Since the Ascension of Christ is mentioned in today’s
gospel [John 20: 11-18], let me say
two things about the Ascensionthis
morning. So the title of my homily for this Tuesday within the octave of Easter
is, “The Ascension: Two Comments.”
FIRST COMMENT: THE ASCENSION - WHEN DID IT TAKE
PLACE?
Today’s gospel brings outthat Jesus says to Mary, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet
ascended to the Father.”
Some folks might even remember this scene and other
scenes about Mary and Jesus from the musical and the movie: Jesus Christ Superstar.
Then we read other post resurrection comments when Jesus
touches and holds his disciples. Remember when Jesus, the Risen One, asks
Thomas to put his hand into Jesus cuts and wounds [Cf. John 20:27.]
So I have heard some theologians wondering if Jesus
ascended to the Father right after the resurrection and then came back during
those 40 days after Easter - then he ascends to the Father again.
That’s my first thought - put out there in the form or a
wondering.
We can understand Jesus feeding people or walking the
roads of Galilee, but understanding what happens after death is quite tricky. Bread
and roads we have done; death not yet.
Does death and then resurrection put us into different
time and space realities than we are in
right now? The answer to that has to be “yes” but what it’s like, we have to
wait till our death to find out.
SECOND COMMENT: WILL THERE BE A MAJOR NEW THEOLOGY
IN THE FUTURE?
In the last century, there was a major change and
understanding of the resurrection, I heard some theologian say that just as in
our time the theology of the resurrection evolved - so too in the future a
whole new understanding of the Ascension will happen.
We Redemptorists would know that about Easter and the
Resurrection - because one of our priests, Father F. X. Durrell came out with
his church changing book, The Resurrection:
A Biblical Study, [1960].
When we were kids, Lent sort of ended on Holy Saturday
morning.Then the Liturgy shifted us
back to Holy Saturday evening and the Easter Vigil.
It was after that we saw and smelled the RCIA, the Easter
Vigil, Easter, the Resurrectionbeing as
important as it is - as Paul told us loud and clear in 1 Corinthians 15: 1-19 -that we wondered how we had slipped into the
mind set we were in for the longest time.
With that in mind and as an experience, is there a whole
new world of the theology and philosophy of the Ascension just sitting there.
Time will tell.
But I don’t know who the experts, the writers, the
scholars on the Ascension are, but let’s hope they will show up.
When - maybe this century?
We’re only 2000 years into Christianity….
Who knows what has to be developed more: Pentecost, the
Second Coming, as well as the Ascension.
April 3, 2018
Thought for today:
“The tragedy of life
is not death but in what dies inside a man while he lives - the death of
genuine feeling, the death of inspired response, the death of the awareness that makes it possible to feel that pain or the glory of other men in oneself.”
Norman Cousins, in Saturday Review, October 2, 1954
Monday, April 2, 2018
DAVID’S TOMB:
KEEP
SEARCHING
INTRODUCTION
The title of my homily for this Monday in the Octave of
Easter is, “David’s Tomb: Keep Searching.”
This homily is about David’s tomb - from today’s first reading: [Acts of the
Apostles 14, 22-33]
If you have nothing to do and you like to look things up
on your computer, look up “David’s Tomb.”
I remember standing there in a small room in Jerusalem.
Our tour guide pointed to a dark blue cloth covered a sarcophagus or casket or
burial box, and said, “This is said to be the burial place of David.”
I immediately said to myself, “No way. You’re kidding.”
David’s dates are disputed - but it’s helpful to simply
say “David was from around 1000 years before Christ.”
This morning I read in today’s first reading, “My
brothers, one can confidently say to you about the patriarch David that he died
and was buried, and his tomb is in our midst to this day.”
That brought back the memory of being at that blue cloth
covered box in Jerusalem that I saw in January
of the year 2000.
So I looked up this morning in Google and a few other
spots on line, “David’s Tomb.”
Various places for his burial are mentioned- as well as doubts about the place I saw in
Jerusalem.
Keep digging.
DID YOU KNOW
Did you know that Grant’s tomb is empty?
But we know where our loved ones are buried. But not all.
Keep digging.
I’ve gone searching for one ofmy father’s sisters in a graveyard in
Portland, Maine. I had found the other two sisters.
I had been there once, but I couldn’t find it when I went
looking for it about 4 years ago.
Keep digging.
BURIED WITHIN
US
I like another idea about burials better: the ones inside
us.
Those we love are buried within us - in various ways.
Keep digging.
My sister Mary loves the book, It Didn’t Start with You.
Why we walk and talk the way wewalk andtalk - keep digging.
Our grandparent’s values and faith - are buried within
us.
This should make us hesitant - so keep digging and
talking to each other about what our moms and dads were like - and grandparents
as well.
I am trying and working on this with my sister the last
few years.We’re trying to resurrect why
we are the way we are - not just getting our DNA - but hopefully we have small
museums of old letters from way back, etc. etc. etc.
In the meanwhile, save your letters and write your
memoirs.
CONCLUSION
Christ has died. Christ has risen - Christ will come
again.
David has died - please God he’s risen with God.
Praise God and please God, we’ll find David in the
scriptures and glimpses about what he was like.
Praise Godand
please God, we’ll keep finding Christ buried within us and not just in the scriptures.
And hopefully when we visit the sick, turn the other
cheek, forgive 70 times 7 times and do another thousand things, we’ll dig and
realize we are discovering how Christ is buried and where he is buried and has
risen in us. Amen.
