The Ascension of the Lord

The Ascension of the Lord

Fr. Ben Riley

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that many people have started expressing interest in joining the Catholic Church. And since then, it honestly seems like every single day someone tells me a story about a friend of a friend, a family member, or a coworker who has started to discover the goodness, truth, and beauty of the Catholic Church.

And I am having more and more people from all walks of life and religious backgrounds request meetings with me to discuss the Catholic faith. Clearly, something very interesting is happening, and the Holy Spirit is moving through the consciences of people and inspiring this mass conversion and curiosity about the faith.

And today, as we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord, I would like to share with you an analogy I often use to explain to people who are curious about the Catholic Church why I love the Church so much and why I believe with all my heart that it truly is the Church Jesus Christ founded.

I usually begin by describing the kind of God I believe in. A God who is all good, all loving, eternal, omnipotent meaning all powerful, omnipresent meaning everywhere, and omniscient meaning all knowing. These are just a few of the traditional attributes of God.

I also believe that the Bible is truly the Word of God and that it tells the story of salvation: how God sent His only Son Jesus Christ to die and rise from the dead for the salvation of the world, freeing us from sin and death.

And up until this point, the person sitting in my office is usually nodding along agreeing with these basic teachings about God.

Then I say this:

I, Father Ben, have a very hard time believing that at the Ascension Jesus Christ, an all good, all loving, and all powerful God, would go up into heaven and essentially say to His disciples:
“Good luck. I hope you properly interpret everything I said and everything I did. I hope Christianity does not become endlessly divided and confused into hundreds of different denominations. Anyway, good luck with all of that.”

I personally have a very hard time believing in an all good, all loving, and all powerful God who would do that to His Children. Leave us selfish, prideful, arrogant human beings to interpret Sacred Scripture, faith, morality, and worship entirely on our own according to our own preferences.

I just do not think a loving God would do that to His people.

And that is precisely why the Ascension is such an important feast. Because the Ascension is not Jesus abandoning His people. It is Jesus establishing how He will continue to guide His people until the end of time.

Jesus does not ascend into heaven and leave us to our own devices. Instead, He gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit to lead us to all truth through the authority of the Catholic Church. So, while the ministers of the Church often get things wrong, Christ established a Church that can perfectly preserve and proclaim the truths of faith and morality throughout history.

And please understand, I am not saying other Christian denominations are bad or morally wrong. Not at all. What they possess is often deeply beautiful and true. Many have a profound love of Scripture, a deep prayer life, and often evangelize and spread the Gospel far better than we Catholics do.

But God has given us an incredible and immense tapestry of spirituality, sacramentality, prayer, worship, theology, and devotion within the Catholic Church. And many of our Protestant brothers and sisters are standing just inches away from it. What they see is already beautiful, but if they stepped back just a little further, they could begin to see the fullness of what God has given His people through the Catholic faith.

And to be fair, this is also a challenge for us as Catholics. Because when you are surrounded by something beautiful your entire life, it becomes very easy to stop noticing it. We can begin to take for granted the immense gift we have been given.

Just the other day, I was speaking with someone who has only been Catholic for a couple of years, and they were honestly a little scandalized by how casually some Catholics receive Holy Communion and how some do not genuflect or bow toward the tabernacle before stepping into the pew.

And for many of us, myself included, who have been Catholic our whole lives, we can become so accustomed to the goodness, beauty, and truth of the Catholic faith that we begin to take it for granted.

My brothers and sisters, we as Catholics have been given an unspeakably beautiful gift. We do not have to figure all of this out on our own.

Because I do not know about you, but if I personally had to interpret Scripture, faith, morality, and worship completely on my own, I know I would mess things up quite a bit. There is actually tremendous peace and freedom in knowing that Christ did not leave us alone. The Holy Spirit has guided the Church throughout history and continues to lead the Church to all truth.

And so our task is not to reinvent Christianity according to our own preferences, but to trust in the Holy Spirit and follow where He has led.

But the gift of the Catholic faith is not something we are meant to cling to only for the sake of our own salvation. It is meant to be shared.

After Jesus ascends into heaven, the angels ask the disciples:
“Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?”

And the implication is almost this:
Alright, get to work.
Do not waste your time endlessly speculating about exactly when Christ will return or exactly when everything will be fulfilled. You have work to do now. Build up the Kingdom. Proclaim the Gospel. Make disciples.

And that is exactly what Jesus commands in today’s Gospel:

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

My brothers and sisters, we are called to make disciples of all nations. But far more powerful than simply telling people about the Catholic Church is allowing our trust in Christ and His Church to be reflected in the way we live our lives.

Our kindness.
Our patience.
Our peace.
Our joy.
Our reverence.
Our love.

That is what makes people curious.
That is what causes people to begin asking questions.
That is what makes someone say:
“What is different about these people?”

And then, when they ask where that peace and joy comes from, we can say with confidence:

It is my faith in Jesus Christ and in His one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.