The Feast of the Ascension (2007C)/
60^th Birthday Party of Father Tony Noble, SSC All Saints’ Church,
San Diego Father R. Stephen Powers, SSC

Text: And while they were gazing into heaven as [Jesus] went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

The story is told of an expatriated Australian priest who had taken a position in San Diego. Now, this priest was absolutely mad about Australian Rules Football, paid outrageous sums to be able to watch it live at 3AM from his new Rectory in the States, and got back to Australia as often as he could. Of course, his favourite team was Port Adelaide Power (I like that name!), and their arch rivals were the Adelaide Cows … or is it the Crows?

In America, the biggest game of the year is, of course, the Super Bowl. However, in Australia, it is the Grand Final, which Port Adelaide won in 2004.

Well, our Australian priest had tickets for the Grand Final, first row, right in the center. Unfortunately, even with his Million Miler status, United Airlines had a delay, and he arrived to find that the Match had already started.

What startled him, however, was to be seated next to a man with an empty seat beside him. These were the best and most sought after seats in the whole country that day, and it was obvious that this seat was vacant and would remain so. So, our priest asked the gentle man if anyone is sitting in the seat next to him.

"No", he said, "The seat is empty".

"This is incredible", said our priest. "Who in their right mind would have a seat like this for the Grand Final, the biggest sport event in

the world, and not use it?"

Somberly, the man says, "Well... the seat actually belongs to me. I was supposed to come here with my wife, but she passed away. This is the first Grand Final we have not been together since we got married in 1967."

"Oh I'm sorry to hear that. That's terrible” says our priest who is

concerned but also curious. So he continues, “but couldn't you find

someone else -a friend or relative or even a neighbor to take the

seat?"

The man sadly shook his head, "No. They're all at her funeral."

Well, I don’t know much about Australian Rules Football, but I do know that your Rector has his priorities in order better than this fellow. For, as much as he loves Australian Rules Football, he loves Jesus and the Catholic Faith even more.

We will roast Fr Tony in appropriate fashion later, perhaps starting with the Reception after Mass [or, perhaps we’ve started already!]. But, for now, we need to talk about the Ascension of our Lord. And I know that my friend, who is world renown for his modesty and humility, would want this focus as well. Like all good priests, when you look at him, you will find him pointing to Jesus.

Tonight we celebrate that momentous time when our Lord, after 40 days of physical presence with the Disciples, took his leave of them, and returned to his Father. For the next ten days, we wait, as it were, with the Disciples, for the promised gift of the Holy Spirit and for the Disciples (or followers) to be transformed into Apostles (meaning sent ones).

Do you ever utilize your spiritual imagination and attempt to place yourself in some of the Biblical scenes? Think of it: What must it have been like to have been on the hillside that Ascension Day morning, and see our blessed Lord return to his father in heaven? As Professor

Eamond Duffy tells it, there are at least two perspectives: that of the Disciples, which we get from our reading in Acts, and that of Christ himself, which is more akin to our Gospel reading.

Cardinal Newman, being the Romantic, imagines the Disciples lonely and sort of empty without Christ’s presence. He pictures himself with the Disciples on the hill. He writes:

Yet, though forty days was a long season for Him to stay, it was but a short while for the apostles to have Him among them. What feelings must have been theirs, when He parted from them? So late found, so early lost again. Hardly recognized, and then snatched away.¹

And certainly there is some truth to Cardinal Newman’s picture.

But there is another, earlier, vision of the Ascension: that of Pope Leo the Great. Based on the many scriptural references to Christ’s Ascension, he pictures the homecoming awaiting Christ as he returns in triumph to his heavenly father. Pope Leo says:

It was a great and indescribable cause for joy when, in the presence of the holy multitudes the nature of our human kind ascended above the dignity of all the heavenly creatures, rising above the sublimity of the archangels, with no limit amid the glory of heaven to the height of its ascent until, received into the company of the eternal Father, it was made sharer of the throne of his glory to whose nature it was united in the son.

Therefore, since the Ascension of Christ is our uplifting, rejoice and be glad. For on this day not only are we made certain heirs of paradise, but in Christ we have already reached the heights of heaven and obtained more abundant gifts through the favour of Christ than ever we lost by the malice of the devil.²

The Ascension of Christ is so important because it is our destiny as well. Where he has gone, we too shall also ascend, if we abide in Him and his Word.

The English poet Saunders Lewis catches something of both of these two senses, of Acts and Cardinal Newman and also of S. Luke’s Gospel and Pope Leo, in his poem Ascension Thursday.

Ascension Thursday

Saunders Lewis, d. 1985.

What is happening this May morning on the hillside?

See there, the gold of the broom and the laburnum

And the bright surplice of the thorn’s shoulder

And the intent emerald of the grass and the still calves;

See the candelabra of the chestnut tree alight

The bushes kneel and the mute beech, like a nun,

The cuckoo’s two notes above the bright hush of the stream

And the form of the mist that curls from the censer of the

meadows.

Come out, you men, from the council houses

Before the rabbits run, come with the weasel to see

The elevation of the unblemished host from the earth,

The Father kiss the Son in the white dew.

This night, we commemorate not merely the end of the 40 days, but the final chapter on Christmas and the Incarnation. For it is the Incarnation and the Ascension which comprise the bookends of God’s plan of salvation for us.

And, I dare say, this is one victory that a certain Australian priest friend would also say is an even greater victory than a Grand Final win for Port Adelaide. This is an eternal victory for all in Christ’s holy Church, and to all shall become part.

To God be the glory, for ever and ever, who hath taken unto himself his Son and, with the Son, the holy Church for which he died.

Amen.

¹ Eamon Duffy, Walking to Emmaus, p. 89.

² Eamon Duffy, Walking to Emmaus, p. 90.