Solemnity of the Ascension

May 28th, 2006

Church of the Little Flower, Bethesda, MD

First Mass of Father Harold S. Reeves

Homily of Father Reeves

It has now been seven weeks since we celebrated our Lord’s entry into Jerusalem; seven weeks since we began to make our way from sorrow into joy, began our journey from Palm Sunday to Pentecost. In the course of these few short weeks we have now shared anew in our Lord’s agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. We have stood once more with our blessed mother at the foot of the cross, and we have witnessed again the sacrifice that redeemed us from sin, and put paid to the debt that our first parents incurred in the Garden of Eden. And we have seen our Lord, alive and risen on Easter Morning; we have seen him emerge from the tomb and watched him walk again among us, triumphant over the devil and victorious over death.

And now, today, at last, standing united with those men from Galilee, we turn our own eyes to the sky and we watch as our Lord -- the mediator between God and man, the judge of the world, and the Lord of all creation -- we watch again in wonder as he passes beyond our sight and mounts his heavenly throne. Today we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus Christ. Today we remember all that he has done for us and for our frail humanity; and today we celebrate our new calling, our calling to eternal life, our calling to the joy of the beatific vision of God.

For make no mistake about it, when on this day the Apostles saw our Lord rise into the sky, they beheld not only the dawning of a new era in human history, but the renewal -- indeed, the re-creation -- of human nature itself. As Jesus disappeared into the clouds, the clouds of doubt and of ignorance fell from the eyes of the whole human race, and we learned that our Lord had restored far more to us by his sacrifice on the cross than Adam and Eve had lost for us by their sin in the Garden.

At that moment when the Apostles saw our Lord taking his rightful place in heaven, they knew that in the ascension of his sacred humanity, humanity itself had been elevated, raised to the very level of the divinity and enthroned at the right hand of God the Father. They knew that from that moment forward our ultimate destiny, the destiny of every man and of every woman, now lies not in this world, but in the kingdom of heaven, in the life of glory that is to come. When Jesus passed beyond our sight, he became our hope; where He has gone, we his Church now long to follow. He has not abandoned us, but has gone before us, to lead us back to the Father and show us the way to heaven.

Today is therefore an especially fitting day for our Church here in Washington to celebrate the ordination of twelve men to the priesthood. For the mission of the priest -- indeed the mission and purpose of the priesthood itself -- is intimately tied to the task that Jesus performed on this day some two thousand years ago: the task of showing us all the way to heaven.

It is told that Saint John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests, as he drew near to his first and only assignment in the small village of Ars, encountered a child, who asked him if he wanted to be shown the way to town. “Show me the way to Ars,” replied Vianney, and “I will show you the way to heaven.”  There is perhaps no better description, no better summary, of the priesthood: Jesus calls men to be priests so that they might show the people of God the way to heaven. That is the work about which the apostles set themselves from the very moment of our Lord’s Ascension. That is the endeavor on which all priests have now labored for nearly 2000 years. And that is the mission that the twelve of us who were ordained yesterday have now taken up. 

On this the day of his Ascension, Christ showed to us all the path that we are to follow; the path to heaven. It now falls to the priest to see to it that none lose sight of that path; it falls to the priest to ensure, even at the cost of his own life, that none of his people stumble or fall on the journey. It is for the priest to guide his people through the trials and tribulations of Good Friday, to lead them through to the Resurrection of Easter morning, and to bring them at last to their share in the new life of heaven, to their share in the Ascension. We are called and sent by Christ to struggle with you here on earth, so that one day we may rest with you in his presence in heaven.

There is an old tradition in France that the lay faithful are laid to rest in the parish cemetery facing east, so that when they rise again at the end of time they will stand ready to welcome their Lord and Savior when he comes again in glory, rising in the East like the dawning sun. The parish priest, however, is buried facing west, so that when he rises again the first thing that he will see will be his flock rising to the new life; it is assumed that however strong his desire to look upon the loving face of his Lord might be, the priest will first want to look one last time upon his people to know that they have won through safely to salvation, to know that his efforts in this life have born fruit in the next.

As we celebrate this great feast of the Ascension, therefore, let us give thanks to God in a special way for the great gift of the priesthood; let us give thanks to the Father for calling men to follow in the footsteps of his Son; and give thanks to God for these guides who give their lives to show us the way to heaven, to show us all the way to our share in the Ascension of Jesus Christ.

May almighty God bless you and keep you.