Homily for the Solemnity of the Ascension

Homily for the Solemnity
of the Ascension

May 26, 2022
Collect
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, New Rochelle

(Benjamin West)

“The ascension of Christ your Son is our exaltation” (Collect).

Jesus’ ascension is the final act of the paschal mystery, altho its celebration is no longer the end of the paschal season, which extends until Pentecost, when the Church “received power … to be [Christ’s] witnesses … to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8)—to preach the paschal mystery and to extend its reach to men and women everywhere, then and till Christ’s return.

Risen from the tomb, Jesus now rises bodily—in his humanity, in our humanity—to his Father’s side.  So the collect calls his ascension “our exaltation” as well as his.  It continues, “Where the Head has gone before in glory, the Body is called to follow in hope.”  As we belong to Christ thru his paschal mystery and our participation in his sacraments, becoming one body with him, so we hope to rise on the Last Day and be taken to him, to live with him and all the saints in his Father’s presence.

That’s our hope.  We need that hope in our tragic, sinful world, so overwhelmed by wars, mass shootings, street violence, drug trafficking, human trafficking, the ruin of God’s creation.  In the face of all that, St. Paul urges us to know “the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe” (Eph 1:19), sure that Christ will triumph over every evil as he triumphed over death—over our personal sins and over the awful sins of Putin, the mafia, the drug lords, Planned Parenthood and “every principality, authority, power, and dominion, and every name that is named … in this age” (Eph 1:21).

At Bethany Christ told his disciples—not only the 11 but all of them:  “You are witnesses of these things,” charged to preach repentance, forgiveness (Luke 24:47-48), and the promise of eternal life.  We are his witnesses now, witnesses in hope, witnesses in the joy of forgiveness, witnesses that Jesus Christ lives, and where he has gone, we his brothers and sisters, we his members, shall follow.