Homily for June 1st 2025 – The Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord
Acts 1:1-11; Psalm 46; Hebrews 9:24-28, 10:19-23; Luke 24:46-53
Moving towards the end of this Easter Season, we now celebrate the Solemnity of the Lord’s Ascension. This is part of the series of God’s seeming coming and going. Jesus entered human history as the Incarnate Word of God and formed the Holy Family of Nazareth. At age twelve, He was lost and then found in the Temple. At thirty, he left home, embarked on his public ministry, and extended his family circle by calling upon the Twelve Apostles to become his constant companions from among the growing number of disciples. Then he left them too upon his death on the Cross, but was resurrected on the third day and for forty days appeared to them. Today, on this seventh Sunday of Easter, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Lord’s Ascension, commemorating another departure. And as we await his second coming, he promised to send the Holy Spirit. All through these leaving and coming, the Lord constantly leads to another level of presence. And each time, he evokes faith, hope, and joy.
Indeed, we are Pilgrims of Hope, as the late Pope Francis exhorts us when he proclaimed 2025 as the Jubilee Year of Hope, and he teaches that “In Christian theology, hope is not optimism. It is an insistence to seek the good, anchored in God: to see difficulties clearly, yet to pursue action rather than despair.” The Letter to the Hebrews (our Second Reading) exhorts that we “hold unwaveringly to our confession that gives us hope, for he who made the promise is trustworthy.”
In the conclusion of the Gospel according to Luke, Jesus tells his disciples, “Behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” The Lord gives hope to his disciples. This is also our reason for hope today and for those coming after us. As Jesus leaves his never-ending public ministry, he entrusts the mission to his Apostles, to his disciples then, and now to us.
The Lord’s leaving is never abandonment. God elevates the dynamics of the human encounter with him. Thus, far from despair upon the Lord’s departure, the disciples “returned to Jerusalem with great joy.”
In the Letter to the Hebrews, we are reminded that Christ ascended to be in the presence of God, where he would intercede on behalf of his followers. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “Christ permanently exercises his priesthood in heaven, for he always lives to make intercession for those who draw near to God through him. As ‘high priest of the good things to come’ (Heb 9:11), he is the center and the principal actor of the liturgy that honors the Father in heaven” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, Nº 662)
Indeed, Ascension is part of the Resurrection. Resurrection tells that Jesus has entered a new life, and not just that he recovered his previous life. Ascension tells that the risen Jesus has gone to “sit at the right hand of the Father, and from there He will come to judge the living and the dead.” This enkindles in us the hope for his Second Coming.
Today, on the Ascension of our Lord, we once more remember the “mission” that we have been entrusted with: “You are witnesses of these things” (Lk 24:48). Our forebears in faith have dutifully fulfilled this mission of keeping the faith, the hope, and the joy in witnessing to God’s love and mercy. With this, we grow in faith and hope, for along with the commissioning is the promise to send the Holy Spirit. And with this witnessing mission, we become the hope of future generations. It is our growth in the life of faith today that assures the flourishing of faith and passing on the spiritual bond with God. God’s redeeming work continues in us and through us.
May this week of monastic renewal nourish us in our monastic journey, and so assure that the monastic way of living out the spiritual bond with God and others is fulfilled as a mission entrusted to us.
May our commemoration of the Lord’s Ascension nourish and strengthen us in our journey as children of God, destined to be with him also in eternity through the merits of Christ’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection.
And finally, at this Solemnity of the Lord’s Ascension, we thank God for another grace-filled example of how He calls us to Himself, and how He enriches our encounter with Him through Brother Paul’s passing on to eternal life with Him. Now we have another intercessor with God in heaven
