HEAVEN, WHERE WE COME FROM AND WHERE WE GO.
MAY 24 2020 - THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD.
A Sicilian proverb says, “Everyone wants to go to heaven;
the desire is there but the fortitude is not.” And an Afghan proverb adds, “Your
aspirations are in heaven, but your brains are in your feet.”
A few years ago, I saw a beautiful drama movie based on the
book of an American Pastor, Todd Burpo, “Heaven is for real: A little boy's
astounding story of his trip to Heaven and back.” The movie was about the
near-death experience of a three-year-old boy. The boy, from the story, is
supposed to have visited Heaven. His experience, not only provides many
opportunities and insights to discuss our belief in Heaven, but it also showed
the realness of that reality. It is like answering to doubt about Heaven
asserting that Heaven is not a utopia. It is for real; it is possible and that's
where we go. From the experience of that little boy, Heaven is a place of
eternal youthfulness, joy, love, and happiness.
Celebrating the solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, all
that this feast inspires is that dream for Heaven. When we are meditating the
Holy Rosary, as spiritual fruit of the second glorious mystery, we talk of the
“Christian Hope”, our thirst for Heaven. For, while we live on earth, we hope
for Heaven.
Jesus, today, ascends into Heaven. He draws our attention on
heavenly realities, and at the same time, he opens for us a highway or a
connecting bridge between our earth and the Heaven of our Father. We are given,
through this solemnity to see that we are people with dual citizenship. We are
citizens of earth, as our workplace, the place where we spend our life like
being in trade; and then we are also citizens of heaven, our homeland, where
one day, we will be returning. Meanwhile, as we are living here on earth, we
need to keep the feet well-grounded and work at the transformation of this
earth into the beginning of God’s kingdom. For, he who hates the earth will not
be able ta savor heaven. And each one of us prepares his heaven from here
below. Life in Paradise is not disconnected from life on earth. What we live,
do, and go through here on earth is what will either open for us or shut to us
the gate of heaven. As says the Latin proverb, “Everyone is given the key to
the gates of Heaven. The same key opens the gates of Hell.”
God’s presence, his dwelling place is not concealed to us.
Heaven is within us. Deep inside our hearts dwells the Father. Therefore, Jesus
ascending today into heaven disappears from the physical sights of his
disciples to be now more present and active in their spiritual sights and
within them. St. Augustine, can rightly say, speaking of the event of the
Ascension that, Christ “departed from our sight that we might return to our hearts
and find him there. For he left us, and behold, he is here. He could not be
with us long, yet he did not leave us. He went back to the place that he had
never left...” (Confessions, 4.12.19).
Heaven is for real! Heaven is possible! And Heaven is in our
hearts. The Lord ascends into Heaven to remain into the heart of each one of
his followers. That is the beautiful lesson today’s readings point out.
On the day of the Ascension, to the Apostles who were
looking with awe mixed with sadness toward heaven where Jesus was ascending,
the Angels said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the
sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the
same way as you have seen him going into heaven.” They need to stop searching for
the Lord in the skies. He has now entered into their hearts.
In the second reading, St. Paul, addressing to the
Christians of Ephesus, tells us that God seated Jesus at His right hand in
heaven. The Lord has therefore entered into the Glory of God. But another great
Father of the Church, St. Irenaeus will not fail to tell us that we are that
glory of God. He says, “the glory of God is a living man; and the life of man
consists in beholding God” (Against Heresies, IV.20.7). Therefore, Jesus,
today, is seated where we find the fulness of our life, that is, in our hearts.
The Ascension of the Lord is a call to man to enter deep inside his heart and
find there, the continual presence of God. For, at the Ascension, the Risen
Lord does not flee from us. He becomes more present to us. He only has changed
his way of being with his disciples.
When one can find God present and dwelling into his heart,
he easily can give God to others. He becomes God’s missionary, a missionary of
love. Jesus, in the Gospel, emphasizes that need to become missionaries. Before
departing from his disciples, the Lord gave them the mandate: “Go, therefore,
and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I
have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the
age.”
Jesus did not withdraw his disciples from this world,
neither from their earthly obligations. He didn't tell them, "Okay, now
that I'm not going to be with you, shut up shop and hide." Instead, he
sent them all over the world, in the whole universe, to make for him disciples.
The solemnity of the Ascension is a reminder for you and me, of our mission to
make of this earth the place where God dwells. For, by making all mankind
disciples of Christ, we make actual God’s kingdom into the world. Heaven is not
to be searched from above. It starts here below, and we Christians are its
instruments. It is up to each one of us, to make of our families, our
communities, and our societies the place where Jesus can be found: a place of
peace, love, joy, and harmony. Let us finish with this beautiful Czech proverb,
“He who looks only at heaven may easily break his nose on earth.”
Comments
Post a Comment