HEAVEN IS CALLING OUT.
May 21, 2023.
The Ascension of the Lord – A.
“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.” (Acts 1:11)
A Nicaraguan proverb says: “There’s who nobody can prevent
you from getting into heaven, but there are many always ready to give you a
shove into hell.” And an Afghan proverb adds: “Your aspirations are in heaven,
but your brains are in your feet.”
There is a childhood truth that travels every culture,
language, and tradition. When a child asks his parents, mostly the mother,
"Mommy, where is God?" The answer is simple and all found: "In
the sky!" God is up there, in the huge and far-away skies or heaven. And
this truth fashions our relationship with God. He is in heaven above, and we,
here on earth below. When I was a child, I have been told by my grandmother
that to pray, one must raise his hands up and look towards the heavens at the
one who dwells there. That the God who answers our prayers is in heaven. This
fact raises a lot of expectations in us about Heaven and God. We also conclude
that all good things come from heaven.
Further, the Scriptures say that, once, the disciples asked
the Lord Jesus to teach them how to pray. His answer was: "When you pray,
say: Father in Heaven..." In ancient Babylonian and Greek mythology, the
place where the divinities could be found were the heights, the hills, on the
highest mountains. The Babylonians had erected the ziggurat as a form stylized
to represent the dwelling of God. And even today, our churches, if not erected
on mountains or hills, are the most elevated buildings, with roofs losing sight
in the sky or high bell towers. Heaven, the heights, and the sky are calling
us. Because, we believe, there resides our God. Heaven is the place of
perfection and fulfillment. What is lacking here on earth can only be found in
heaven.
But that heaven, sometimes, seems so far away from human
reach. It looks impossible for mankind to reach it. The Ascension of the Lord
today, sets a ladder between earth and heaven. A highway is now open to reach
out to God. Jesus becomes the direct communication and communion between us and
God, earth, and heaven. The other beautiful thing about the Lord ascending into
heaven is that his Ascension gives us to see the earth with different eyes. We
are urged to not renounce or depart from this earth, but rather to transform
it. Heaven is calling for a conversion and a transformation. Thus, the final
mandate of the Risen Lord to his disciples: "Go, therefore, make disciples
of all the nations..."
The God who is in heaven has sent men on earth to work on it
and make it the first stage of his heavenly dwelling. The earth, to use
scientific language, is the laboratory of heaven, the factory where heavenly
beings are prepared.
Everyone in this life seeks an ascension, a lifting up from
one situation to a better one, from one position to a more rewarding and
qualitative one. No one dreams of staying stagnant or static. There can,
however, not be a true ascension without suffering and sacrifice. In that
sense, the greatest and true ascension of the Lord Jesus is what took place on
the Cross at the Calvary.
Thus, the Catechism says, ""And I, when I am lifted
up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." The lifting up of Jesus
on the cross signifies and announces his lifting up by his Ascension into
heaven, and indeed begins it. Jesus Christ, the one priest of the new and
eternal Covenant, "entered, not into a sanctuary made by human hands...
but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our
behalf." There Christ permanently exercises his priesthood, for he
"always lives to make intercession" for "those who draw near to
God through him". As "high priest of the good things to come" he
is the center and the principal actor of the liturgy that honors the Father in
heaven." CCC 662
Heaven is where Jesus found his perfect glory. But that
heaven, he only reached it through his passion and death on the Cross. On the
Cross, he was lifted, hanging between heaven and earth. He, thus, became for
all who believe in him a ladder planted on earth, which end is in heaven. The
Lord taught us in that way, that our final and permanent destination is not
this earth, but heaven. With Jesus, we learn that Heaven awaits us. It is
calling us. The Ascension of the Lord draws our attention and our whole being,
not on the earthly things and realities, but on those of heaven where the Lord
Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father.
Today, through this solemnity, Jesus' mission on earth
reaches its end. Ours had now to begin. The time of the Lord is over. Now
begins the time of his disciples under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We are
now at the start of our journey as a Church.
The first reading and the Gospel convey this great message
of the Ascension of the Lord. One beautiful thing is that, even though the Lord
has ascended, he has not abandoned or gone away from the believers. What he
promised is now fulfilled, his continual presence in our midst. The Evangelist
Matthew wants to tell us that after his resurrection from the dead, the Lord
has strengthened his disciples and led them to begin a long journey always in
his company, though through a new form, no longer visible, but more active
through them.
After Easter, the Church, the community of believers was
fully growing, the attention of all is no longer so much on the Lord who has
risen from the dead and ascended to heaven, to the Father, but on his disciples.
Jesus had started a new form of being in the community, and that imposes on
them a more active expression of their faith and love for the Lord. They must
no longer remain hidden or look up to heaven, but go to the world and spread
the word, the Good News of the Resurrection, making new disciples. St. Luke's
address to his dear Theophilus (lover of God) makes it explicit. The Angels'
voice says: "Why are you men from Galilee standing here looking into the
sky? Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, this same Jesus will
come back in the same way as you have seen him go there." The Lord's
Ascension marks a beginning, not an end. It is the beginning of an active
apostle's life. Our mission as believers begins there. Heaven is calling us,
but it does not compel us to forsake or depart from this earth. Our mission is
to transform the earth into the beginning of the kingdom of God. It is a great
hope, as St. Paul can say, which is bestowed on us. Inhabited by the Spirit of
wisdom, we must make this hope become a reality.
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