Ascension - Homily 7

Homily 7 - 2023

Today’s First Reading has given us Luke’s imaginative presentation of the risen Jesus’ final moments on earth. He was with the Apostles —somewhere on the Mount of Olives. Luke simply wrote, “… he was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud took him from their sight. Suddenly two men in white were standing near them and they said, ‘…Jesus has been taken up from you into heaven…’.”

Is that all? Not quite.

The Prophet Daniel had given a sort of preview of what would be the destiny, sometime in the future, of one he called "The Son of Man" -- a title Jesus applied to himself. Daniel wrote: “I gazed into the visions of the night. And I saw, coming on the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man. He came to the one of great age and was led into his presence. On him was conferred sovereignty, glory and kingship”. [As we shall soon say of Jesus in the Creed, “He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty”.]

So today we celebrate the original feast of Christ the King. This is what his incarnation, his brutal death and his resurrection had all been leading up to.

But, when thinking of Jesus’ kingship, we need to be careful. Jesus made clear that his way of being king would be nothing like earthly kingships; it has nothing at all to do with wealth or coercive power or celebrity. Jesus had insisted to his disciples, “I came not to be served but to serve and to give my life…”. Elsewhere, he made clear to Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my men would have fought to prevent my being surrendered to the Jews… but my kingdom is not of this kind”.

So what might all that involve for us, his disciples? Let us look briefly at what Matthew wrote in today's Gospel passage. He wanted to make clear what the ascended Jesus stipulated at the first disciples' job- description - realising at the same time that their job-description would become our job-description. But I suggest that we approach it imaginatively, asking ourselves what did Jesus want to impress on the disciples, and to leave with them.

He began by saying to them: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”. Jesus' authority stemmed from his personal integrity and authenticity, and is experienced by others as life-giving. Now ascended to the Father, Jesus will always and only be encountered by people as life-giving.

Jesus thgen extended that same responsibility to disciples: “Go and make disciples of all the nations”. To make disciples is to call people into relationship — with Jesus himself and with the welcoming community. The call is not just to us as individuals but to individuals within their diverse cultures — that also need to be converted with them.

He went on: “Baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”. To baptise involves to plunge into, to saturate. The aim of the whole Christian exercise is to soak people in the life of the Trinity, of the Father, the Son and the Spirit; to saturate everyone in the divine love that is the life-giving, joyful energy that creates and sustains the whole created world.

“Teach them to observe all the commandments I gave to you”. Show them how to hold on to and to cherish what was important to Jesus: those behaviours that he so often emphasised — and especially to learn to appreciate why he insisted, to the point of death, that everyone, together, love even enemies.

And finally, “Know that I am with you always”. That’s wonderful! But our effectiveness supposes that we eagerly accept and diligently work on Jesus’ offer of closeness and friendship.

Kingship with a difference!