Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord (A)
5 June 2011
All Saints, Stuart, IA
St. Joseph's, DSM, IA
And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.
Perhaps this final line of the Gospel seems confusing to have on the day we celebrate the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ to the right hand of the Father. It would seem that it is precisely this event that proves that he is not with us until the end of the age, but has left us on our own. By what logic can we say both that Christ is with us and that Christ has returned to the Father?
The Ascension follows the logic of the entire mission of Christ. The second person of the trinity became incarnate – enfleshed – and took our human nature, separated from God, and united it to himself. In the incarnation, God and man were once again united. In living a human life, humanity learned to live united to God, filled with his divine Spirit. Jesus offered his human nature completely to the Father, and thus man loved God to the end. In the Resurrection, a human life given entirely to God was restored to a new, more perfect life to last forever.
The Ascension continues the trajectory. God came down to earth and united himself to man. Now, a man goes up to heaven and unites human nature to God. With the Ascension, the union of God and man is complete – the two have perfectly united in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now, of course, the disciples would have rather had Jesus remain with them. They loved him, knew him to be God, and wanted to always be close to him. But, it was necessary for Christ to complete his mission and return to the Father. As he himself said, “If I do not go, the Holy Spirit will not come.”
And so, it is the Holy Spirit, who Christ promised to send from the Father, who remains with us. And, the apostles - rather, the Church – becomes the presence of Christ in the world. Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would come and guide us into all truth. So today, if we want to hear the words of Christ, we keep the book – the Bible – with the accounts of his historical presence, and we listen to the Church, which is his voice alive today.
Of course, in our own hearts, we want Christ to stay with us. This is what the disciples felt when Jesus said he was about to ascend. And, this is where the promise of Christ is fulfilled, when he says, “And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” This is the gift Christ gave to this same Church of his perpetual presence – the gift of the Eucharist. And so, it is important for us to come to the Eucharist every Sunday, to encounter the presence of Christ, and to receive him into our very bodies and soul. This is the depth of the love of Christ, that although he had to return to the Father, that he would give us himself – for all time – in the Eucharist we are about to celebrate.
