Jesus’ Ascension shows We can attain Heaven!
Homily preached Sunday, May 21, 2023
by Monsignor Michael Deering

If you ever go to a carnival (at McFarland & Skyland) or amusement park (SixFlags) you’ll typically find an arcade area with various games of skill. Some common games are:

• shooting electronic guns at moving targets,
• pitching pennies onto plates or into glasses,
• tossing balls to land into buckets or to break plates
• swinging the big mallet to drive a weight up a tower to ring the bell.

Some of these games are pretty easy and with a little patience and a lot of quarters ...

you can walk away with a nice stuffed animal prize!

But I’ve been to some Arcades where the contests are very hard … where I’ve tried my best to complete the challenge but I can’t, and then I watch many others give it a try & they fail...and I begin to wonder…can anyone actually win this game!

I mean, is it even humanly possible to do what they’re challenging people to do?

It’s at times like this ... that I’d just like to see someone win the game ...

so that I’d know ... that it’s humanly possible to do.

I mean can anybody do this?

Show me that this isn’t rigged ... so I know that I’m not wasting my time ...

trying to do something that isn’t even possible.

Occasionally, if business is slow, I’ve gotten the operator of the booth ...

to come out from behind the counter ...

and shoot or pitch or toss or swing and see them play the game.

And if they do it successfully ... that changes everything!      

     Now I know that it’s humanly possible ...  

and that moves me to want to try again to see if I can be successful too!

There are many things we do successfully because someone has shown us how to do them. From tying our shoes in Kindergarten to storing numbers in a cellphone, seeing others do those things successfully assures us that we can do them too!

Jesus knows this ... which is why He invites us to follow Him.

Jesus wants us to have confidence that we can win the big prize in the game of life … way more than a big stuffed animal … it’s the Prize of Eternal Life in Heaven!

All of us here ... are right now participating in the Game of life ...

and we’d all like to win the same prize … Heaven.

And you may wonder ... like many men & women who have gone before us ...

if that’s even possible. Can anyone win? Can anyone really get into Heaven?    

Well, 2000 years ago, the owner, not of the Arcade, but of the world, who is Jesus ... came out from behind the counter, so to speak, by taking on human form, 

the unseen God became visible ...

          and He showed us that entering into Heaven is indeed possible …

because ... He did it Himself … in plain view of many!

God’s Plan of Salvation involved the Second Person of the Trinity,

who is pure Spirit ... taking on a human body like ours and uniting ...

our human nature ... with His Divine Nature... in the One Person of Jesus Christ.

In theological terms this is called the Hypostatic Union … the full presence of

two natures in one reality … fully God and fully Man …in the God-man … Jesus.

This one Divine Person … is now God ... in a human way,

         and man ... in a divine way.

This made it possible for all of us ... to be able to have ... what Jesus has ...

union with the Father!

Yes, God’s Great Plan of Salvation ... was that ... Jesus, His Son ...

by dying and rising from the dead ... conquered sin and death for us ...

and by ascending into heaven ...  showed us the prize that can also be ours.

Without the Ascension, God’s Plan of Redemption would be incomplete …

the final piece ... union with God ... would be missing.

But now, we know we can follow, because Jesus did it w/ our human nature!

When you ask people ... where do want to go after you die ...

they don’t say, “I want to rise from the dead.”

No, what do they say?     They say, “I want to go to Heaven.”

Well, Jesus accomplished both ... and so we celebrate both …

 the Resurrection and the Ascension … as parts of God’s Plan!

The Ascension into Heaven is an exaltation of the humanity of Christ:

accomplishing the mission of redeeming us from sin and death ...

and ... opening the Gates of Heaven ... so all of us could follow!

Yes, God’s Plan of Redemption had several parts …

Christmas celebrates the enfleshment of God … a pure Spirit takes Human form.

Easter celebrates the Paschal Mystery the atonement of all sins by the God-man.

And the Ascension celebrates the final union we can all have with God in Heaven.

Yes ...  now we know it’s possible…because Jesus did it!

Yes ... after taking on our humanity…He entered into Heaven!

In our First Reading from Acts, we hear how Jesus, in His Glorified Resurrected Body was lifted up right in front of His Apostles and taken up from their sight.

Where did He go?     Into Heaven!     We just heard the Angel tell the Apostles,

“This Jesus who has been taken up from you into Heaven

will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”

And St. Paul affirms this in our Second Reading today, writing:

“May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened that you may know … the surpassing greatness of His power for us who believe … which God worked in Christ raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the Heavens.”

We profess this truth each time we pray our Nicene Creed ... as we say:

“He ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”

That means that Jesus is present to the Father not only in His divinity ...

 but also in His humanity … our humanity!

The great Theologian and Philosopher of the 1200’s, St. Thomas Aquinas, said,

“The greatest miracle in the world wasn’t that Jesus took on our humanity.

The greatest miracle in the world...  was that He kept it!”

Yes, Jesus truly became one with us by becoming like us on earth.

And when He left us, He didn’t shed our humanness.

No, in His great love for us, He carried our Humanness to the Father in Heaven!

What an honor! What a great assurance that we’ll be welcomed into Heaven!

Jesus is right now seated at the right hand of the Father in His glorified Resurrected

Body, with the wounds that He bore for love of us always visible to the Father.

And what is He doing?             He’s interceding for us!

It’s as if Jesus is eternally saying:

“Look, Abba, Father, this is what I did for your children, My Brothers & Sisters”.

How comforting to contemplate the deep love of Jesus for us …

that He would take our Human Nature with Him to Heaven.

This means that our humanity now has a new connection with the Trinity, because the Second Person took on our humanity and brought it into ... Heaven.  

Now in hearing the Scripture accounts proclaimed today ...  it’s possible to get

the impression that when Jesus ascended into Heaven way back then ...

  that He’s been away from us since then ... and will remain away from us ...

until He comes again in glory at the end of time.

But that is definitely not the case.

Recall that Jesus was not bound by the constraints of time and space,

and was able to come through locked doors and appear and disappear at will!

In other words, Jesus can be with us and not be physically visible to us.

As Pope St. Leo the Great said 140 years ago:

“Our Redeemer’s visible presence has passed into… the Sacraments.”

So while Jesus physically left us 2000 years ago,

He has remained with us sacramentally,

that is ... veiled under the physical signs of bread and wine ...

just as He was veiled under those signs at the Last Supper.

Recall how Jesus took the Bread, blessed it and broke it and gave it to His Apostles saying: “Take and eat, this is my Body.”

and recall how Jesus took the Wine, blessed it and gave it to His Apostles saying:

“Take and drink, this is my Blood.”

Yes, through a great Miracle at the Last Supper, which was the First Mass ...

 Jesus was present with the Apostles both physically and sacramentally!

And then, Jesus gave the Apostles the power to do the same thing ... to bless and to give the elements of Bread and Wine that have miraculously become Him!

And the Apostles handed on that power ... by ordaining Priests and Bishops ...

who ordained Priests and Bishops through the past 2000 years ...

so that the Priesthood of all Priests today, including mine, can be traced back to what Jesus established at the Last Supper ... so that Jesus is still with us today!

Yes, Jesus is sacramentally present right now in the Bread in the Tabernacle ...

and will soon be present sacramentally in the Bread and Wine on the Altar.  

So you see, just as Jesus never left His Father when he came down to earth,

           Jesus never left his disciples when he ascended into heaven.

Jesus is in both places … Heaven and Earth, He is with the Father and with us.

Jesus can more than Bi-locate.

He can be anywhere and everywhere He wants.

Jesus is right now at the right hand of the Father in Heaven ... and …

He is also in the Eucharist all over the world.

Yes, Jesus is in Heaven & He’s also in every Tabernacle of every Catholic Church!

Think about that!    Where is Jesus?   He’s right here with us!

He left us ... but He never left us!

Such is the insight that comes from our previous Pope Benedict XVI:

“It would be a mistake to interpret the Ascension as ‘the temporary absence of Christ from the world.’” “Rather, ‘we go to Heaven to the extent that we go to Jesus Christ and enter into him.’” And so he concludes, “Jesus Himself is what we call heaven.”

Have you ever thought about that before? What a beautiful insight to contemplate.

Heaven isn’t just somewhere up in the sky.

Heaven is wherever Jesus is!

And where is Jesus?    He’s here with us!

We believe that the power of Jesus is present to us in all seven of the Sacraments. And we believe that by God’s design, Jesus is truly present to us in the Eucharist.

And if that’s true, then when we receive the Eucharist, we receive a taste of Heaven!

Do you really want to go to Heaven?           Then you need to go to Jesus!

Where is Heaven?   It’s wherever Jesus is!

St. Catherine of Sienna used to say,

 “Heaven is here for all those on their way to Heaven!”

As we celebrate the Feast of Jesus’ Ascension into Heaven,

let’s realize that He really never left us.

He is there … and He is here!

As our Lord and Savior, Jesus now reigns in Heaven at the right hand of the Father, still carrying the manmade wounds He suffered for our salvation.

As our Brother & Friend, Jesus is here with us on Earth to nourish us with Himself

in Communion so that we follow Him & get to be with Him & the Father in Heaven.

You know, just as it helps to see someone win a challenging game at an Arcade

so that you know it’s possible and are motivated to continue to play for the prize …

So too, it helps to know that someone has played and won the game of Life.

Jesus did it!          He took on our humanity and entered into Heaven!

That’s the inspiration we need to continue striving for that same prize.

It’s entirely possible to get to Heaven!    Jesus, in his humanity showed us this!

Today, let’s rejoice and give thanks to God for His Plan of Salvation.

Not only are we redeemed by the death and resurrection of Jesus,

but our ability to attain Heaven is made possible by the ascension of Jesus.

That’s where we want to go … Heaven!

So, let’s all persevere ... in staying united with Jesus every day ...

so that we can attain the Prize of all Prizes ... entry into The Kingdom of Heaven.

Amen.