Homily

The Lord Jesus “ascended” to heaven. Before he died, he reassured the disciples, saying that he was going to prepare a place so that they too could be in the place where he was going. And, to reassure them, he added: “You know the way.” Thomas, the man of concrete things, “down to earth,” expressed discomfort and difficulty in understanding a road leading to heaven and asked, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?“ Where are you going? What is the way to heaven? Is it perhaps a way that requires a superhuman effort? Is it for a few heroes? How can we follow him, we who often find it hard to understand the ways of the earth, who get lost in confusion, uncertainty, hardships, and are not able to choose? “I am the way,” said Jesus. And now he wants to show it by going up to heaven. To love him, to meet him in his younger brothers and sisters, taking his word seriously is the way to heaven. We all can follow it.
The Feast of the Ascension is particularly timely today. It opens a window on the future of the whole of creation. It is not a generic future, more or less ideological and abstract, but concrete; it is a future of “flesh and bones, as you see me have”, to paraphrase a statement of Jesus. Indeed he first opened the heavens upon entering them with his whole body, with his flesh and his life. Since that day, we might say, God's heaven begins to inhabit the earth or, in the language of Revelation, “new heavens” and a “new earth” begin. Jesus himself inaugurates and opens them and he wants everyone to take part in them. His mother, Mary, had already joined him, taken up with her body. Ascension is the mystery of Easter seen in its fulfilment, seen from the end of the story. Ascension is not only the entrance of a righteous man into the kingdom of God, but the glorious enthronement of the Son “sitting at the right hand” of the Father. This depiction, taken from biblical language, symbolically expresses the power of government and judgment on the human history of the risen Christ: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” said Jesus to his disciples after Easter (Mt 28:18). We are no longer immersed in a story without guidance, victims of chance, of stars or of dark and uncontrollable forces.
We have to be his witnesses. Jesus asks this of everyone, and not for a limited time, but for always. We are not disciples for ourselves, to take advantage of his kindness, to take what we deem interesting and believe we can manage by ourselves, or to be continually introspective, always at the centre. We are not disciples that believe we are better than others. We are disciples because he has loved and chosen us, and sends us anywhere in the world to bear the fruit of love and peace. If we do not communicate love, it ends; unless we work for peace, the grass of violence and evil grows. In the heart of every disciple of Jesus there is a desire of universality. The disciple is a universal brother and sister, a citizen of the world; he/she feels at home with everyone, is familiar to everyone. The disciple speaks a new language, that of heaven the language of love, that touches and changes hearts. The disciple casts out devils, meaning thoughts of loneliness, habits of revenge, hatred, division, enmity that often become like demons that deform hearts and make it impossible for men and women to live in peace with each other. Those who communicate the Gospel are not perfect, expert, pure people, or those who act as masters explaining a lesson. Those who communicate the Gospel are people who, sinners as they are, choose to witness the power of love to all, especially to those who are poor and weak. This is the way to heaven. Those who scrutinize the heavens (I think of horoscopes...) looking for signs of protection to escape the fear and insecurity of life are somehow pitiable. The ascended Lord is our heaven and our security. He draws us into the future that he has already achieved in its fullness. The Lord confers to the disciples of every age the power to direct history and creation towards this goal: they can cast out demons and speak the new language of love; they can neutralize tempting snakes and conquer the poisonous pitfalls of life; they can heal the sick and comfort anyone in need. This force of love supports and guides the disciples to the ends of the earth and to the future of the salvation story. The Gospel of Mark concludes: “They went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them.”