Ascension Thursday May 9, 2024 in Gap Cathedral
https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?visual=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F1818218178&show_artwork=true&maxheight=750&maxwidth=500
“Galileans, why do you stand looking up into the sky? » In the story of Luke, in his second book called the Acts of the Apostles, we find this reproach made to the apostles, by two men in white clothing, whom tradition equates to angels. They tell us that if the desire for Heaven is a grace, this desire should not distract us from looking at the earth! You have the two parts of my homily.
I. The desire for Heaven is a grace
and a grace to ask, as we will do in a few moments at the time of the presentation of the offerings: “we pray that this most holy exchange elevates our hearts towards celestial realities”.
If we take the mystery of the Ascension from its most dizzying side, we see that the Resurrection and the Ascension are a single movement which elevates the Lord into glory and takes us with him. Easter is accomplished in the body of the “total Christ”, as the theologians say, the head, Christ, and members, you and me. At the Ascension, the apostles contemplated the integration of a humanity, both glorious and similar to ours, within the Trinitarian life; it is the upward movement. It is undoubtedly even more incredible than the downward movement of a God who became man. It is indeed the human nature of the Crucified that is elevated to heaven, that is to say our nature, to the very point that his elevation is ours.
Saint Paul explains to the Ephesians what “ascended into Heaven” means: “What does it mean: He ascended? – This means that he had first descended into the lower regions of the earth. And he who descended is the same who ascended above all the heavens to fill the universe. »
From the Ascension, Christ’s humanity is in heaven, and Christ has withdrawn from his disciples the visible presence of his body. However, her human nature, and the mystery of the incarnation she carries, are still current. Christ, raised in the glory of the Father, is always through his humanity the path which leads to divinity, he is also henceforth its goal, the homeland, since in him is the fullness of divinity.
For the theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, the Ascension constitutes for Christ both a completion, “the “logical” outcome of his descent on earth”, and a beginning, “the first and decisive step to introduce his people to his fundamental attitude”, of being with the Father.
St Paul again says to the Ephesians: “As your vocation has called you all to one hope”. It is the hope of Heaven, of our heavenly homeland. This is our desire from Heaven. This week, someone shared with me the testimony of a consecrated woman, who has lots of blood clots all over her body, and who can therefore leave at any time. Well, this gives her great joy and great confidence. When God wants!
You have understood, as today’s liturgy says, in an addition to Eucharistic Prayer I, “having taken our human nature with its weakness, he brought it into glory”.
II. However, and this is my second part, if the desire for Heaven is a grace, this desire should not distract us from looking at the earth!
The ascension does not lead us to an escape from our human condition. Because our mission is not yet in Heaven, but on earth.
The Ascension is, paradoxically, the prerequisite for a new relationship with the world, a relationship of greater proximity, first of all for Christ, because He becomes “high enough to attract to himself all times and all places”, but also for each of us. Perhaps you know this remarkable text from the second century, the epistle to Diognetus, which speaks of it: “Christians are not distinguished from other men neither by country, nor by language, nor by customs. Because they do not live in towns of their own, they do not use some extraordinary dialect, there is nothing unusual about their way of life. (…) They each reside in their own homeland, but as domiciled foreigners. (…) Every foreign land is a homeland to them, and every homeland is a foreign land to them. (…) In a word, what the soul is in the body, Christians are in the world. The soul is spread throughout the members of the body like Christians in the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body, and yet does not belong to the body, just as Christians dwell in the world, but do not belong to the world. » (Epistle to Diognetus, §5-6)
In short, being in the world without being of the world.
At the Ascension Jesus specifies the conditions of our mission, in 4 points.
1/ It is done in his presence: the earthly life of Jesus Christ is not in the past. Through the Ascension, it is eternalized, in other words, it is now offered in a timeless “simultaneity”: contemporary with all moments. Jesus promised his people to remain with them until the end of the world.
2/ And for this he promises his apostles the Holy Spirit: “you will receive strength when the Holy Spirit comes upon you”.
3/ He sends them to the ends of the earth: “then you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” and in the gospel according to St Mark: “Go in the whole world. Proclaim the gospel to all creation. » Our mission is to be witness to the presence of Jesus in our world.
4/ For this, St Paul specifies to the Ephesians: “the faithful are organized so that the tasks of the ministry are accomplished and that the body of Christ is built, until we all arrive together at unity in faith and the full knowledge of the Son of God, to the state of perfect Man, to the stature of Christ in his fullness. This is the place of the Church, an organized institution, in the divine plan of salvation.
In summary, if the Ascension, like the apostles, invites us to look at Heaven and understand that it is our endless happiness, Jesus sends us on a mission to this earth, to lead all men to Heaven.
This is the strength of the expression of the diocesan pastoral vision entitled “Mission Altitude”: on mission in our valleys to raise eyes towards Heaven! And to do this, take care not only of souls, but also of bodies, also called one day to the final Resurrection.
Taking care of our brothers and sisters means in particular taking care of those who are currently suffering the most, the victims of wars in Europe, Palestine and elsewhere in the world. This day of May 9, Europe Day, we are completing a diocesan novena, launched with the ND du Laus sanctuary, for peace on the European continent. It began on May 1, the feast of Our Lady of Laus; but you can also start it today, by taking the text on the website of the diocese, and pray for 9 days a very beautiful prayer through the intercession of ND du Laus and the Venerable Benoite. If the war is not going to end by magic, we have done part of our duty as Christians, to bring to the Lord the suffering of men, this evil of war, and finally we have prayed for a renewal of our hope. Pilgrims of hope, this is the theme of the great jubilee of the year 2025, which we are preparing with this year of prayer. It is on this day that the Pope will sign the bull of indiction of the Jubilee, which will provide some details and allow us to move forward in its preparation. On this day, let us invoke Christ ascended to Heaven to be renewed in our hope of Heaven and for the world. Amen!
