SERMON/HOMILY ON THE SOLEMNITY OF THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD 9TH MAY 2024

SERMON/HOMILY ON THE SOLEMNITY OF THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD 9th May 2024

Acts 1:1-11; Ps.47; Eph.1:17-23; Matt.28:16-20

He has gone to prepare a place for us

Today is a joyful day. The event of today gives full meaning to everything that had happened to and around Christ right from when his birth was spoke about by the prophets. Today, we finally know who has the true power and the final say. Today, the question of “where did this man come from?” has been definitively answered. The one who came from heaven has returned to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. The ascension of the Lord brings to an end the physical presence of Jesus on earth. The purpose of the incarnation (our redemption) has been accomplished; man has been reconciled to God. The ascension teaches us that our physical presence on earth will end too; but whether we shall go to heaven like the Lord, is dependent on if we remain reconciled to God.

The incarnation was a public event and so was the ascension. Jesus will not be a Spirit whose presence was felt by the living for some time and thereafter he stopped appearing. His birth was announced, so also he ascended before his disciples for them to witness the final victory over sin and death. They will no longer be seeing him as they were before and after his death because he has gone to prepare a place for us in heaven. From this we learn that even though authentic Christianity flows from the heart, it does not stop there. The goal of an authentic Christianity is to evangelize others. Therefore, while we must not practice our piety to win men’s admiration, we must also not hide our piety away from men.

If good men hide their good heeds, only evil will be evident in the world. Jesus himself says to us that no man lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel. The world is in dire need of authentic witnesses. The good must shine brightly so that the bad can be discarded. So, in the gospel reading, Jesus commissioned us to go make disciples of all nations. This commissioning is a public activity. Let us stop the baseless argument that our dressing and other forms of public behaviour does not matter in as much as we are not wayward in heart. At baptism, we made public vows; these vows ought to be lived out publicly too.

The ascension is not actually a relocation because heaven is not a place. Jesus did not relocate to a particular place called heaven; rather, he returned to the most glorious state. After his ascension, he will now have a different mode of being. For us, we learn that more than struggling to be in particular places, we should struggle more to achieve a state of perfect peace with the Lord in our consciences. The joy of heaven is not dependent on our location or position in this world but on our moral standing with the Lord. What makes us truly glorious is not our exalted positions but a clear conscience.

By his ascension, Jesus did not leave nor abandon us. The ascension speaks of a new way of relating with the Lord. We will now relate with him in the Eucharist, in one another, in righteous living. We cannot break away from these modes of relationship and still claim to have the Lord. But when we continue to strive towards a greater intimacy with the Lord, we can be sure that we shall ascend as the Lord did. Jesus’s ascension is a clear testimony to the fact that only Him is the Way to the Father. If we must make heaven, we must follow Jesus.

Beloved, there is no award or trophy that can be compared to the ascension. To return to heaven is the best thing that can happen to anyone. Every day of our lives, we must be busy aiming at this trophy. The world put together, will not satisfy us. We were made by the Lord and for the Lord, and unless we return to the Lord, we gain nothing; we remain restless. Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us in heaven because he is expecting us. May we not miss this heaven, amen