THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD: A DAY OF JOYFUL HOPE AND OF COMMISSIONING

 

Homily for the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, Year B

Fr. Ugochukwu Ugwoke, ISch

Readings: Acts of the Apostles 1:1-11, Ephesians 4:1-13, Mark 16:15-20

 

Today is exactly 40 days since we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. For the past six weeks, our readings at Mass (especially the gospel readings) have been centered majorly on the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus to his disciples. In the Bible, the number 40 is very symbolic- it is a period of renewal and rebirth. As such, these past forty days have been for the disciples, a period of formation and preparation for what laid ahead of them. With the earthly work of Jesus now accomplished, today, He ascends triumphantly/gloriously back to the Father who sent Him, leaving his disciples to carry on the mission. 

The ascension of the Lord completes the Paschal Mystery which started with the suffering and death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Our celebration of today holds a lot of significance for us. First, one of the consequences of the FALL of our first parents is that the human race as a whole lost access to God. Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden and the gates of Eden (paradise) were closed unto them. So, one of the reasons why God had to take on our human flesh was to re-establish this lost access to paradise. That very mission was ‘definitively’ achieved with the ascension of Jesus into heaven. Through His ascension into heaven, Christ has once again re-opened the gates of heaven to all mankind; the gates which had been closed by the Original Sin. Therefore, with heaven re-opened, man could once again attain eternal happiness.

Second, at the Incarnation, God took on our human nature, joining His divinity with our humanity in a union that was unmixed, inseparable, unchanged and undivided (The Chalcedonian Definition of 451AD). As He ascends into heaven today, we can infer from St. Luke's account of the ascension in the first reading (Acts 1:1-11) that Jesus did not leave his humanity behind. He ascended into heaven with His (our) human body. Therefore, Christ dignified our human nature by returning in human form to heaven's heights and His ascension into heaven with our human body is a sure pledge of our own ascension on the last day. Also, our creed tells us that Christ ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. To sit at the right hand of God is to take a position of honor and power in God's throne where He measures as our mediator with the Father. As the possessor of our human nature therefore, Christ can act as our mediator and intercessor. He can intercede for man before the throne of God, as one human for another.

Lastly, outside the joyful hope which the celebration of today depicts, there is another side to it. With Christ's ascension, His earthly mission has been accomplished/completed but our own ministry/mission as today’s disciples has just begun. The gospel reading of today tells us that before He ascended into heaven, Jesus commissioned His disciples to make disciples of all nations and to teach them to follow His commandment of love (Mark 16:15-20). Jesus wants us to pass on His love to others. Therefore, our mission is to make Jesus continuously present in us and through us. The words of St. Teresa of Avila best describe our mission: “Christ has no body now but ours. No hands but ours, no feet but ours. Ours are now the eyes through which Christ’s compassion must look out on the world. Ours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good. Ours are the hands with which He is to bless now.” There is no better time to incarnate these missions than now and let us not be afraid as we go about our missions because Jesus assures us that He is with us until the close of the age.

Dear friend, with the ascension of Jesus into heaven, we have been physically separated from Him but Jesus continues to be present in us and works through us. His ascension is one that does not call for sadness for we know that Christ has gone to prepare a place for us (John 14:2) in fulfilment of the words of the today’s collect that where He the Head has gone before us in glory, there we, the Body are called to follow in hope. Amen.