Homily

The Lord Jesus "ascends" into heaven. Before dying he assured them that he would go to prepare a place for them also where he was going. "You know the way," he had told them. Thomas, a practical man, with ‘both of his feet on the ground’, expressed discomfort and difficulty with understanding what would be a way that led to heaven and asked, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Where are you going? Which is the way that leads to heaven? Is it perhaps a way that requires a superhuman strength to traverse? Is it only for the few heroes? How can we follow this path, we who often tire ourselves out trying to understand just the ways of this world, getting lost in the confusion, uncertainty, difficulty of life and uncertain of which way to go? I am the way, Jesus had said. And he shows us the way by ascending into heaven. Loving him, encountering him in his smallest brothers and sisters and taking his word seriously are the way to heaven. It is possible for everyone.
The feast of the Ascension is highly opportune; it is a grace granted to us because it shines a glimmer of light on the future of humanity, even on the entirety of creation. This future is not generic, ideological or abstract, but concrete. It is made of "flesh and bones as you see that I have," we could say, paraphrasing Jesus’ affirmation. He is the first to inaugurate this future by entering into heaven with all of his body, with his flesh and life, which are flesh and life of our world. From that day on heaven began to populate itself with the earth, or, in the language of Revelation, a new heaven and earth begin. The Lord inaugurates this new heaven and earth and opens them up so that all may have a part in them. His mother, Mary, has already joined him in heaven, with her body also being assumed into heaven. Ascension is the mystery of Easter, seen in its conclusion at the end of history. Ascension is not only the entrance of a just man into the kingdom of God, but also the glorious enthronement of the Son "seated at the right" of the Father. This imagery, taken from Biblical language, symbolically expresses the governing and juridical power of the risen Christ over human history: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me," Jesus says to his disciples after Easter (Mt 28:18). We are no longer immersed in a history without direction, victims of chance, at the mercy of the stars or of obscure, uncontrollable forces.
We must be his witnesses. Jesus asks this of all of us, no one excluded. Not just for a period of time, but forever. We are not disciples for ourselves, to take advantage of his goodness, to take for ourselves only what interests us and to believe that we can come to some kind of self-realization by ourselves. We are not disciples to be introspective continually and at the centre of our own attention. We are not disciples so that we may think ourselves better than others. We are disciples because Jesus has loved us and chosen us, so that we may go forth and bear fruit. He entrusts his strength to us. Love, if we do not communicate it to others, will die; if we seek to possess it, to make it our own, then we will lose it.
Jesus sends his disciples out into the world because the disciple is a universal brother and sister, a citizen of the world, who feels at home and is friendly with everyone. The disciple speaks a new language, the one of heaven, the language of love, which touches the heart. The disciple casts out demons, that is, the thoughts of solitude, the habitual cycle of revenge, hatred, division and enmity that often take the shape of a demon that deforms the heart and makes it impossible for people to know how to live in peace among themselves. Communicating the Gospel is not a task just for the one who is perfect, pure or an expert. It is not for those who want to come across as a teacher giving a lesson. Though a sinner, the one who communicates the Gospel chooses the power of love for all, above all for the poor and weak. This is the way to heaven. Those who scrutinize the heavens (I am thinking of horoscopes) engender sadness as they seek the heavens for signs of protection as a way of fleeing from the insecurity of life. The ascended Lord is our heaven and security. He pulls us towards the future that he has already reached in fullness. To all of the disciples of every era he confers the power of guiding both history and creation toward this end: they are able to cast out the demons and to speak the new language of love; they can neutralize the serpents of temptation and overcome the poisonous snares of life; they can heal the sick and comfort the afflicted. This is the power that sustains and guides the disciples even to the ends of the earth and towards the future of history. The Gospel of Mark concludes: "And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them".