Homily – May 16, 2021
7th
Sunday of Easter / Ascension
[__01__] A few years ago, I read an article about an American-based NASA Astronaut and his
Russian - counterpart a – Russian cosmonaut and they were working together on
the International Space Station (I.S.S.) which is a laboratory / dormitory / home/place of
studying and living for astronauts & scientists that exists as an
installation ___254__ miles above and is in orbit rotating around the earth.
As this “heavenly-place” is the [INT’L] S.S. at any moment time there are Chinese,
Japanese, - Russian, Canadian, Americans who are working & collaborating
together.
This particular pair of the R & A really
enjoyed working together on the science of the S.S. and it represented a kind
if IDEAL environment far above the earth.
That is, while their respective governments might
be fighting it out or disagreeing here on earth on tariffs or taxes or military, or Urkaine, or the
price of oil or any (or many other things) these asstronaouts could work & cooperate
and collaborate and achieve great things for the befferment of everyone - of
all
countries
-- ___254 __ miles above the surface of
the Earth. (A regular airplane flies at
only 7 miles above the earth… so 254 is pretty high up !)
[__02__] 1 of
the reasons the TV show – and movies Star Trek was popular -& ahead of it
time – was that the “Starship (space ship) Enterprise ” had such a diverse cast of characters of all backgrounds
and & races and cultures and also in its way an I.S.S. of collaboration
& peacefulness. But is our mission only in heaven…far above the earth … it
may seem easier to cooperate far from here..somehwere else..
[__03__] In a sermon about The Solemnity and Feast and
Gospel of the Ascension B16 reminds us
that we have missions and work to do, to build the kingdom of God on earth.
Yet,
we also note that our worship and prayer and Sunday Mass speaks frequently of going up or being
lifted up.
[__04__] In a few moments, we’ll pray the Liturgy of
the Eucharistic Prayer in which the priest, invites us …”The Lord be with you….
and with your spirit” and then… “Lift up your heart”…. - "We lift them up to the lord …
B16 wrote that we can come to an understanding
of “A into heaven” but we’ll do so not by a single verse or even a single
moment or book of the New Testament.
Even the Apostles, who had traveled with
Jesus personally and witnessed his resurrection were a bit confused confounded
at the [A] of our Savior into heaven, thus the angels spoke to them – kind of
chastised and challenged them -- in the Acts of the Apostles Chapter 1: “”Men of Galilee, why do you stand here
looking up into the sky “ (Acts 1:11)
What do we do when we are in
difficulty or confusions or distress?
Sometimes, we stand here looking up into the
sky – looking out the window for an answer –
The answer is probably not be in the sky. The
answers to our lives are closer to us than this… but rather in our hearts …
I’d like to make an analogy using the natural
world…
[__05__] I’d
like to give an example of a natural phenomenon and natural disaster that
made an impression.
In 2004, the devastating earthquake and
tsunami (tidal wave) occurred in the Indian Ocean and there was severe flooding
in Thailand, Indonesia, SE Asia, as far away as India.
I read, however, that there were signs in the
sky that some people were able to recognize as signficiant, to recognize as the
tsunami.
News story from January 2005 -- Members of
the ancient Jarawa tribe emerged from their forest habitat Thursday for the
first time since the Dec. 26 tsunami and earthquakes that rocked the isolated
Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and in a rare interaction with outsiders announced
that all 250 of their fellow tribespeople had survived.
"We are all safe after the earthquake.
We are in the forest in Balughat," Ashu, an arrow-wielding Jarawa, said in
broken Hindi through an interpreter in a restricted forest area in the northern
reaches of South Andaman island.
Government officials and anthropologists
believe that ancient knowledge of the movement of wind, sea and birds may have
saved the indigenous tribes from the tsunami.
In other words, they did not simply look into
the sky but applied what they saw in the sky to earth below..
On the other hand, the average tourist –
visiting the same island and having traveled from London or Los Angeles, from
Europe or the Americas, did not fare so well.
They might have looked into the sky but did not recognize what they were
seeing.
[__06__] We
come here to pray to have our faith nourished not simply to look up at the sky or to even to look ahead to
a faraway place in heaven that is so for beyond our understanding.
St. Paul wrote: “Eye has not seen, ear
has not heard what God hath prepared for those who who love him” (1 Corinthians
2:9)
We come here to pray not because our
heavenly home is place with discernible destination
But
a person with a discernible discipline and love for us…
[__07__] We come here because of the person –
Jesus Christ --
In a few minutes, we will pray: ”Through him,
with him and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is
yours, forever and ever.. Amen!”
Yet…there’s just a little bit more.. to say…
[__08__] We come here to church to encounter Jesus
Christ, personal savior to each of us, and to remember not only our individual
connections to him but he has also made possible that the divine and the human
are inseparably one, united.
This unity and achievement of the divine and
human is even greater than Russia and U.S.A. being inseparably one on the
orbiting island the I.S.S. space station while others in Moscow and D.C. fight
it out on earth.
In this sense, our daily prayer, our reason
for waking up the in the morning is to receive God’s Word, and to follow the
Gospel, to pray for enemies, to pray for those who persecute us, return a
blessing when we are insulted or rejected, to seek forgiveness of our sins, to
try and forgive the faults of others.
Thus, united to Jesus and his Cross, we can
not only see the sky more clearly but also what is happening around us more
clearly.
…that’s “going up to heaven each day…”
That’s not just better vision or video or
connectivity.
That’s heaven !
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