Homily, Ascension 2025
From The Pastor
‘The Lord be with you. And with your Spirit.
Lift up your hearts. We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. It is right and just.’
This sequence of praise, ever so familiar to us, says more than one might imagine. The meaning and depth of things can be lost in the familiarity of their routine. Praise and worship are essential to a mature prayer life, both personal and public. The opening line reminds us of who we are and in whose Spirit we dwell.
The Lord is with us and within us. It is the Holy Spirit who inspires the lifting of our hearts in the praise and worship of God. Invited to lift our hearts to the Lord, our response is a commitment of faith to lift the deepest part of ourselves to the Lord. Such an acclamation is truly right and just.
On this Feast of the Ascension, this sequence that introduces the Holy, Holy, Holy, worships the Lord lifted up to the heavens at the completion of his earthly mission. The Ascension of Jesus represents the completion of his redemptive work begun at the Incarnation. Now the action and fulfillment of our redemption is accomplished through the work of the Holy Spirit.
The departure of Jesus is not an ending, but a new beginning so the work begun by Jesus can come to its full stature through the Holy Spirit in each of us. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus who dwells in us as the fruit of his dying and rising from the dead. Death is defeated. With the Holy Spirit dwelling within us we will pass through death to the new life of heavenly glory.
The Ascension of Jesus has us looking forward to his Second Coming which culminates in the unity of all creation at the coming of the Lord at the end of time. More immediately, here and now, we enter the sanctuary of God at our liturgical worship. The sanctuary is not our own. It belongs to the Lord our God whom we worship in the celebration of the sacrifice of the Divine Son. This is reflected in the second reading today. Christ died once for all to take away our sins in the promise of salvation to those who seek him.
At the altar, we worshipfully offer the sacrifice of simple bread and wine that is transformed into the Body and the Blood of Jesus whom we are invited to consume. The Lord has not left us. By receiving the Body and Blood of Christ we proclaim our faith with a constancy of hope that we too will ascend to heavenly glory.
These may seem to be an unlikely connection to the Feast of the Ascension. They are precisely the point of what the Ascension means. The Ascension of Jesus is our ascension. Only through and within the Lord Jesus are we able to hope for the glory of heaven. There is no deeper way than through a faith-filled and holy reception of the Body and Blood of Jesus that prepares us to share in the joy of heaven. This earthly banquet at the table of the Lord is only a foretaste of the heavenly banquet to which we are invited.
At the time of the Ascension, Jesus commissions the disciples and us to become witnesses to his death and Resurrection for the forgiveness of sin. Jesus instructs the disciples to wait for the power on high. They are to wait for the power and grace of the Holy Spirit. Through the grace of Baptism, we have already received the Holy Spirit. It is ours to go forth in whatever manner of life we hold to give witness to the love and mercy of the Lord Jesus through our own forgiveness of others with charity and mercy in our hearts.
Holding to the Lordship of Jesus and empowered with the Holy Spirit, the Letter to the Hebrews, directs us to have every confidence to enter the sanctuary of the Lord’s redemptive sacrifice. Our presence before the Lord with sincerity of heart and absolute trust is the surety that we have been washed clean by the Blood of the Lamb.
To do this we are dependent on the Holy Spirit. The work of our redemption is not ours. It is a work of God, accomplished in Christ, now sustained through the workings of the Holy Spirit. How do we pray to the Holy Spirit? Honestly, it is a prayer of quiet surrender. Feel your longing for the Lord, your desire to know and do God’s will, your willingness to be a witness of Jesus. If you do this sincerely, the Holy Spirit is already present. Listen. Receive. Go forth and act on what you feel, believe, and long for in Christ. Doing so, one day we will all ascend to the glory promised us.
Father John Esper
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