Homily of Ascension Thursday
Today celebrates the ascension of Jesus into heaven. After the resurrection Jesus was in the world for forty days before he then ascended into heaven in the presence of his disciples as they were gazing. Like resurrection, ascension is still the vindication of the just man Jesus who was killed unjustly by the Jews. In fact it is the culmination of the glory of Jesus and his vindication by the Father. Unlike resurrection, ascension was witnessed by the apostles. They saw him ascending into heaven.
The central message of ascension is that God is ever faithful and always ready to vindicate his faithful people who suffer unjustly. God has given us hope that where our Lord has gone, we the disciples will also be, if we remain faithful to the end. His glory will also be our glory.
Dear friends, there are two main things that can lead to frustration. The first is despair, when one has lost every hope. The second is idleness. Jesus did not want the disciples to be frustrated. He first told them that he was not leaving them as orphans but will give them another advocate to be with them forever. That takes care of their hope. They should not be hopeless. Again, he told them to avoid idle speculations, as we see in the first reading, asking, is now time to restore the kingdom to Israel? He charged them to be busy, your duty is to proclaim the kingdom, and not to spend your time in idle speculation. Do not question things that do not concern you. In the gospel he reemphasizes that they should go and make disciples of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. He did not give them weapons to fight wars, but to proclaim the gospel. Be busy, be responsible, proclaim the message of salvation!
It is the same challenge that Jesus is giving us today, not to be idle, to avoid spending our times in idle speculations but to go and bear witness to him, making disciples of all the nations. Many Christians today spend their time worrying about the things that are not necessary, asking questions that are not relevant to their salvation, leaving out the one thing that is necessary, the only responsibility given to them by our Lord – to go and bear witness to him. Some ask: God, I have served you faithfully, is it time that you solve my problems? When will you set me free? When will you end this war in my family? Is it not time for my husband, my wife, my children to be converted since I have served you so faithfully? The Lord continues to say, it is not for you to know, your duty is to continue to bear witness to me, to continue to proclaim the good news to all the nations, not only by words buts basically by your deeds – bearing witness.
Dear friends, the basic responsibility the Lord has given us is to bear witness to him. The witness involves the testimony of those who see us that we belong to Jesus. As we reflect on how much we do that, let us ask for the grace of faithfulness to our baptismal vows which contain this responsibility.
Good Friday
From his betrayal through his condemnation, his journey to Calvary, his crucifixion,
Jesus persisted on the fulfilment of his Father’s will; he never opened his mouth in objection, he was like a trustful lamb being led to a slaughter house, like a sheep dumb before its shearers, he accepted everything, until he made the announcement, “it is consummated”, all for the salvation of the world.
There are many exchanges on the cross. The cross remains a powerful instrument of God which “translated us from Adam to Christ”. On the cross all the curses due for the sinful man were changed to blessings of the sinless Son of God, the death due for man was changed to life. He bore our sins, he carried our sins away, he died that we might live, and his death brought us life. We are called upon to reflect on the Cross of Christ.
What is our attitude towards our own cross? He died to save us. On this day, we are given opportunity to venerate the Cross of Christ. During this veneration, you can kiss it, you can touch it, you can embrace it, etc. All mean the same thing, acceptance. In fact, this personal veneration defines our relationship with the Cross of Christ.
Our veneration basically demonstrates two things:
Firstly, it shows our love for Christ who died for us on the cross. As we venerate the cross, we acknowledge and accept his death on the cross and all its implications, that we accept all the exchanges that took place on the cross, the salvation that it wrought for us. The personal veneration of the Cross we make with faith can transform our lives from bad to good, from good to better, from better to best. It can bring us healing, save us from impending dangers, physically, spiritually, etc.
Secondly, our veneration shows that we accept our own crosses as Jesus accepted his. That implies our docility to the Father’s will, that whatever is the will of the Father for us we will accept, of course, by the grace of him who has died on the cross to save us. On our baptism,
we were made children of God and promise to live accordingly, to reject anything opposed to the will of our Father. Today, we ask God to allow us to live as we wish, not as He wishes, we ask him not to interfere with our lives because we are of age. On our baptism we accepted to listen to the Church, today we want to live independent of the Church, to act against the church and her teaching because we are of age, thereby rejecting the same cross of Christ we ordinarily venerate on Good Fridays, rejecting the will of God in our lives.
As we venerate the Cross of Christ, let us renew our commitment to the love of Christ who loves us and has given his life for us, he died that we might live. Let us receive that salvation that he wrought for us through the cross, and let us renew our commitment to accept whatever is the will of God for us. “In God’s will is our peace”.
Benedict (OCSO) Nunraw
Easter Message
A lovely day, a day of joy! At Easter we celebrate the victory of good over evil, the victory of light over darkness, we celebrate the victory of life over death, the ultimate and last enemy of man. We celebrate our hope, we celebrate the foundation of our Christian faith, the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The foundation of our Christian faith is not just that a child was born in Bethlehem; or that that child grew up in wisdom and continued to preach and teach the people, working miracles, healing the sick, raising the dead, etc. The foundation of our faith is not just that, that man who went about doing good was killed by hanging on the cross, it is not on an empty tomb. The foundation of our faith is on the resurrection. Jesus who was killed unjustly came up on the third day and announced: “I AM ALIVE; I am not a ghost, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me!” That is the resurrection. JESUS IS ALIVE! Resurrection is not disappearance from the tomb, it is not even the triumph of the soul over the body. It is simply that Jesus is alive, he conquered death.
The resurrection of Christ gives meaning to our Christian lives, as St Paul puts it, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is pointless and you have not, after all, been released from your sins” (1 Cor. 15: 17). In fact, the resurrection of Christ is the pivot of our salvation history. It has shown us that life does not end in the tomb. The resurrection is our hope.
On a more practical note, Easter is the celebration of the justice of God, it is a celebration of the vindication of the just man Jesus killed by unjust men. In the resurrection God proclaims the innocence of Jesus. Our God is a God of Justice; he is a God who is always on the side of justice, peace and truth. He is a God who fights for the poor, a God who always works for establishment of peace which indeed is a byproduct of justice. If resurrection is then, the vindication of the just man Jesus, who suffered and was killed unjustly, it means that those who trust in God cannot suffer in vain or suffer forever. God is there to vindicate them. After the sufferings there is destined to be happiness.
On another note, Easter celebration means joining God to proclaim that injustice is bad, to be committed in establishing justice, peace and truth. In other words, those who incite injustice, those who provoke wars, those who enjoy wars are excluded from the joy of Easter. This celebration invites all Christians to renew their commitment to the establishment of justice, peace and truth in the world, to shun violence and war. As we renew our baptismal promises during the Easter vigil, let us not forget that we are renewing our faith in the God of justice, let us not forget that, any Christianity without forgiveness, justice, peace, compassion, and truth for all humanity is a fake one.
St Augustine would say that those who pray do more for the world than those who fight, and if there are much battles in the world it implies that there are less people who pray. Therefore, the celebration also calls all Christians to pray that those who are inclined to injustices, those who are inclined to wars may drop their weapons and embrace peace and truth. The world needs peace, the world deserves peace.
Benedict (OCSO) Nunraw