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From Archbishop Donoghue|
Mass on Ascension Thursday |
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Dear Friends in Christ, Perhaps it was a morning like this one, and maybe about this time, when our Lord gathered His Apostles around Him, on a hilltop of Galilee, and prepared to take His final leave of earth, and shared with His closest friends a few last moments of teaching and encouragement. And in the accounts of this event that we have, it almost seems that the events happened precipitately - one moment our Lord is giving instructions, and then suddenly, He is lifted up towards the heavens, and fades from view - suddenly, one evangelist says, and while He was in the act of blessing them, says another. It is almost as if God the Father will wait no longer - He must have the Son, the Second Person back beside His Throne, to take His place, and to await the Day when He will return as our last Judge, and the Lord of Forever. And it is around this last promise - the promise that Christ will return that I think we must look for the principle meaning of our commemoration of the Lord's Ascension. And this promise is made to the Apostles by two men dressed in white - two angels, or Messengers from God, our Faith teaches us. Their heavenly message is framed in a question and an assertion. The assertion we have mentioned as one of the great tenets of our Faith - "This Jesus who has been taken from you will return." In his last days, the Apostles St. John had a vision of what this day will be like - the day that Christ returns - and the Church has accepted the vision of St. John as the last part of the Revelation of God to His People. So overcome by the beauty of this vision - a vision of Christ coming as Judge, to make a final accounting of what is lost and what is saved, and to gather all who are saved into the everlasting Kingdom of Heaven - so overcome is St. John by the beauty and the thrill of this vision, and the thought of Christ's Second Coming, that he ends his book with those stirring and soul-felt words we cannot forget - "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!" This is the first aspect of the meaning of today's feast that we must take to heart, and feel with special fervor on this day - that the Lord will return, and that we will be there to see it, and to face the consequences of our own lives, and to face the measure of our faith in the Lord's power to save us. The second aspect is in the question that the angels put to the Apostles, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up at the skies?" For though Christ has promised to return, we do not know the hour or the day - and it is in the time that is left to us - as individuals, and as the human race - that we are to find the situations, the problems, the challenges, and the successes that will keep us holy from now until the last day. "Why are you just standing there?" the angels ask. And the Apostles were jarred from their wonder at the ascending Christ - they turned their steps - not homeward - but out into the world. And because of their travels, their travails, and their incredible zeal to teach the word of the Lord - the word of salvation - we are here today, still celebrating that eventful day in their lives, and using that same day, as a means to renew in ourselves the wonder, and the dynamic character of the Faith we profess - the Faith of the One Apostolic Church - faith in the mercy of God, and the power of His Holy Spirit to reveal that mercy, through the love that Jesus brings us in this Sacrament. Dear friends, Let us use the rest of this Mass, and the rest of this day, to praise the Lord and remember the truth of His Second Coming - but also, let us not stand around waiting for it to happen, gazing up into the now empty sky - rather, let us go forth after this Sacrament, like the Apostles - renewed, and filled with the Spirit, and in whatever way is possible for us, consecrated to doing good, and to bringing the love of Jesus Christ into the world, as we all await the day of His coming, and the day of our perfect fulfillment. + |