Today is the Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ into heaven.  He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father, as we know from the Nicene Creed.  This Solemnity, this day, we don’t celebrate it in order to just gaze up into heaven and think about that time 2000 years ago when Jesus ascended.  This day is also about us.  We celebrate this day because we want to go where He went.

It says in the opening prayer, “May we follow him into new creation, for His ascension is our glory and our hope.”  We hear also, in the preface of this mass, in the Eucharistic prayer, that where He went, we hope to follow. That’s what the ascension is all about.  We hope to follow Jesus into heaven. I think we’ll agree that the greatest good, the ultimate goal in our life, must be to get to heaven. (Amen)  If we don’t, we get an F in life. It doesn’t matter how many degrees we have, how much money we’ve accumulated or how many houses we own.  It doesn’t matter how many good things we've done. If we don’t get to heaven, we blew it. That’s why our relationship with Christ must be the center of our lives.  Not a hobby, not a part of our culture, not something we do for a couple of hours a week.  It has to be our raison d’etre.  Our reason for being must be centered around the person of Jesus Christ.

Sometimes, we’re like the passengers on the Titanic--as the end is approaching, they are rearranging the deck furniture. I like that.  It makes me smile.  We are like that too.  We get so wrapped up in so much nonsense. We spend so much of our time, our passion, our energy, on things that don’t amount to a hill of beans. Don’t we? We even fight about those things, don’t we?  I don’t, because I live by myself.  I am a very happy man.  Today, we are reminded of our reason for being. We are reminded why we came into this world. We are reminded that we are here to travel through on this pilgrim journey to be with God and those we love, forever. 

Paul tells us to lift our eyes from the cares and anxieties of life, to see Jesus seated at the right hand of the Father.  You know what that means, that right hand?  It’s the position of authority.  Jesus is the Father’s right hand man.  That’s where the term comes from I’m sure.  We have a choice.  We have a choice to accept Jesus’ rules or reject it.  We won’t be saved by being nice or kind.  We will be saved if we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. 

How many of you have had a friend, a Methodist or Protestant friend, ask you if you’ve accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior.  They are always surprised when we Catholic’s say, “Of course we have.”  They come to my door and I say, “Yes, now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”  What does that mean though?  Is Jesus your Lord?  Yes.

Let me tell you what that means now.  Let’s see what you signed on for.  Look up Lord in the dictionary and it says, “One having power and authority over others.  A ruler by hereditary right or preeminence to whom service and obedience are due.” Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  That’s what it means to call Jesus Lord.  It means to submit to him, to let him plant his flag on or in your heart.  That’s what it means to call him Lord.  Muslim’s seem to know that.  I mention occasionally the word Muslim means. “One who submits.”  Islam means, “To submit” to Allah, to God.  It’s the same God although we argue about it. 

We submit to God as Christians.  That’s why there is a term today that we are, that many of us are, “Cafeteria Catholics”.  Have you heard that term?  It says that you go down the buffet line of Christ’s teachings and you pick and choose what you like and the rest you leave there.  It is Cafeteria Christians, really.  It’s not just Catholics that do that.  It’s all Christians. 

Our faith, again, must be the center of our life and we must obey Christ. What does that mean to obey Christ?  Obey what?  Jesus is still with his church.  We heard that in the first readings.  Go home and read Ephesians 1. You heard in the Gospel that Jesus commissioned the Apostles, the first bishops, to baptize and to teach everything I have commanded you.  You know that teaching unfolds.  There are teachings now that would not have applied 2000 years ago as culture and science changed, we have to look at things and investigate them.  We believe, we Catholics believe, we know, it is a pillar of our faith that Jesus Christ speaks through the church.  Again it says that in Ephesians 1, it says it in 4, I’ll read this to you in a second.  It says it in the Acts of the Apostles.  It says it in the Gospels. It is Scriptural.  Jesus teaches us.  Let me read to you from Ephesians. This is in The Liturgy of the Hours.

It is Christ who gave Apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastors and teachers in roles of service for the faithful to build up the body of Christ, to become one in faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son and form that perfect man who is Christ in full stature.  Let us be children no longer, tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine that originates in human trickery and skill in proposing error.  Rather, let us profess the truth and love and grow to the full maturity of Christ.  I declare and solemnly attest to the Lord that you must no longer live as the pagans do, their minds empty, their understanding darkened.  They are estranged from a life in God because of their ignorance and their resistance.  Without remorse they have abandoned themselves to lust and the indulgence of every sort of lewd conduct.  That is not what you learn when you learn Christ.  I am supposing of course, that He had been preached and taught to you in accordance with the truth.   

Jesus’ teaching is not easy.  In fact, if you study scriptures, he didn’t lower the bar, he raised it.  “You have heard it said, you are not to commit adultery.  I tell you, if you lust after a woman in your heart, you have committed adultery with her.”  Uh-oh.  Boys, we’re in trouble, and the women, they are catching up.  “You have heard it said that you should not kill.  I say to you that if you are angry with your brother, you have committed murder in your heart.”  He raised the bar. 

Jesus gives us the ideal in life, and the church teaches the ideal.  Do we live the ideal?  No.  Should we?  Yes.  Of course.  But we fall short.  Does that mean we that we need to change the ideal?  Many churches we know do.  They teach the lowest common denominator.  Let’s make up teachings here that everyone agrees on.  Can you imagine what that would be?  That’s why they all preach pro-life, because 10% of this congregation today is pro-choice.  Every time I talk about this you get mad at me.  So, let’s teach the lowest common denominator.  Can’t we all be nice?  That’s our religion?  That’s Jesus Christ? He would not have ended up on that cross if he had taught like that.  So, we teach the ideal. The church teaches the ideal correctly and rightly, but we don’t live it.  But we should try to. 

I love the story of the publican and the Pharisee. The Pharisee is sitting in the front pew all dressed in his finest.  He basically said. "I pay my tithe.  I fast twice a week.  I deserve to be here." The publican is in the back and slips in the church and says “Lord have mercy on me, I am a sinful man.”  We are the publican, not the Pharisee.  But we still must listen and understand that the church teaches the ideal way of life according to Jesus Christ. Discipleship is not easy, but Jesus accepts the smallest acts of surrender. 

We Catholics traditionally see the conversion as a gradual process, not as a one-time affair. Little by little, we get closer to God over the course of our lives. The Spanish say, “Poco a poco se vas lejos”.  Little by little, we go far.  Jesus is there to give us strength, to encourage us with his words, to teach us.  He teaches us with his body and blood.  His holy spirit is here with us, with you, and it always will be here with you.  So, we are not alone, we are not perfect, but we are called to live a holy life according to God’s way, not man’s way.

Let me conclude by reading this prayer by Charles de Foucault, a French priest who is about to be beatified, or has been beatified.  So if you would bow your heads as we pray.

Father, I abandon myself into your hands.
Do with me whatever you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you.
I am ready for all, I accept all.