Homily for Tuesday, Easter Week

Mary Magdalene is "the Apostle to the Apostles."  It was she whom Jesus sent to the rest of the disciples to announce the greatest news of all time: Jesus is raised!  Except that Jesus doesn't tell her to announce his resurrection, but his ascension: "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God" (John 20:17).  Should we be saying on Easter Sunday, "Alleluia, Christ has ascended!  The Lord has ascended indeed. Alleluia!?"

For John, Jesus's Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension seem to merge.  "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself," Jesus said earlier (Jn 12:32).  In the immediate context, Jesus is certainly speaking of his crucifixion, only days away.  So that his being "lifted up" is to be lifted up on the cross.  But to be lifted up would also be to rise from the dead.  And to ascend would be the greatest lifting up.

All three are evidence of God's power and love.  We often separate those two.  But they are not separate in the God who created us, the God who died, rose and ascended for us, and the God who remains as close to us as our breath.  Lifted up on the Cross, Jesus Christ reveals how far God will go to drag us out of whatever hole we've dug ourselves into.  Raised from the dead, Jesus assures us that Death does not have the final word in our lives.  And ascended to his God and our God, Jesus makes that God known to us as His Father, and our Father.  For as the bodily Resurrected Jesus is with the father, so shall we all be on the last day of Resurrection for all of us.

In the meantime, the Spirit who comes from the Father and the Son is as close to us as our breath.  When Jesus spoke in Greek of the Spirit, he used a word that is the same as "wind."  Breathe in that Holy Wind.  And you will know the peace that comes from being reconciled with God the Father through God the Son.  Jesus has ascended to His Father and our Father, to His God and our God.  And he has taken us with him.  Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!