Feast of the Ascension,
Memorial Day Weekend
Go out into the whole world
and proclaim the gospel to every creature
Once upon a time a priest, a
minister and a rabbi took that very literally, about proclaiming the gospel to
every creature. And so among the three
of them they talked about who probably was the best at
doing this. And so they decided that
they would go out into the woods and find a bear and see what they could
do.
Well, later on they all got together.
The priest said, “Well when I found that bear I opened up my catechism
and I began to give him all the teachings of the church. And that bear was so impressed he allowed me
to sprinkle him with holy water and would you believe next week he’s going to make
his First Holy Communion.”
Well, the minister kind of
smiled and, “That’s very wonderful. But
you know I was in the woods and I found a bear down by the stream. And I preached God’s holy word with such great
fervor and enthusiasm that that bear was mesmerized
right then and there and he allowed me to baptize him in the waters of that
stream.”
The minister and the priest
looked at each other, and then they looked down at the rabbi. The rabbi was lying on a gurney, in a body
cast, in pain. He looked up back at them
and he said, “You know, looking back at it, maybe I shouldn’t have started with
the circumcision.”
Don’t go to the woods to
convert the bears, okay.
But still the mandate is
there from Jesus to go out and preach the good news to every creature. And sometimes we think about the Ascension,
this feast, as the first reading says, they were standing there looking up to
heaven. And then the angel says, “What
are you doing gawking up at the sky? Get
busy. Go out and proclaim the good news.” So it isn’t just the reality that Jesus
ascended into heaven, but He is still with us.
Yes, this Jesus who is true man, true God, takes humanity and divinity,
a beautiful way of looking at this, He takes humanity up to heaven with
him. You and I have a place for us in
heaven. This Jesus is at the right hand
of the Father. So our humanity has been
brought up to heaven already. There’s
our final destiny.
But notice in the gospel
too, they went forth, they preached everywhere while the Lord worked with
them. A beautiful thought that goes with
that. Pope Benedict XV said it this way, “It would be a
mistake to interpret the Ascension as the temporary absence of Christ from the
world. Rather we go to heaven to the
extent that we go to Jesus Christ and enter into Him. Heaven is a person. Jesus Himself is what we call heaven.”
Now so many times most of us
think if heaven as a place, up there somewhere, and that’s where we are going
to go. But if you
think of heaven as being Jesus what a beautiful thought. You and I are the living gospel. You and I are the eyes, ears, hands, and feet
of the Risen Lord. Wherever you go this
evening, tomorrow and every day of your life you bring heaven, because you
bring Jesus through your actions, through your deeds, your patience, your
thoughtfulness, your kindness, whatever it is, the gifts, the talents that God
has put into you.
Perhaps just like my little
story, each of us does it a little differently.
Praise God. You don’t have to do
it how I do it, I don’t do it and live it the way you do. But each of us has a particular purpose and a
role and a function in this world to live and to be. You will do it at your home. You do it in work. You do it at the movie theater. You’ll go it at Target. You’ll do it at Cub. You’ll do it in the park. You’ll do it here in the parish. You do it wherever you go. Wherever I go. We bring Jesus. That to me is what the beautiful feast of the
Ascension is saying.
We are gifted. We are blessed in so many beautiful,
wonderful ways. So take out a little
time tonight and ask yourself, “God, where have you planted me? Where am I right now in my life? What are my gifts and my talents? What am I doing wherever I am at this moment,
wherever I go that somehow I leave it a little better because I was there? How did I give these people a little touch of
heaven?”
There’s enough hell going on
already. Let’s you and I give people
heaven. Let’s give them Jesus.