Saturday, June 4, 2011

Restoring the Kingdom to Whom?


The Ascension of the Lord (Year A)
Acts 1:1-11
Ephesians 1:17-23
Matthew 28:16-20

What is the meaning or significance of Christ’s victory over sin and death? What did the Easter Season mean for the Apostles: those 40 days between His Resurrection and His Ascension to God’s Right Hand? What is it that shines forth in the very intimate experiences reserved for His Apostles in His repeated appearances and teaching over those 40 days since His Resurrection and, now as Jesus is taken from their sight, as He commissions them to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth? What is it that the Ascension of the Lord crowns or confirms?

The liturgy for today says it very simply in the words: “where He has gone we hope to follow.”

However, the lessons the Risen Christ taught them during these 40 days were not all that evident to the Apostles, as we can see from the readings today, both from the Acts of the Apostles and from Matthew’s Gospel:
“Lord, has the time come? Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
“When they saw him they fell down before him, though some hesitated.”
It is St. Paul in today’s 2nd Reading from his letter to the Ephesians who explains to us what the Apostles only learned on Pentecost Sunday with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Basically, today explains the greatness, the profundity, the length and breadth, the height and depth of what is the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. We come to see things clearly. In terms of time and history we leave behind us B.C. (all of history from the dawn of Creation, all that which went before the coming of God’s Anointed, His Christ) and we enter into God’s Kingdom, now firmly established in the person of Jesus (Anno Domini, A.D., in the year of our Lord, as good Christian folk used to start off when they were writing something).

“He has put all things under his feet, and made him as the ruler of everything, the head of the Church; which is his body, the fullness of him who fills the whole creation.”
And a lot of us, just like the Apostles before Pentecost say: “And…?” Taking our Christianity for granted as we do, we wonder about what makes us different or, God forbid, better by reason of our baptism into Christ than anyone else. “Where He has gone we hope to follow.” How can we, how dare we say that we are bound to Him, to Jesus, and consequently to God’s Chosen One, His Only One:
“He has put all things under his feet, and made him as the ruler of everything, the head of the Church; which is his body, the fullness of him who fills the whole creation.”
Paul is right in praying for us, because the implications of this, of the mystery of the Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord, aren’t all that easy to grasp:
“May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit and how infinitely great is the power that he has exercised for us believers.”
The Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord celebrates Christ’s victory and our hope to share in the same forever with Him in Heaven. It is indeed an absolute sort of thing, not necessarily moving us to scorn this life, but certainly inspiring a hope which goes beyond the ordinary.

These days I’m listening to CDs from a basic course in Ukrainian and reading a couple of books on the history and customs of that great country, which will soon be my home. According to the one book, buffet food or finger food at receptions is not that popular. Ukrainians, if the book is correct, still seem to believe that the best time comes from sitting around the table and eating and drinking together. The scene the author describes reminds me of a scene from a country home in one of Dostoyevsky’s books, where the young man is for all practical purposes smothered in food, drink, and the warmth of this country home. He likes it, I think, but finds too much what the elderly couple would judge as just right and truly living.

“Where He has gone we hope to follow.” Or as we read elsewhere: “here we have no lasting dwelling place.” Our world today is generally far from Dostoyevsky’s lovely little couple in the country; people tend to be lean and, sadly too, often mean. Food and drink, society and song is not necessarily the antidote for the typical type of alienation from which our Western world suffers. The great cultures of India and China or Japan, for that matter, don’t necessarily provide. Our hope can and must ultimately be found elsewhere or, should I say, beyond elsewhere and forever.

I think it is right that our lives be happy and that we have a certain measure of contentment which we share with everyone else. Maybe our world’s practical atheists don’t miss God, but if they were to encounter Him in our shared joy and in our hope to know His sacrificial love and live with Him forever beyond the grave, I firmly believe that much else would fall by the wayside and they might take us by the sleeve and beg us to lead them to the Lord.

We affirm with St. Paul, that God the Father:
“(He) has put all things under his feet, and made him as the ruler of everything, the head of the Church; which is his body, the fullness of him who fills the whole creation.”
Let your Sunday meditation carry your thoughts, beyond common friends, good times and even generous service to neighbor, to Him and where we hope to follow! His is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever!

 “May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit and how infinitely great is the power that he has exercised for us believers.”

No comments: