A Homily – Feast of the Ascension (Year B), a Holy Day of Obligation

First Reading – Acts 1:1-11 ©

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 46(47):2-3,6-9

Second Reading – Ephesians 4:1-13 ©

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 28:19,20

The Gospel According to Mark 16:15-20 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 Consider the mindset of Jesus’ disciples as they gave witness to the ascension while still clinging to the hope that Jesus would establish a messianic kingdom in Judea, or that they could establish one in his name. The disciples successfully transmitted their hope to the next generation of apostles, as to the authors of the gospels and the Book of Acts, though the content of their hopes, their rationale and the belief system which supported it had begun to deviate from the source, sometimes in significant ways, as the years and decades mounted.

 Consider how Jesus in his final moments with his companions, directs their attention to the world beyond Judea, beyond Israel and Samaria, beyond the Ptolemy’s and Seleucid’s, beyond Egypt and Roman Palestine, beyond the power of empires and out toward the broader world…and then he left.

 Consider the words of the psalmist.

 It is right to praise God, the creator of the Universe, but it is not right to assume that God favors one people over another, or that God makes one nation the subject of another, do not believe that walks over people, puts them underfoot, or the foot of any other.

 God, the true God, the God of love and mercy; our God is a liberator who shuns war and violence.

 The true God is not a king, rather God comes to us as a parent, as God a friend. In the psalm God sorrows over Jacob, is saddened by Israel, and is mournful for the church. Do not look for God on a throne; if you seek the face of God look to your neighbor.

 Consider the teaching of the apostle when he calls us to selflessness, to openheartedness and love, and to the recognition that Gods spirit animates all things, that God is the God of all beings, and that no one is beyond the scope of God’s grace.

Know this.

 The “Great Commission,” is a piece of propaganda. The event itself never happened, but the authors of Matthew’s Gospel, writing over one hundred years after Jesus was killed, they thought it was necessary to set a few lines into the sacred text regarding their authority to speak and act in Jesus’ name (exclusively).

 These were the same people who sold him to the Sanhedrin, abandoned and denied him.  

 Nevertheless, the message itself is reasonable, it articulates the basic mission of the church, to teach the way to all people of all nations, to teach them to be seekers of justice and servants of truth, people who care for the stranger, the widow and the orphan.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today.

 Proclaim the good news:

 Death is not the end. God loves you, you are saved…you are saved already!

 You are not saved by ritual magic and blood rites. We are not Gnostics, your salvation is not a matter of your possessing the correct belief. We are saved out of the super-abundance of divine grace, we are saved because God loves us.

 God love’s everyone and loses no-one, that is the good news.

 Therefore, pay no attention to preachers who come at you like carnival barkers with their tricks and gimmicks, trying to shake you down.

 Grace is free and it has no limit.

 

First Reading – Acts 1:1-11 ©

Jesus Was Lifted Up While They Looked On

In my earlier work, Theophilus, I dealt with everything Jesus had done and taught from the beginning until the day he gave his instructions to the apostles he had chosen through the Holy Spirit, and was taken up to heaven. He had shown himself alive to them after his Passion by many demonstrations: for forty days he had continued to appear to them and tell them about the kingdom of God. When he had been at table with them, he had told them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for what the Father had promised. ‘It is’ he had said ‘what you have heard me speak about: John baptised with water but you, not many days from now, will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.’

  Now having met together, they asked him, ‘Lord, has the time come? Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He replied, ‘It is not for you to know times or dates that the Father has decided by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends of the earth.’

  As he said this he was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud took him from their sight. They were still staring into the sky when suddenly two men in white were standing near them and they said, ‘Why are you men from Galilee standing here looking into the sky? Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, this same Jesus will come back in the same way as you have seen him go there.’

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 46(47):2-3,6-9

The Lord is King

Cry to God with shouts of joy.

All nations, clap your hands;

  cry out to God in exultation,

for the Lord, the Most High, is greatly to be feared,

  and King over all the earth.

He has made whole peoples our subjects,

  put nations beneath our feet.

He has chosen our inheritance for us,

  the pride of Jacob, whom he loved.

God ascends amid rejoicing,

  the Lord goes up with trumpet blast.

Sing to God, sing praise.

  Sing to our king, sing praise.

God is king over the whole earth:

  sing to him with all your skill.

God reigns over the nations;

  God sits on his holy throne.

The nobles of the peoples join together

  with the people of the God of Abraham,

for to God belong the armies of the earth;

  he is high above all things.

 

Second Reading – Ephesians 4:1-13 ©

We are All to Come to Unity, Fully Mature in the Knowledge of the Son of God

I, the prisoner in the Lord, implore you to lead a life worthy of your vocation. Bear with one another charitably, in complete selflessness, gentleness and patience. Do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together. There is one Body, one Spirit, just as you were all called into one and the same hope when you were called. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God who is Father of all, over all, through all and within all.

  Each one of us, however, has been given his own share of grace, given as Christ allotted it. It was said that he would:

When he ascended to the height, he captured prisoners,

he gave gifts to men.

When it says, ‘he ascended’, what can it mean if not that he descended right down to the lower regions of the earth? The one who rose higher than all the heavens to fill all things is none other than the one who descended. And to some, his gift was that they should be apostles; to some, prophets; to some, evangelists; to some, pastors and teachers; so that the saints together make a unity in the work of service, building up the body of Christ. In this way we are all to come to unity in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God, until we become the perfect Man, fully mature with the fullness of Christ himself.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 28:19,20

Alleluia, alleluia!

Go, make disciples of all the nations.

I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 16:15-20 ©

Go Out to the Whole World; Proclaim the Good News

Jesus showed himself to the Eleven and said to them:

  ‘Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation. He who believes and is baptised will be saved; he who does not believe will be condemned. These are the signs that will be associated with believers: in my name they will cast out devils; they will have the gift of tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and be unharmed should they drink deadly poison; they will lay their hands on the sick, who will recover.’

  And so the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven: there at the right hand of God he took his place, while they, going out, preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the signs that accompanied it.

 

Feast of the Ascension, a Holy Day of Obligation, Year B