Ascension

[Scripture Readings: Acts 1:1-11; Eph 1:17-23; Lk 24:46-53]

A story is told about an executive headhunter who seeks out candidates for high-paying positions in large corporations. This particular headhunter always tried to put recruits at ease. In the world of big business Josh McDowell tells about an executive “headhunter” who recruits corporate executives for large firms. This headhunter once told him that when he interviews an executive, he likes to disarm him. “I offer him a drink,” said the headhunter, “take off my coat, undo my tie, throw up my feet and talk about baseball, football, family, whatever, until he’s all relaxed. Then, when I think I’ve got him relaxed, I lean over, look him square in the eye and say, ‘What’s your purpose in life?’ It’s amazing how top executives fall apart at that question.”

Then he told about interviewing one fellow recently. He had him all disarmed, had his feet up on his desk, talking about football. Then the headhunter leaned over and said, “What’s your purpose in life, Bob?” And the executive said, without blinking an eye, “To go to heaven and take as many people with me as I can.” “For the first time in my career,” said the headhunter, “I was speechless.” No wonder. He had encountered someone who was prepared. He was ready. His knew what he was about: “To go to heaven and take as many people with me as I can” (Dr. Gary Nicolosi, Sermons: “Preparing for the End Time”).

The four gospels do not end with Jesus’ absence, but with his continuing presence, to bring as many people to heaven with him as he can. Matthew does not mention the ascension. His gospel ends with Jesus saying, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Mark writes that Jesus was taken up into heaven, and then he adds, “The disciples went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word with signs.” Luke ends with Jesus ascending into heaven in order to send the promise of the Father upon us, his own Spirit. The last scene in the John’s gospel is of Jesus saying to Peter and to us, “Follow me.” Christ became more present in the world after his ascension than after his birth in Bethlehem. He continued his presence with us in the Eucharist, in the Scriptures and in our hearts. As Gerard Manley Hopkins expressed it, “…Christ plays in ten thousand places, Lovely in eyes, and lovely in limbs …, [Loving] the Father through the features of [our] faces.” Like Hannah, the wonderful Jewish mother who chose to die in Auschwitz with her son, David, so he would not be alone, Jesus lives and dies with us so that we will never be alone. “I am with you always,” he said, “to the end of the age,” to the day and hour of a new beginning when we will ascend to the Father and be intimately present with Jesus, with his Father and with his Spirit and with each other forever.