to boldly speak the words of
faith wherever and to whomever and do the works of grace.
But let’s face
it, coming down the mountain after experiencing Christ’s Ascension was hard
work, and living the faith, day in, day out, is going to be hard for us as
well.
Jesus Christ, ascended to the Father is now unbounded by time and space, seated on the throne of Grace, in heaven, he has not abandoned us, but he intercedes for us hour by hour, seated at the right hand of the Father, receiving our prayer, showering us with mercy.
And in his Ascension, Jesus goes to prepare a place for
us in heaven.
Jesus
says in John’s gospel: “In my father’s house there are many, many rooms and I
go to prepare a place for you….”
By
Jesus being human, he has taken our human nature into heaven. And so Jesus has
opened heaven for us in a special way because He is the Word of God enfleshed
as a member of the human race, and like us, he now sits at the right Hand of
the Father, and as a member of the human race, he shares with us the glory of
being children of God.
As
St. Cyril of Alexandria wrote, “For since Christ became man it is as one of us
that he sits at the right hand of God the Father,” while at the same time being
“God from God, light from light,” consubstantial with the Father. And on our
behalf He enables us to once again see the Father’s face.
“God
has raised us up with Him and enthroned us with Him in heaven. And though by
right the honor of being seated at the Father’s right hand is reserved for
Christ Jesus alone,” since Jesus Christ became fully human, he also is seated
there “as one who is in all respects like ourselves…and in a great and
mysterious way he passes this honor on to us.”
His Ascension
reminds us that our rightful home is in Heaven; we live in hope that we may one
day follow him there after our work here on earth is done.
May we live our earthly lives as citizens of Heaven.
