Ascension Day
St. Mary's Cathedral, Sydney
Acts 1:1-11; Eph 1:17-23; Lk 24:46-53
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
16 May 2010
Today is Ascension Day, when we celebrate Our Lord's final post-resurrection appearance and his departure for heaven. We used to celebrate this feast on Ascension Thursday, but with the demise of most holy days of obligation (a major feast, not on a Sunday, when in the past we were obliged to go to Mass), we now celebrate on the Sunday.
Tonight we have 4 young men from the Good Shepherd Seminary, who are formally being admitted as candidates for the priesthood in the Archdiocese of Sydney. We thank God for their generosity, for the care and supervision of the rector and seminary staff, as these seminarians progress towards priesthood.
This ceremony fits in nicely with the small excerpt from the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, chosen by the Vatican authorities as the signature piece of Scripture for the World Youth Day Here in 2008: "You will receive power when the Holy spirit comes upon you, and then you will by my witnesses, not only in Jerusalem, but . . indeed to the ends of the earth".
These young men have answered a call to become priests and therefore servants of the people and witnesses to Christ's message and the Catholic tradition. We need them and many more, as well as young women, to step forward for leadership.
The logic of the situation is clear and it should be clear to all our young people who know Christ and love the Church. Unless young men and women step forward to serve and provide leadership, the vitality of the Church will diminish steadily. We thank God that men and women such as these candidates are answering Christ's call.
Jesus calls some people in every generation, including our own. The danger is that we cannot hear, because there is too much static or interference on the line, or because we refuse to tune into His wavelength.
In today's readings, we have two accounts of the Ascension, both written by Luke, with one taken from the conclusion of his gospel and the other from the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, which tells the story of the early Church after Christ's resurrection.
Naturally both accounts agree on the essentials of the story. Some have objected to the notion of Jesus disappearing into the sky, but it would have been incongruous for the Lord to return to the earth. We now know that it is difficult to speak of "up" and "down" when talking about space. When I was a young priest in England the school kids would ask me why Australians do not fall off the planet as we live "down under"! Generally we speak of heaven in the sky and hell in the underworld.
The afterlife is a mystery, but Christ's bodily departure reminds us that we believe in the resurrection of the body as well as the final judgement on the last day.
The Greeks believed in the immortality of the soul, that our vital spiritual principle will survive our death. Christians believe, on Christ's word that in the new heaven and earth we shall be in some real sense embodied spirits. At the ascension Christ foreshadowed this, by returning to heaven body and soul.
Christ has gone ahead in triumph not just as one more outstanding member of the Church triumphant, but as the Son who sits at God's right hand, above every Sovereignty, Authority, Power and Domination (apparently different ranks of angels). He is the ruler of everything, the head of the Church which is His body and all things are under His feet. This is the same Christ who suffered, died and rose again.
When Paul wrote to the Christian community in Ephesus, a Roman Empire city where many buildings and the amphitheatre still survive, he urged God the father of glory to grant a spirit of wisdom and perception to them, so that the eyes of their minds might see the rich glories promised the saints and the wonderful nature of the hope towards which they are called.
May we all understand this, especially our seminarian candidates, so that we shall continue to answer the call of conversion to Jesus, the call of faith and understand the necessity of repentance for the forgiveness of our sins.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
