How Really Alive Are We

Raphael's Ascension

Monday, Memorial Day, the United States remembers men and women who died in the wars of our nation. I invite all of us to pray with thanks for those heroes and heroines. Some of us may be able to visit a cemetery and leave a flag or a flower on the grave of a fallen soldier.

During these 40-some days we have been celebrating the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ – a mystery that includes his death and resurrection, and also his ascension to his Father in glory, and the descent of the Spirit of God upon the disciples. These are all different aspects of the passage of Jesus from his earthy life through death into a new, transformed reality—anticipating our own future.

The Ascension we celebrate this Sunday is Jesus’ final leave-taking from the disciples, so something new can happen: the descent of the Spirit. Yes, the living Christ continues among us through the Spirit of God.

The Book of the Acts indicates that the Lukan Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles are a two-volume work. The Gospel is about Jesus; the Acts about early Christianity. The ascension, connecting Luke and Acts, signals the close of Jesus’ earthly ministry and heralds the beginning of the Church’s ministry.

Paul in his letter to the Christian community at Ephesus prays that we will grow in wisdom and enlightenment so that we will see more clearly God’s saving work in Jesus Christ. Jesus is indeed the “head” of the “body,” the Church, the people of God. We with our multi talents are called to build the Mystical Body of Christ.

In the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus tells the disciples to be missionary disciples. The disciples then, and you and I now, are the hands and feet and eyes and ears and voice of the Living Christ until He comes again in glory to transform this universe into a new heaven and a new earth.

The living Christ, gloriously alive, has created new relationships for us—with God and with one another. And in light of this, I would like to pose three questions:

First, what makes us feel alive? The awesomeness of nature? Hearing Tony Bennett or Carrie Underwood sing? Holding a baby? Accomplishing good work? Watching a space flight lift off – there’s a manned flight scheduled this week; let’s pray for the safety of these two astronauts.

Second question: what does it mean to be alive in Christ? We have been gifted with God’s triune life in baptism, our initiation into a community of disciples. The rite of baptism makes us alive in Christ. At birth, we lack God’s triune life. In the beginning, man and woman walked with God. Somehow they lost that friendship. Genesis describes that they hid from God. But God became flesh in Jesus. God through the crucified and risen Christ re-connected us. Through baptism we enter a community of disciples, a fellowship of grace.

The third question is: How really alive in Christ are we? The Spirit of God is within us, to bring about the design of God on this planet of ours. The Spirit empowers us to be channels or instruments of faith, hope, love, forgiveness, compassion, truth, fairness, hospitality, fidelity, responsibility and self-discipline, in our families, our workplaces and our communities.

This time of year, we would usually hear commencement speeches. The coronavirus changed this season.  But the best advice I ever heard, in a commencement speech, was this: the quality of your life and your soul’s destiny will be measured by your character: going the extra mile to help someone in need; helping a child realize potential; being faithful in your relationships and responsibilities; working for the common good; trusting always in a good and compassionate God who is ever near to us and who will guide us safely home.

If we follow that advice, we indeed will be continuing the saving work of Jesus Christ.

Saved by Hope

Rembrandt's Ascension

We have been celebrating the Easter Mystery these forty-some days: the death and resurrection of Jesus, today his ascension to our Father in glory, and next Sunday Pentecost or the descent of the Spirit upon the disciples. These are four different aspects of the one Paschal or Easter Mystery.

The ascension is Jesus’s final leave-taking so something awesome can happen. Let us take to heart Jesus’s parting words: “you will be my witnesses … to the ends of the earth” Yes, Jesus leaves to us the mission of continuing God’s work on earth: proclaiming the good news to all.

The ascension connects the Gospel and the book of Acts which heralds the beginning of the church’s ministry.

In the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus tells the disciples that they are to proclaim the good news to all people, and that Jesus, gloriously alive, will send the promise of God, the Spirit, so they can continue his saving ministry until he comes again at the end-time to transform this universe into a new, indescribable reality. And then Jesus was taken up into heaven; and the disciples were filled with hope.

Hope is a confident anticipation of something yet to come. Pope emeritus Benedict XVI captured its meaning magnificently in his encyclical Saved by Hope. This hope looks forward to seeing God as God really is—face-to-face.

Hope looks for the good. Hope discovers what can be done. Hope propels us forward.

History is filled with people of hope. One of my favorites is Helen Keller, who overcame physical obstacles that most of us can’t imagine. Here is a thought of hers that speaks of hope. Helen wrote, “When one door of happiness closes, another opens but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”

Helen Keller also observed, “No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars or sailed to an unchartered land or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.” We too, with a positive can-do spirit, can find a world of possibilities.

Hope points to the future. We are fascinated with the future. What will it be like? We see change everywhere. Some may not like it. But how react?

There is only one Christian response to the future: hope. Images of hope weave in and out of the bible. God by the power of the Spirit transformed the earthly Jesus into a heavenly Jesus. And Christ anticipates God’s future for all of us.

Yes, the universe in which we live has an ultimate purpose. Hope challenges us to do everything we can to usher in the future: always to be in relationship with God and in relationship with one another as compassionate, generous, forgiving and fair human beings. Above all, hope challenges us to reach out to that which alone is of everlasting value—the human person, the image of God, no matter how unkempt the appearance. In the end, all hope will be realized when the risen Christ, by the power of the Spirit, hands over the universe at the end of time to his heavenly Father.

May God fill us with hope this Ascension Day and every day.