🎧 [Listen to Homily: Audio]
📺 [Watch Mass: YouTube Video]
1. “Why Are
You Standing There Looking at the Sky?”
This Sunday
is the Ascension of the Lord. In the Acts of the Apostles, the disciples stood looking
into the sky, watching Jesus disappear into the clouds. Do you perceive in them
some confusion and sadness? Jesus had risen from the dead, spent time with them
again, spoken words of peace to them—and now He seems to be leaving.
Then the
angels ask them:
“Why are you standing there looking at the
sky?”
In other
words: do not remain frozen. Do not stay trapped in fear or uncertainty. Go
forward.
The
Ascension is not really about Jesus abandoning His disciples. It is about Jesus
preparing them—and us—for a deeper kind of presence. Christ ascends to the
Father, but He does not stop loving, guiding, or strengthening His people.
Through the Holy Spirit, His presence now reaches every time and every place.
The
Ascension is not the end of the story. It is the beginning of the Church’s
mission and the beginning of a new hope.
2. Toy
Story and the Fear of Being Forgotten
There’s a
movie that touches on some of these same fears and hopes. Many of you have
probably seen Toy Story.
The original movie came out in 1995 with Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and the other
toys belonging to a boy named Andy.
At first
glance, it’s simply a funny animated film about toys coming to life. But
underneath the humor, the toys struggle with very human fears.
Their
biggest fear is this:
What if
I’m forgotten?
The toys
worry about being replaced, ignored, or left behind. They wonder whether they
still matter. And honestly, those fears are not only for toys. Human beings
struggle with them too.
Sometimes we
fear:
·
that
we are not important,
·
that
someone else will replace us,
·
that
we are alone,
·
or
that our lives do not have a real purpose.
In today’s
Gospel, the disciples could have felt something similar. Jesus is ascending. He
is no longer physically standing beside them. Perhaps they wonder:
What
happens now? Are we alone?
But the
message of the Ascension is this:
Christ
does not abandon His people.
He ascends
not to leave us behind, but to lead us forward.
3. “To
Infinity and Beyond”
One of the
beautiful themes in Toy
Story is identity. Buzz Lightyear famously says:
“To infinity
and beyond!”
It’s a funny
line, but it also points toward something true about the human heart. We were
made for more than this world alone. We were made for eternity. We were made
for communion with God.
But here’s
the important lesson: Buzz cannot reach “infinity and beyond” by himself.
Neither can we.
We do not
reach eternal life through our own strength alone. We need God’s grace. We need
the help of the Holy Spirit. We need one another. We need the Church.
That is
exactly what the Ascension prepares us for.
Jesus
ascends to the Father, but before He goes, He gives His disciples a mission:
“Go into the
whole world and proclaim the Gospel.”
Notice
something important. The disciples are not told to remain standing there
staring upward. They are sent outward.
The
Christian life is not about escaping the world. It is about living in the world
with hope.
4. God’s
Grace Heals the Past
Part of
Christian hope involves learning how to see our past differently. Many people
either try to erase the past or remain trapped in it. But the spiritual life
asks something different of us. We are called not to erase our past, but to
place it into God’s hands.
Through
prayer, repentance, and reflection, God can heal memories that still hurt us.
He can redeem failures that still burden us. He can even use painful moments to
deepen compassion and wisdom within us.
The apostles
themselves had painful memories. Peter remembered denying Jesus. The others
remembered running away in fear during the Passion. Yet Jesus did not abandon
them because of their weakness. Instead, He entrusted them with His mission.
That is
grace.
Sometimes
people think holiness means never failing. But holiness is really about
allowing God to keep working in us, even after weakness, fear, or
disappointment.
5. We All
Have a Purpose
That is also
one of the lessons in Toy
Story. Woody and Buzz spend much of the movie competing and
fighting with each other. They are jealous, insecure, and frustrated. But
eventually they learn to work together. They begin to recognize that their
purpose is greater than their rivalry.
The
Christian life works the same way. We are not meant to live in constant
comparison with others. We do not need to panic about whether someone else is
smarter, more successful, or more talented. God has given each person a
vocation and a purpose.
You may not
know yet what your future will look like. You may not know your future career,
your future family, or the path your life will take. But you already have a
purpose today:
·
to
love God,
·
to
love your family,
·
to
forgive,
·
to
grow in holiness,
·
and
to become the person God created you to be.
And we do
not live that purpose alone.
The
Ascension reminds us that Christ still reigns. He still guides His Church. He
still intercedes for us. He still pours out the Holy Spirit upon His people.
That means
our future is not empty or meaningless.
Our future
is anchored in Christ.
6. Go
Forward with Hope
The
disciples eventually stopped staring into the sky because they realized
something important: Jesus was still with them, though in a new way. His
presence would continue through the Holy Spirit, through the Eucharist, through
the Church, and through the mission He entrusted to them.
And so the
Ascension calls us to move forward with hope.
Not hope
based on wishful thinking.
Not hope
based on pretending life is easy.
But hope
rooted in the victory of Jesus Christ.
Because
Christ has ascended into Heaven, we know that suffering and death do not have
the final word. Jesus has gone before us to prepare a place for us. He opens
the Father’s house to humanity.
So when life
feels uncertain, when we feel forgotten, when we worry about the future, we
remember this:
Christ has
not abandoned us.
He remains with
us and strengthens us.
And His
grace carries us forward—to infinity and beyond.
Come, Holy
Spirit. Amen.
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