Ascension homily
2020
The readings
today present a problem for 21st century people: you know, the
classy, informed, educated, questioning people like us. The problem is easy to state, but difficult
to resolve. It is a problem of
geography.
In our first
reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we heard, “While meeting with them, he (that is, Jesus) enjoined
them not to depart from Jerusalem, but
to wait for “the promise of the Father about which you have heard me
speak;…” So Jesus tells the Apostles to stay in Jerusalem. Do not depart from Jerusalem. Fine.
But in our Gospel today we hear: “The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain
to which Jesus had ordered them.” Galilee? That’s a good
ways distant from Jerusalem. And “the
mountain”? Which mountain?
So did Jesus tell the disciples to
stay in Jerusalem, a la Luke, or did Jesus order them to go to a mountain in
Galilee, a la Matthew?
Clearly Jesus could not order them to
be in two places at once. Either Luke is
wrong, or Matthew is. Jerusalem or
Galilee? Where did Jesus last appear to
His Apostles after the Resurrection?
Well, and this is the difficult part
for us, who think scientifically, who think that a thing is just that thing and
nothing more, and a place is a geographical spot on the earth and that is it.
Because Luke and Matthew are NOT
talking about specific, identifiable places. They are not talking geography. Rather, they are giving us spiritual paradigms, stories to make a point. They are not concerned about telling us
accurate details, but telling us stories that are guides, or patterns for our
life.
In
that spiritual sense, this, right here, is Jerusalem. This, right here, is “the mountain” in
Galilee.
These are not geographical places in
the Gospel, but spiritual places, images that can be anywhere and everywhere,
and at all times.
Luke, written after Jerusalem was
destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, wants to show a continuity between his
community of Christians and the founders of the Christian community. Matthew wants to show the missionary aspect
of the new Way of Jesus: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all
nations,…”
When we read these Gospel passages, we
need to understand that they are not
about long ago and far away. They are
about here and now. They are about
US. This is our lived reality. This is Jerusalem. This is the mountain in Galilee. For Jesus blesses us just like He blessed His
disciples in the Acts of the Apostles, and Jesus commissions us to go forth, to
“make disciples of all nations” just as He did in the Gospel of
Matthew.
These readings, and this Feast of the
Ascension, are not about long ago and far away.
They speak to us here, today, and call us to follow the Lord, and to
proclaim the Good News of the Gospel, right now, right where we are. God bless!
