My question for today is about hobbies. It’s straight forward. How many of you like to take photographs, especially with a digital camera? Or for the younger ones here … with a cell phone. It seems a lot of us like to take pictures of the events happening around us. Some to preserve the moment; others to share with friends and relatives.
Recently Karen and I took a two-week vacation … a river-boat cruise on the Danube in Eastern Europe. Fortunately the Icelandic volcano did not effect our return through London. While on this trip, we took a lot of photographs. Between the two of us we had over 300 electronic captures of what we saw. As you might imagine, we have multiple versions of several important places we visited. I suppose this is true for you, too. With modern equipment it’s easy to photograph the same place … or the same event … from many different viewpoints. And while they all show the same thing, in general, there are different results because of new angles or slight differences in time.
I think many of us realize these same conditions relate to the Scriptures. A single event can be recorded from slightly different viewpoints. The event, itself, is real … it is a true and one-time-only event … but it can be seen in slightly different ways, even if written by the same person, let alone four different gospel writers. We see this happening in two of today’s readings. Both the first reading and the gospel reading are accounts of a single event reported by Saint Luke.
Today’s gospel reading comes from the conclusion of Luke’s reporting to someone named Theophilus. St Luke talks about the Ascension of our Lord as the concluding event of Jesus’ life on this earth – of the events happening between the time of his baptism by John, at the beginning of his ministry, until the completion of his ministry on earth.
In his Second writing to Theophilus – which Luke compiled several years after he wrote his gospel – Luke begins with the Ascension of our Lord as a prelude to Pentecost and the beginning of the Church, the beginning of the mission of his followers who are to be sent forth to spread the Good News. We heard this message in our first reading for today, a message contained in the opening lines of the Acts of the Apostles.
Yes, today we celebrate one event: the Ascension of Our Lord. But we hear about this event in two distinct versions … like two photographs taken by the same person from different angels, different viewpoints.
In both stories, we hear about the event which takes Jesus the Christ from our sight. Have you ever wondered what would it be like if he had not ascended; if his physical, resurrected body were still present on the earth?
It would, indeed, be a different world. For one thing, there would probably be no doubt about who he is! He would still be here in bodily form to be seen and heard directly. Many of us might believe this would be great. If he were still here physically, he’d be able to perform miracles for all those who came in contact with him. Surely there would be peace and joy on the planet. There would be no more wars, no more suffering.
There would, also, be no need for our Free Will. Jesus would be here to tell us directly what we must do to find eternal life with him. Of course, we might have a problem getting close enough for him to be with each one of us. Not everyone would be able to crowd into Jerusalem — or any other place, for that matter, where he would be staying. With a physical, albeit, resurrected body, Jesus would still be limited by time and space — by physical laws.
And yes, without an Ascension, without Christ’s physical separation from this world, we would have no need for a Pentecost. No need for the Holy Spirit. No need for Eucharist! But this fantasy world did not occur. Jesus did leave his followers. And in his place, he and his Father sent them the Holy Spirit, the manifestation of their love for one another and for us.
For nine days, for the period of a novena, his friends thought they might have been abandoned, even though he had assured them that they should stay in Jerusalem until they were “clothed with power from on high.”
And he fulfilled his promise. Next week we will celebrate the fulfilment of this promise. Next week, we celebrate Pentecost, the sending of the Holy Spirit upon his followers who preached the Good News — his disciples who made it possible for us to receive the Holy Spirit as well — who made it possible for us to receive Eucharist.
Without an Ascension, without a physical separation from the world, Jesus the Christ would be limited by the constraints of time and space. But with his Ascension and with the presence of the Holy Spirit in the world – and within each one of us – Jesus can be present to each and every one of us at the same moment.
With his Ascension to God the Father, Jesus Christ, the Second Person of our Trinitarian God, graciously promised the coming of the Holy Spirit until he, himself, returned physically to us, at the end of time. Meanwhile, we are to continue the work he began.
In his gospel, Luke spoke of the events of the earthly life of Jesus. In his Acts of the Apostles, Luke speaks of the events of the life of the Church, the body of Christ existing in physical form along with the spiritual head of this one body of Christ.
We are sent forth to the ends of the earth as witnesses of his life, passion, death and resurrection. We are not forced to do so. We are given free will to accept or reject his call to us. By accepting his call, we are to be his physical presence on earth. We are to continue to accomplish his task; we are to perform his ongoing miracles. With his guidance, we are to change ourselves and the world around us.
We no longer see Jesus with our physical eyes. Rather, Saint Paul offers up his prayer for us: “May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in the inheritance among the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe.”
At the same time, let us also recall the question spoken to those gathered on a hillside in Bethany some two thousand years ago – when two men in white garments asked the disciples: “… why are you standing there looking at the sky?”
We are not to stand about looking at the sky, at empty air. We are not to be wasting our time. We are not to stand about while wondering what will happen next – how we will survive without the physical presence of our Lord. Rather we are to become his physical presence in the world.
For us, Pentecost has arrived. For us, the Holy Spirit has been sent. For us, Jesus the Christ – through the consumption of his Body and Blood, through the Eucharist he has given to us – Jesus the Christ remains with us and we with Him. Amen.
Ascension Sunday, May 16, 2010
Acts 1:1-11; Eph 1:17-23; Lk 24: 46-53