ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

Dear Friends in Christ, 

            For a few moments we would like to reflect on the event of the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ into heaven and on its meaning.

             But before that I would like to express my admiration, my gratitude to all you for the faith that inspires you, for the holy Catholic faith that is so much a part of your lives, that is an incentive to you to make a very special effort to be here in the Cathedral this morning on this Feast of the Ascension. Not everyone can make it to Mass, but you know that the effort that you expend is certainly a wonderful expression of your faith.

            The fact itself, the fact of the Ascension, is very simple. It took place forty days after Jesus rose from the dead. Forty days after he had completed His work. Jesus left the apostles and went back to heaven. This is the fact of the Ascension.

            It is beautifully described two times this morning in the word of God: first of all in the Acts of the Apostles and then in the Gospel itself. The Gospel is particularly moving. Jesus is speaking to His disciples, recounting the major events of His life the major events of God s plan. And Jesus says to his disciples: Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and now the suffering is complete that the Christ should suffer and rise from the dead. In other words Jesus is recounting His suffering, His passion, His death. He goes on to recount that on the third day He would rise again. Then Jesus brings in another element. He talks about how, in the plan of God, the preaching of this Paschal Mystery, the preaching of these events would go on forever, that these events would be preached to all the nations. And He says to the apostles: You are witnesses. And then Jesus tells them that they are to stay in the city of Jerusalem and await the promise. He says: And behold I am sending the promise of my Father, the Holy Spirit. And then: You will be clothed with power from on high. With that Jesus completes His instructions.

             The apostles know that it is time for Jesus to go back to heaven. But He will not leave them. He had promised: I will not leave you orphans. That is how the promise of the Holy Spirit comes into the picture. Ten days later the promise will be fulfilled. The apostles will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. They will go out in the power of the Holy Spirit to proclaim Jesus Christ to the whole world. Eventually the Gospel will come to Philadelphia and to every other place, and eventually we will embrace the Gospel under the power of the Holy Spirit. In God s plan it is the Holy Spirit who will complete the entire mission of Jesus. Today on the Feast of the Ascension, the hour has come for Jesus to be glorified. The hour has come for Jesus to return to His heavenly Father, and from heaven He will direct His Church forever through the power of the Holy Spirit.

             The final scene is so moving. Saint Luke tells us that Jesus led the apostles as far as the little village of Bethany, near the Mount of Olives. It was in this vicinity that Jesus suffered immensely the night before He died. Jesus chooses this place to be seen no longer in His passion but in His glory. Then we read these moving words: Jesus raised his hands, He blessed the apostles and as He blessed them, He parted from them and was taken up to heaven. The Acts of the Apostles continues the description, saying that a cloud took Him out of their sight. The apostles returned to Jerusalem with great joy and they praised God in the Temple.

             You know, dear friends, the Church lives in the power of this blessing the blessing that Jesus gave to His apostles on that first Ascension when He declared that His work on earth was over. It was then up to the apostles, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to continue His great work. At the Ascension Jesus leaves us. He goes back to heaven, He blesses His Church. But even as He goes back to heaven, something extraordinary takes place. We remember when Jesus came down from heaven when the Word of God, the Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, who is God s own Son, took flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary at the moment of the Annunciation. It was then that Mary received the message that she was to become the Mother of God. And at that moment God s Son took flesh in her womb. But that flesh never left Him. Jesus remained both God and man. And in His flesh Jesus went back to heaven. He did not have it when He came, but He went back to heaven with the flesh that He received in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

             The great Pope Leo the Great, in the fifth century, tells us the whole meaning of this. Jesus, our head, has gone back to heaven with His flesh and has taken His place with God. He has also given us the right to take our place eventually in heaven. Even as we honor Christ leaving this world with His flesh, blessing His Church, going back to heaven, taking His place at the right hand of His Father, we see the full meaning of this event. Jesus takes us with Him! We are part of His flesh and He prepares a place for us. It is as He said on another occasion: When I shall have gone and prepared a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself so that where I am you also may be.

            This is the final chapter in the whole story of Christianity: to be with Christ. Today on the Feast of the Ascension, Jesus Christ Himself is at the right hand of the Father. He intercedes for us. He blesses us. He gives us strength. He gives us joy in our lives that we may be able to be his faithful disciples and that we may be able one day to take our place our rightful place, the place that He gives us with Him in the glory of the Most Blessed Trinity. Amen.