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Living
Multiple Ascensions
Fr.
George Smiga
June 1, 2003
Mark
16:15-20
There
is more than one ascension. If we examine the history of our
faith and our own experience, we can identify multiple ascensions.
Thus it is appropriate on this Feast of the Ascension to ask
ourselves what these numerous ascensions might mean. The ascension
which marks today's feast is the great ascension, the one
that is described in the Scriptures. There after his death
Jesus is taken up into heaven and sits at God's right hand.
This great ascension is Jesus' final victory, when he leaves
behind all of the pain and imperfections of this life and
enters into glory.
The good
news for you and me is that just as Jesus had a great ascension,
one is promised to us. For we believe that we who are faithful
to Christ after our death will ascend into the embrace of
a loving God to be with Christ forever. So the good news of
the great ascension is that our life is moving upward, that
despite all the pains and troubles of life, we are not ultimately
descending, but ascending, that you and I are bound for glory.
That is
the good news of the great ascension. But there is more than
one ascension. If we reflect for a moment we should be able
to identify multiple, smaller ascensions in our lives. These
are movements away from limitation and pain, small steps which
we take towards glory. These small ascensions occur every
time that you and I rise above a want or an expectation. We
want a lot of things. A good deal of our energy and frustration
in life is involved in trying to gain what we want. We want
comfort and financial security. We want people to like us.
We want good health. It is fine to want these things, but
at times our desire for them is so strong, that we begin to
confuse the things that we want with the things that we need.
Then when any of these wants are endangered, we panic, because
we cannot imagine surviving without them. But we can in fact
survive without them. When we realize that we can, it is a
small ascension.
When we
realize that we can live with less, that we can live even
though we do not have complete financial security, even though
we do not have the same car or house that other people have,
then we are not taking a step backwards; we are taking a step
forwards, forwards toward joy. When we realize that not all
people will like us and yet know that we still have reason
to live and rejoice, that is not moving downwards; that is
moving upwards, upwards to realistic living. When we realize
that even though we are sick and we have to deal with pain
and medical procedures, there are still people who love us
and there are still more than enough reasons to live, that
is not delusion; that is a small ascension, a step towards
glory.
All of
us have expectations, expectations that can at times enslave
us. We expect that everybody in our family is going to understand
us. We expect that people will deal fairly with us. We expect
that the people we love will stay with us. But when we realize
that there is nobody in our family that will completely meet
our expectations, but that we still can love them; when we
realize that people will hurt and betray us, but that we can
still forgive them; when we realize that the people we love
do at times leave us, because they need to relocate, or because
of divorce, or because of death, but that leaving does not
mean that our life is over; each time we realize any of these
things we have undergone a small ascension-leaving behind
the expectations that enslave us, taking a step towards the
God who embraces us.
The things
we want and the things we expect can at times limit us and
cause a great deal of misery in our life. But each time we
can ascend above them, we take a step towards happiness, and
a step closer to our final destiny.
Now these
small ascensions in life are not simply a matter of willpower.
We cannot ascend above our wants and expectations simply by
choosing to do so. Like the great ascension that we celebrate
today, ultimately the upward movement is because of God's
power and God's strength, not our own. But we can pray for
such ascensions, and we can open our hearts and minds to them.
For we
believe that our God will not disappoint us. We are people
who know that after our death, we have been promised a great
ascension. We should pray that God will grant us smaller ascensions
today. We should ask our Lord to lift us up above our wants
and expectations, and draw us a step closer to his presence
at the right hand of God.
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