Fr. Anthony Brankin
Gospel: Luke 24:46-53. Promise of Holy Spirit and Ascension
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The Feast of the Ascension is an incredibly important Feast—because it completes the Incarnation cycle. For that period of time— from the moment at which Jesus was conceived in the womb of Mary—nine months before Christmas—to the moment of His Ascension into heaven—God had been with us—in the flesh—in Jesus.
How marvelous that the Almighty would have lowered Himself to become one of us—just to save us from our selves.
How amazing that the All-powerful, All Knowing God—from Whose hands spun out the stars and planets of a million galaxies— from whose Mind came the Angels—How amazing that this God deigned Himself to take on human flesh—to become an embryo, a fetus, a baby, a boy, a young man, a grown man nailed to a tree—the Messiah. What love for us, that He who did not know sin— became sin—in order that our sins might be forgiven.
And how beautiful that that life on earth did not end in death as we would have imagined—but that it culminated in His Resurrection on Easter Sunday when He left the tomb.
I can only imagine what joy filled the hearts of Mary and the Apostles and Disciples during the forty days that Jesus stayed with them after His Resurrection. The One upon whom they had come to depend so deeply—who seemed so tragically to have been taken from them on Good Friday—Lo and behold! He has come back from the dead! Those forty days must have been almost like a dream for them all.
I always say this—but suppose your long dead father or mother or grandparents knocked on your door one morning. Joy is hardly the word to describe how you would feel when you saw them again—after all those years.
But it was only for forty days, because His proper place was not here—but with His father in Heaven. And so He left. He ascended.
Consider how totally abandoned and disconnected the Apostles and Disciples must have felt when it finally sank into their hearts that He was gone! Again! Almost like Good Friday!
“My God! It is all over! What will we do? How can we live? We no longer have Him or His Presence or His Strength or His Wisdom or His Counsel? What will we say? How will we say it?”
Maybe though that was the very moment that they began to appreciate what He meant when He said He would still be with them until the end of the world. He would be present in this world—but now—supernaturally—in their hearts—in their sacraments—in their prayers—in this thing we call “the Church”.
His human body, now glorified, was in Heaven. But the Church, the gathering of all who believe and are baptized, would be His body on earth. The Church would be His hands working in the world. The Church would be His feet journeying from one people to another to bring the Gospel. The Church would be His voice teaching us what we must believe and do to be saved.
What more could He have meant when He said, “Behold I am with you all days, even unto the end of the world.” He would be here on earth—but in us—as the Church.
Putting it another way—the Catholic Church—the one to which we belong— is actually the Mystical Body of Christ on earth. He is the Head and we are the members. And this Catholic Church—because of its identity as the Body of Christ— speaks with His authority and in His Name and by His permission. The Church of Christ is the Catholic Church—there is no other.
It is not the Presbyterians, not the Methodists, not the Unitarians—not the Orthodox, Greek or Russian. The Church Jesus founded is the Catholic Church. When people say, “I am not Catholic, I am Christian,” that is their inaccurate way of distinguishing themselves from us. They don’t know it, but they are actually Protestants. And their religion—historically speaking— is a spin-off from ours. That’s just the history of it.
All their ancestors were Catholic at one time—but now as Protestants they have eliminated from their faith life most of the sacraments and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Most sadly of all—they do not have the Body of Christ in Holy Communion. When Protestants become Catholic, there is very little that they must change in their beliefs. It is more a matter of adding on that which had been taken away by the founders of those sects. And what a joy in the hearts of converts when the fullness of the faith is presented to them—how complete it all now seems to them.
Now Catholics must not feel morally superior to those who do not belong to the Catholic Faith. There are holy and good and kind people in those other religions, and many of them will get to heaven before many of us Catholics. I can truly understand how some little Methodist grandma is going to heaven before a few of us priests and bishops and maybe even Popes.
Yes, non-Catholics can go to heaven. If someone sincerely believes what they have been taught, and they have no other way of knowing the full truth—God will judge them on what they knew and whether or not they lived their lives in conformity with what they understood of God’s will. That is not Modernism. That understanding goes way back—to the earliest days of the Church.
But that is not to say that people do not need to belong to the Catholic Church. They do. From the Muslims to the Jews to the atheists to the Protestants—all are called to be members of the Body of Christ. And all are called to recognize that the Catholic Church is the True Presence of Jesus in the world and they need to belong to it. All need to know that the Catholic Church teaches the world as if it were Jesus Himself teaching.
That means then that the Pope—in his role as head of the Church—or the Bishops in union with the pope—or the priests in union with the Bishops—or Catholic mothers and fathers speaking of all these things to their children— teach us what we must believe or do to be saved—then what is spoken is spoken with the guarantee of Our Lord, that it is true. We have an obligation to believe what the Church teaches—about Faith—about morals—because that teaching comes from no one less than Christ Our Lord.
How often do we hear when the Pope issues a teaching about morality—particularly about abortion or contraception or sexuality—or about war—“Well that that is just one man’s opinion!”
I know many Catholics who consider themselves good Catholics. But the moment the Pope utters a word against one of their pet issues—it could be about money or capitalism or immigration or war—then what the Pope says is not infallible. That is just his opinion.
I remember when we were going into Iraq, and two Popes in a row said there was a problem with that impending invasion—many thought very sincerely that the Popes were wrong because George Bush knew more about these things than any Pope. What they wanted to say was that on their issues, the Church is just another voice—and not the voice of Christ.
There are many Catholic people who are all the way with the Church when it comes to mercy-killing or abortion, but they think that the Church is wrong about the immorality of embryonic stem cell research and test tube conceptions. In other words, on their issues, the Church does not speak for Christ.
But that is why we have a Church—to be His Authority and Presence and voice here on earth.
Now, remember the Church’s teaching Authority is not diminished because its clergy are guilty of personal sins. The Pope himself must go to confession. And if you read the history of the Church—going all the way back to the Apostles, then you will understand that The Church—even though it is the Sinless Bride of Christ—is comprised of sinful bishops, priests and people who need God’s mercy as well as anyone else.
No one can say—“I don’t have to listen to the Church or the Pope—because they are sinful.”
Jesus is very aware of the sinfulness of his disciples. Remember when Peter said, “Depart from me, Oh Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
Was he still not the one to whom Jesus handed the keys of the Kingdom?
Jesus compensates for our weakness and sinfulness with more than equal measures of love and grace. And that is why we need the Church—and the sacraments of the Church—and the teachings of the Church. Because we are nothing without Him, and we cannot be left alone in this awful world—whose Ruler is the Devil. We need the Church, but this is true only if the Church is Divine—only if it is His Mystical Body.
If the Church were simply a club or a human organization, it would be so weighed down by its own structures and baggage and sinfulness, that it would have died a hundred years after the Apostles.
As it is—the fact that the Church still lives—and still teaches and is still the target of unbelievers is proof positive that she is of God and is His Loving and presence in our lives and in the world.
Yes, He has ascended to His Father—where He belongs, but He has not left us alone. He is still here in our Catholic Church—and for that, today, we give thanks.