OMELIE / Omelie EN

29 mag 2022

29/05/2022 – The Ascension of the Lord - year C

29/05/2022 – The Ascension of the Lord - year C

Reading 1 ACTS 1,1-11 Psalm 46 Reading 2 HEB 9,24-28; 10,19-23 Gospel LK 24,46-53

Saint Luke ends his gospel and begins writing the Acts of the Apostles by telling about Jesus’ Ascension into heaven. This mystery happens forty days after the Resurrection and nine days before Pentecost, between the victory of the Lord over death and the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is a mystery which is showing us Jesus' glory when welcomed by the Father at His right hand, and therefore able to send us the Spirit as promised. He will accomplish then making us holy or divine, we who are sinners.

The Ascension into heaven is a mystery of passage, the mystery which is there to give the answer the disciples then, and today all Christians, have been asking and are asking for: «Where is our Master now, our Lord? If He is not among the dead anymore, if He has risen, but we cannot see Him at all, where is He?». Behold, the answer: He is there where God is. He has joined the Father in the glory in which He was since before “the foundation of the world”, because He is one with the Father, a single God with Him. This certainty is for us a source of joy and security. Having believed and believing in Jesus is not an illusion, but it continues to make holy and safe our life, steadfast the truth of the gospel, steady our path, even if it always shadowed by the cross. Even better, the same cross is showing now not anymore like something dark, but like a lighthouse which illuminates, directs and enriches every day of ours.

Jesus pairs His ascending into heaven with the blessing to the apostles. By blessing them gives them the job, or better, gives them the order to go out in the whole world. They do not need anymore to stay all together huddled around Him in a single place on this earth, but they will have to go tell everyone that He is there, with God. And therefore they will tell everyone about God’s love which has been made clear in Jesus, and so they will start in the world, in this scary world full of hatred and selfishness, a new age, the age of love, an age in which the cross has become a symbol. When men know that God loves, they will learn that their life gains value only by loving, they will understand that the meaning of life is hidden in love, and they will begin living by offering themselves.

Jesus' Ascension marks the beginning of the Church’s mission, the beginning of changing the world. How the world has changed where Jesus' word has arrived and where He has been adored in His divinity! How many sufferings have been lifted where the disciples obedient to the Lord have arrived! How many enterprises of love and peace have been developed where Jesus, hidden in the skies, has been announced, blessed and loved!

Jesus at the Father’s right hand side continues to “see” His own people who love Him, and go, leaving themselves and their world behind to give out the new and eternal life which comes from the faith in Him. The Church gives the unsettled and suffering world, if not even in anguish, evil and in a position to enjoy others' sufferings, light, life and the capacity to see the eternal meaning of every frail step. The mission of the Church does not damage the peoples, on the contrary she saves them from ruin, from being a prison for her members, and makes them places of communion, joy, growth and peace.

We enjoy today’s mystery and the task which not only the Church in her entirety, but also everyone who love Jesus receive from Him: make Him known so others can live, and peace may spread in the world!