Homily for the Ascension of the Lord

Homily for Ascension of the Lord

May 13, 2018

Collect
Nativity, Washington, D.C.

“The ascension of Christ your Son is our exaltation, and where the Head has gone before in glory, the Body is called to follow in hope” (Collect).

You could call this Trifecta Sunday.  Were I to ask you what today is, most of you would respond, “Mother’s Day.”  And we’re glad to honor, celebrate, and pray for our mothers.

Christ's Ascension

National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, upper church sacristy

Many of you would add, “It’s Ascension Day.”  You might still tend to say “Ascension Thursday,” but the vast majority of American dioceses now celebrate this feast on Sunday.

I’d bet no one would tell me, “It’s World Communications Sunday.”  This is the 52d annual observance of this WCD, the only new Church observance called for by the 2d Vatican Council.  Every year since 1967, the Pope has issued a message for the observance, choosing a timely theme.

This year Pope Francis chose the theme, “The truth will set you free:  Fake news and journalism for peace.”  That sounds timely, all right.  “Fake news” has become a mantra, but the phenomenon is nothing new, whether we’re talking about commercial advertising—the Romans advised us caveat emptor, “let the buyer beware”; or talking about world politics, e.g., the Communist Party in the Soviet Union called its official newspaper Pravda, “Truth,” and North Korea calls itself the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea while it’s neither a democracy nor a republic nor at the service of the people; or talking about domestic politics, for which every politician learns to “spin” the news, giving at best an incomplete picture of an issue if not a deliberate distortion or outright lie.

“Fake news” even affects the Church.  To speak only of the Holy See, in recent weeks there have been stories about a doctored photograph and misleading presentation of a letter from Benedict XVI, which led to the reassignment of a high-ranking Vatican official; about Pope Francis’s denial of the reality of hell, which he has not denied but in fact repeatedly affirmed; and about the Vatican and Saudi Arabia striking a deal for the Saudis to build churches where Christians who live there can worship, such as foreign workers from India, the Philippines, and the U.S.—a report that was a complete fabrication.

The Holy Father writes at some length about the damage that “fake news” does.  He affirms the importance of truth because, he says, God made us to know and to share all that is true, good, and beautiful.  Truth orients us toward God, and here I affirm that it does this whether it’s the truth of science, the truth of history, the truth of philosophy, the truth of the Gospel, or the truth of a mother’s love.  Falsehood—including “fake news”—comes from Satan, whom Jesus calls “the father of lies” (John 8:44) and who aims not at our happiness and fulfillment but at our misery.

Today’s feast celebrates one of the truths of our faith, a truth about our happiness and fulfillment:  Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ, has in his human body been exalted to the glory of heaven, and in the glorification of his humanity, we too are involved.  “Where the Head—Christ—has gone, the body—us, the Church—“is called to follow.”  Christ is incomplete until his people join him in risen splendor, eternal gladness.  This is the heart of the Good News, and there’s nothing fake about it.  The Son of God became human to join himself inseparably to us, and he aims to pull us after himself into heaven so that we may live with him as sons and daughters of God.

He will do that if we let him, if we make an effort to follow him.

And that’s the truth!