Ascension– (Year A) – May 24, 2020 ACTS 1:1-11; PS 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9; EPH 1:17-23; MT 28:16-20

If there’s one thing that’s obvious in the Readings for today’s commemoration of the Ascension of Jesus, it’s that we really need the Holy Spirit in order to become and to do what God the Father created us to become and to do; and what Jesus calls us to become and to do.

And that’s always been the case, including for the Apostles.

Consider that the Apostles—now gathered on the Mount of Olives just prior to Jesus’ Ascension—had interacted with the Resurrected Jesus for about a month-and-a-half. Our 1st Reading from the Acts of the Apostles tells us that:

[Jesus] presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. (Acts 1:3)

Let’s stop here for a moment, take off our Catholic lenses, and think about this phenomenon like a non-believer thinks about it. How many people—besides Jesus—do you know—personally—who have actually died...risen from the dead—as Jesus did?

The answer is the same for all of us.

Exactly ZERO.

But we lifelong Christians tend to talk about the Resurrection of Jesus as though it’s as commonplace as talking about what’s for dinner. We’re so familiar with Resurrection that we don’t think about what it really means—for Jesus...and for us!

1 But let’s recall what it was like for real people who heard of the Resurrection for the first time. Later in the Acts of the Apostles, we find St. Paul explaining the Resurrection of Jesus to the intellectuals of Athens, Greece. Here’s what happened:

...all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. So Paul, standing in the middle of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything. And he made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him... (Acts 17:21-27)

So far so good. The curious crowd in Athens would likely have been very enthralled by Paul’s preaching.

But then things took a decidedly different turn as Paul continued:

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all men by raising him from the dead.” Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, “We will hear you again about this.” So Paul

2 went out from among them. But some men joined him and believed... (Acts 17:30-34)

Here we see mixed reviews from members of Paul’s audience, who had no direct experience of Resurrection. Some believed...but many—if not most—either needed to leave and chew on it a bit more, or they flat-out rejected it.

On the other hand, we have the Apostles, who had extensive personal experience with the Resurrected Jesus, still struggling to put it all together, as we heard just a few minutes ago in the Gospel:

The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted. (Mt 28:16-17)

Another translation says, “some” doubted. Either way, whether it was some or all of the Apostles who doubted, one thing is clear. To get from worshipping while doubting (like the Apostles), to proclaiming the truth boldly even in the face of ridicule (like St. Paul)—took something “extra”. And the extra was for them...and is for us...not some-thing ...but some-one...the Holy Spirit!

Now the people in the Scriptures who experienced miracles were not ignorant simpletons who believed anything without question as critics of Christianity like to claim. They struggled and doubted—just like you and me—to reconcile the Resurrection with the rest of reality, even as the Risen Jesus spoke with his Apostles, ate with them and let them touch him to see that he was really there in flesh and bones (cf. Luke 24:39) and not just a holy hologram.

3 And yet, despite their struggle to make sense of their real-life encounters with a dead-man-come-back-to-life, the Apostles never let go of their own ideas and agendas.

And you and I are no different!

Despite the grace we’ve all received and the miracles that we’ve all experienced—and perhaps, simultaneously doubted—we nevertheless have an uncanny ability cling to our ideas of how things should be...or at least, how we want them to be.

To see how this plays out, let’s return to the passage from the Acts of the Apostles for today’s Mass, where we read:

When they had gathered together they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:6-8)

Three important things happen here.

First, there’s the Apostle’s curiosity about things that they don’t need to know—specifically, when the Lord is going to act on the matters that matter to them.

Secondly, there’s Jesus’ deflection of their useless curiosity and his refocusing them on what is most important.

4 And finally, there’s Jesus’ hard-to-fathom expectation that these eleven men are going to preach the Gospel across the entire globe.

This is not the first time Jesus gently admonished his followers for focusing on the wrong details while overlooking what really mattered. Recall this exchange from Luke’s Gospel:

[Jesus] went on his way through towns and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. (Lk 13:22-24)

Jesus does answer the question —indirectly. But only after pointing out the more important consideration—how to be one of the saved.

Now, in the Apostles’ defense, part of their doubt may have come from trying to reconcile two things that Jesus said to them, that might have struck them as contradictory. That he was leaving them...and that his departure was a good thing.

At the Last Supper, Jesus said:

Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’... Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now; but you shall follow afterward.” (Jn 13:33, 36)

Notice that Jesus said he was going away, but that, eventually, his friends would follow him to where he went. But all they could hear at

5 that moment was that he was going away. They stopped listening at that point, only to miss the better news embedded in the disturbing message.

And isn’t that typical of you and me?

We get stuck on one thing, stop listening, and miss the rest. Because our short-sighted focus tends to be on “What does this mean for me now?” we often cannot think past the difficulties in the here-and-now to the “something” far better that awaits us, if we remain as faithful to the Lord...as he is faithful to us.

Some time later in that same dinner conversation, Jesus said:

...now I am going to the one who sent me, and ... But because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts. But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. (Jn 16:5-7)

Again, because of their shortsightedness, the Apostles remain in grief, failing to hear Jesus say plainly, not only that it is better that he goes to his Father...but also why it is better—so that they will receive the very Holy Spirit that will make possible the global evangelization mission that they will be expected to carry out.

So, what does this all have to do with us?

Everything!

The Apostle’s curiosity about when Jesus would “restore the kingdom” (cf. Acts 1:6) closely parallels what most of us feel about the current situation...wondering when Jesus will restore our comfortable Catholic

6 lives back to what they were before a little virus threw a huge wrench into things.

If we’re a bit shaken by the events of the past couple of months, then it should be clear to us that the Lord really needed to “shake things up” to wake us up to what our Catholic lives must really be about...namely:

You will be my witnesses ... to the ends of the earth” (cf. Acts 1:8).

What do witnesses do?

They testify!

The fact is, things are never going to return to what they were—or at least they shouldn’t. We are called to transform our Catholic practices into something different...and better...than they were before.

The “new normal” for Catholics—especially here at Ss. Simon & Jude Cathedral—will no longer be a matter of sitting in the pews waiting for people to come and join us.

No, the new normal for the members of Ss. Simon & Jude will be what Jesus expects of all of his followers—from the Apostles to us:

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. (Mt 28:16-20)

We would do well to consider this “rattling of our routine” brought about by COVID-19 as a time of retreat, a time of recalibration and a time of prayerful preparation...for mission.

7 The days of Catholic “pew potatoes” who sit through Sunday Mass and consider that to be the full extent of their faith...those days are over.

Some think that this pandemic is a punishment—a chastisement of the world for its rejection of God.

That may be true, to some degree.

But we would do far better to recognize the current state of things more as an occasion of the Lord’s merciful love for us, than as a punishment for past sins.

Jesus knows that our Catholic faith can quickly devolve into a dull routine if we keep it to ourselves...if we treat it more like an obligation than a pathway to peace and joy.

The fact that we now really have to think about getting to Mass on time; that we must be highly attentive to the way we receive the Body of Christ in Holy Communion; and that we must consider how the practice of our faith affects other people—the fact that autopilot Catholicism is no longer an option—is, itself, a great gift from God.

Jesus told his Apostles at the Last Supper, “It is better for you that I go” (cf. Jn 16:7).

And so it is for us.

Jesus hasn’t abandoned us during this crisis. He’s let us experience what it would be like to have no opportunity to practice our faith, so that we can decide whether or not our Catholic faith really matters to us.

8 Jesus does not leave us behind. But he does ask us to leave behind our old, lazy, first-world consumer Catholicism, in order to become true Christians, who love and appreciate Jesus for what he did for us. He also expects us to become Catholics who love others enough to invite them to share in our great privilege of being Catholic.

It is not enough to attend Mass and say our daily private prayers!

When we look around at the world and doubt that the Resurrection has really changed things...when we ask the Lord why he doesn’t do something to make the world a better place...

He rightly deflects our dumb question and reminds us that the conversion of this world will only be brought about by you and me— who get out of the pews and do what we are called to do at the end of every Mass...to:

Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.

If we want the world to change...if we want the power of the Holy Spirit to be unleashed on society so that it finally begins to resemble the Kingdom of God in the here and now...then it’s time we realized that Jesus will only do this...through us.

And he gives us his Holy Spirit to not only make it possible.

He gives us his Holy Spirit to guarantee that it will happen...if only we stop looking at the TV to see who is going to save the world, and instead look in the mirror to see who Jesus has chosen to bring about his Kingdom.

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