Homily 1
“And I, when I am lifted up from
the earth, will draw all men to myself” (Jn 12: 32)
My dear
brothers and sisters in Our Lord Jesus Christ; the Catechism of the Catholic Church § 662 teaches us that:
The lifting up of Jesus on the
cross signifies and announces his lifting up by his Ascension into heaven and
indeed begins it.
If there is one lesson that I would like to communicate to
you today on this, our first day of the triduum in preparation for the great
feast of the Ascension of Our Lord into heaven, it is this, that the route to
heaven, as much for us, as for Our Lord, passes through the Cross. The Cross is
the path to entering bodily into heaven.
Our Lord chose to take up the Cross. He was not
forced, either by His Father in heaven, nor by circumstances on earth. He went
to the Cross entirely of His own will. Which is why the exercise of our human will
is necessary if we too are to enter bodily into heaven at the end of time. In
other words, we too need to take up our cross, if we are to obtain the promises
of Christ that we will live with Him forever in paradise.
The sentence in the Gospel of John just prior to that with
which I opened this homily with will aid us in contemplating how to take up our
Cross.
Now is the judgment of this world;
now the ruler of this world will be driven out. (Jn 12: 31)
My dear brothers and sisters, amidst all the legitimate
concern that we are abusing the earth and the natural environment, i.e. the world,
we have also fallen prey to treat the earth, this world, as a god. We need to
be careful not to fall into this idolatry which is widespread.
The world has to be judged, and by this we mean the natural
world, which was corrupted because of Adam’s disobedience and which was hence
in servitude to the Devil. Our Lord – through His Death and Resurrection – has
liberated us, and shown us the way through which we can be liberated, and He
invites us to be a partner in this project of liberation of the world. We need,
however, to be careful not to see the world as a perfect good, or even as the
object of our veneration. If we so do, then we will not be able to be drawn to
Him, and rise with Him.
One way in which many see the world as a perfect good is to
see human beings – as a species – as having ruined the world, and deserving
nothing better than extinction. This, my dear brothers and sisters, is not
a Catholic perspective. There are human beings that are abusing the earth and
natural resources, this is true. It is also true that they/we have spawned a
culture of blind consumption that most of us indulge in. But this cannot be
used to launch a blanket condemnation of humankind. Man has a role to play in
caring for, and guiding nature, and we must return to this role. Indeed, it is
through man, that the earth will be lifted up to glory.
We can do so, by embracing the Cross. This embrace requires
that we adopt a culture of asceticism and self-denial. One great way to do so,
within the framework of caring for the earth, is start is to avoid single use
plastics, make the effort to carry water with us, avoid sweets and other snacks
that come in single use plastics, be abstemious in our use of, and indeed
demand for, electricity (in other words, think of using ACs less and fans more).
Abstinence is part of the way of the Cross, and it is a practice that must be
engaged in throughout the year, not only at Lent. Lent, and Advent, are when we
intensify our practices of abstinence.
My dear brothers and sisters, Christians must always preach
Christ and His Cross, through their daily lives, because it is through the
Cross that the world is purified and all men may be drawn to Him, so that they
may eventually follow Him who ascended into heaven.
Homily 2
Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on
to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and
say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your
God.’”
My dear brothers and sisters, this morning, the second day of
the triduum in preparation of the feast of the Ascension I present for your
consideration these famous words of Our Lord to his great disciple Mary
Magdalene from the Gospel of St. John (20: 17).
Before reflecting on these words a few words of clarification
are in order. We need to distinguish between ascension, and assumption. Our
Lord ascended into heaven, he was not assumed into heaven. This is to say that
He entered heaven of His own power. He was able to do so because as He revealed
to Nicodemus (Jn 3: 13):
No one has ever gone into heaven
except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.
Our Lord was able to ascend into heaven because He came from
heaven and returned there. Only he who descends voluntarily, may ascend
voluntarily.
However, this is not the whole story. He descent to the
earth, to take up human form, was an act of humility. A humility which he
deepened by taking up the Cross and then accompanying the human condition
through suffering and eventually death. His Resurrection was by the power of
God the Father, but his Ascension, He accomplished by His own powers.
This Ascension is to be distinguished from the Assumption.
Our Lady, whose feast of the Assumption we celebrate, did not enter heaven
bodily through Her own power, She was assumed into heaven through the power of
Her Son.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church § 974 teaches us:
The Most Blessed Virgin Mary, when the course of her earthly life was
completed, was taken up body and soul into the glory of heaven, where she
already shares in the glory of her Son's Resurrection, anticipating the
resurrection of all members of his Body.
In other words, Our Lady went
before us to heaven, as a promise of things to come. Our Lady follows Her Son,
who, as we heard from the Gospel of St John at the start of this homily tells
Mary Magdalene:
‘I am ascending to my Father and
your Father, to my God and your God.’
But Our Lord did not ascend to
heaven unchanged from His experience on earth. He passed through death and
entered heaven with a glorified body, but this body, and the nature that
accompanied was our human body and nature. Human
body and nature purified, no doubt, but nevertheless, a human body purged of
the ills of this world.
In his first letter St. John has
words of wisdom to guide us in our love for the Father:
Do not love the world or the things
in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for
all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the
pride in riches—comes not from the Father but from the world. And
the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God
live forever. (1 Jn 2: 15-17)
In other words, dear brothers and sisters, we are back where
we were yesterday. The Ascension of the Lord, a prelude to our own resurrection
and life in heaven, passes not just through the Cross, but with a disdain for
the things for the world which it represents.
May Our Lord, and Our Lady give us the graces to disdain the
things of this world.
Homily 3
I came from the Father and have
come into the world;
now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today, on this last
day of our triduum in preparation for the Solemnity of the Ascension of Our
Lord the words above from the Gospel acclamation which tells us the essentials
that we need to know about this feast.
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages
Was always with the Father, and in obedience to the will of
the Father, who loved the world so much, came down to Earth and took on human
form and shared in our nature.
Sharing in our nature, and having shown us that temptation
can be challenged, and sin is not a necessity but an unfortunate option, He
returned to the Father, carrying with Him our perfected nature and body into
heaven.
The same
body that had been expelled from paradise, having now resisted temptation, and
conquered sin, was now back in the embrace of the Father.
And what
does He do up there in heaven? To answer this question, we can turn to the
immortal words of St. Paul in his letter to the Hebrews (9: 25-26):
For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands,
which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself,
now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly,
as the high priest enters the holy places every year with
blood not his own,
for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the
foundation of the world.
But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the
ages
to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself.
He enters heaven on our behalf, to intercede for us
before the Father. And so that we may present the Father sacrifice of
thanksgiving for the good we have received, and reparation for the sins we
commit, He has left behind for us the memorial of His sacrifice, so that it can
be presented again, and again, and again. This is to say, the Mass is the
re-presentation of the sacrifice of Calvary. Every Mass has the same value, the
same merit as if it were the first time Our Lord died on the Cross; except,
that Our Lord does not have to die and suffer repeatedly. Having conquered
death, He is now master of space and time, and it is possible for Him to permit
that His words “This is my body, this is my blood” take effect, so that they
may be offered as a perfect sacrifice.
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through
the heavens,
Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our
weaknesses,
but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet
without sin.
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace,
that we may receive mercy and find
grace to help in time of need.
(A version of these
homilies were first preached to the faithful at the parish Church of N.Srª da
Immaculada Conceição, Pangim on the 14th, 15th, and 16th
of May 2026.)
