Solemnity of the Ascension (Year C) May 8, 2016 ACTS 1:1-11; PS 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9; HEB 9:24-28; 10:19-23; LK 24:46-53

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1 Solemnity of the Ascension (Year C) May 8, 2016 ACTS 1:1-11; PS 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9; HEB 9:24-28; 10:19-23; LK 24:46-53 First of all, a very Happy Mother s Day to all the mothers who are here, and to those who are watching or listening through the media. We will have a special blessing for our Mothers later in this Mass. Today s Gospel passage for the Solemnity of the Ascension where Jesus is taken up to Heaven as his Apostles look on comes from the tail end of the Gospel of Luke. But Jesus said something much earlier in this same Gospel that can help us make sense of his Ascension into Heaven, not just in it s theological implications, but especially for its relevance in our daily lives...here and now. In the earlier passage, Jesus spoke these familiar words:...no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; for each tree is known by its own fruit. (Lk 6:43) The truth of Jesus words really hit home earlier this week when all of the priests and bishops of our diocese gathered for what is called Spring Clergy Day. During his homily for the Spring Clergy Day Mass, Bishop Olmsted remarked that 46% of the active priests in our diocese are foreign-born. Think about that! Nearly half of the priests serving in our diocese are from other countries! And the vast majority of those priests are from the Southern Hemisphere from places like Africa. So, what does that have to do with the Ascension? We ll get to that in a moment. Also, earlier this week, there was an Internet article that came up in conversation at breakfast during Spring Clergy Day. The article described the robust Catholicism of the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska and the reasons for it. Here s a very short blurb from that article: Despite having a Catholic population of only 97,000, the Lincoln diocese ordained 22 men from Only seven dioceses in the entire country ordained more. One of those, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles (with a Catholic population over 4.2 million) ordained 34 men during those same three years. In other words, L.A. only ordained four more men per year on average despite having a population 44X greater than Lincoln. 1

2 So, what does that have to do with the Ascension? The key to answering that question is found in Jesus instruction to his Apostles just before he was taken up into Heaven. In the 1 st Reading from the Acts of the Apostles today, we heard: While meeting with [the Apostles, Jesus] enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak...in a few days you will be baptized with the holy Spirit... you will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:4-5, 8) Jesus tells the Apostles that they will have a massive, worldwide mission to carry out, but that they must first be equipped with divine power. They are to resist the temptation to take things into their own hands and to attempt the mission on their own terms. They are to wait for the Holy Spirit to make them ready. This obedience to Jesus...this dependence on the Holy Spirit is the key to understanding why, for instance, there are so many priestly vocations in Africa, that they can send their priests all over the world including to America to make up for the absence of vocations here and other places, where the Catholic faith is weak and, in some cases, dying. This obedience to Jesus...this dependence on the Holy Spirit is the key to understanding why a dinky diocese in Nebraska consistently produces priests at a rate that puts much larger dioceses to shame. What makes Africa such a Catholic powerhouse? Well, when governments and non-governmental aid organizations tell countries in Africa that they will give them millions or billions of dollars in foreign aid money if those countries will just embrace the Western philosophy of sterilizing their women so they won t have babies...the bishops in those countries stand up and say, Keep your money! What makes the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska such a Catholic powerhouse? Well, when certain elements in our culture, and even within the Church, argue that we need to make the Catholic Church more relevant to the world by suppressing 2

3 the elements of Catholic teaching and tradition that don t sit well with secular society the Diocese of Lincoln sticks to its guns and refuses to water down the faith to make the Church s opponents comfortable. In Africa and in Nebraska, there s simple obedience to Jesus and humble docility to the Holy Spirit. And the stark contrast between those places and places like Western Europe and much of the rest of the United States places that used to be strong centers of Catholicism but, which now look like moral wastelands the stark contrast makes us wonder why the Holy Spirit appears to be effective in one place and ineffective in another. So, what s the difference? Well, something I got in the mail, recently, helped me recognize the difference. My bank sent me a new debit card because my current one was about to expire. On the front of the new card was a peel-off sticker with a toll free number I could call to activate the card. Or, I could just use the card at my bank s ATM and it would automatically activate. In other words, to access the purchasing power of my checking account through this card, I had to take specific action to activate it. As silly as it sounds, the debit card is like the Sacrament of Baptism. We receive something actually, some ONE the Holy Spirit with potential power to transform our lives, but we have to take steps to access His power. Now, before you dismiss this is a goofy analogy, consider St. Paul s words in his 2 nd Letter to the Corinthians: Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. (2 Cor 1:21-22) Sherry Weddell, an influential Catholic author wrote in her book, Forming Intentional Disciples: The majority of Catholics in the United States are sacramentalized but not evangelized. They do not know that an explicit, personal attachment to Christ personal discipleship is normative Catholicism as taught by the 3

4 apostles and reiterated time and time again by the popes, councils, and saints of the Church. (p. 46) That means that many Catholics have received, but not activated, the Holy Spirit they received in Baptism. They have the gift of God s very presence in their souls, but it has no effect in their lives. They have received the gift but not opened it. Let s listen again to the words of Jesus in today s Gospel. Thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And [behold] I am sending the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high. (Lk 24:46-49) Think about this! Jesus is telling a bunch of blue-collar, marginally educated men a group that includes fishermen and a tax collector that they are going to convert the entire world! These are the same men who abandoned Jesus when he most needed the support of his friends; the same men who hid in fear in a locked upper room after the Crucifixion, afraid to set foot outside because they too might end up nailed to a Cross. This is the group who is going to preach the Gospel to all nations? But the key words are clothed with power from on high. Jesus would equip them with all they needed. That s what happened at Pentecost the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, which we will celebrate next Sunday. That s the only way to understand how this group of Chicken Catholics the timid, unreliable Apostles preached the Gospel to every corner of the earth and converted a giant portion of the world! They received a supernatural power something over and above their own human power and were able to accomplish superhuman things. A few weeks ago, I received something else in the mail that might shed more light on the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives. I had applied for a new credit card one of those cash back reward cards that pay you a percentage back on every purchase. Well, this particular card offered a $100 bonus if you charged $500 on the card in the first 90 days. So, I simply diverted the my tithe, my parish contribution and 4

5 yes, if you want to consider what I m saying as a shameless pitch to get you to sign up for direct giving to the parish, that s perfectly all right I diverted my tithe to this new credit card and got $100 of the bank s money credited to my account. Now, just as the debit card reminds us of the need to activate the Holy Spirit deposited in our souls at Baptism, the cash back credit card shows us what we need to do as a result of our Confirmation our personal Pentecost. Whereas I had to take deliberate steps to gain access to additional buying power (the $100 bonus) of the credit card, so too do we need make deliberate decisions in our lives to pray, to attend Mass, to engage in the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy, to fast, to contribute to the Church, to go to Confession we need to take specific action in order to access the increased supernatural power of the Holy Spirit that we received in our Confirmation. Returning now to our consideration of the fruitful Catholicism in places like Africa and of the Diocese of Lincoln, we need to realize that we, too, have been equipped with the very same Holy Spirit that they received. There is, after all, only one Holy Spirit of God. The difference between the robust, powerhouse Catholicism of Africa and Lincoln, Nebraska, then comes down to the choice to activate the Holy Spirit to decide, today, that we are going to give the Lord permission to direct the course of our lives. If we have been Baptized, then the Holy Spirit has already been deposited in our hearts. If we have been Confirmed, then the power of the Holy Spirit has been supercharged to the point that there is or at least should be no difference between us and those who display a visibly fruitful Catholicism. The Catechism tells us of the effects of the Sacrament of Confirmation: It roots us more deeply in the divine [sonship], allowing us to call God our Father. It unites us more firmly to Christ. It increases the gifts of the Holy Spirit in us. It renders our bond with the Church more perfect. And the biggie: 5

6 It gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ, to confess the name of Christ boldly, and never to be ashamed of the Cross. (1302) If you re not sure what to do next, then consider this homily your activation sticker. If you want to access the power of the Holy Spirit, invite the Holy Spirit to guide and direct your life. Give God explicit permission to reign as King of your soul. When we you receive Holy Communion today when the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ is deposited in your body and soul return to your pew and offer both a prayer of heartfelt thanksgiving to the Lord for equipping you with everything grace that you need to become a Saint, and then ask him to unleash the full power of his Holy Spirit in your life. If you are unable to receive Communion today because you are not in a state of grace, then get to Confession as soon as possible so he can re-open your account restoring the fullness of his grace in your life. After all, it is the Year of Mercy. If you need any convincing of how badly the world needs you and me to be holy, just open up the newspaper. If you need any convincing of how God has already armed you and me with everything we need to convert this world back to the Sacred Heart of his Son, Jesus, then just open up the Bible. Then, all that remains is one simple step: Activation. 6