His Excellency,
The Most Reverend Edward K. Braxton, Ph.D., S.T.D.
Diocese of Belleville
Sermon:
5:00 p.m.
Saturday May 28, 2022,
St. Teresa Parish, Belleville
(This is the text as originally written. During the actual delivery, some passages were omitted and other comments were added spontaneously. Nota bene: This text has not been thoroughly proofread. Therefore, there may be errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation.)
“Why are you Standing There Looking Up? The Ascension and Our National Crisis of Gun Violence”
By
Bishop Edward K. Braxton
“Why are you Standing There Looking Up?” This is the questions that the two mysterious men ask the Apostles after Jesus ascended into heaven. And as we celebrate this great mystery leading to the day of the Holy Spirit, Pentecost Sunday, the risen Jesus may be asking each of us the same question: Why are we standing there looking up? Why are we not in the city proclaiming the Good News about Jesus?
Did you know that if we only had the gospels of Mathew, Mark and John, we would not have the dramatic conclusion to the story of Jesus Christ, the mystery of the ascension, which is only mentioned briefly by St. Luke? Indeed, Luke mentions it twice. Once at the conclusion of his gospel and again at the beginning of his book, The Acts of the Apostles.
Why do Mathew, Mark, and John leave the Ascension out altogether? No one really knows. They must have known about such a dramatic conclusion to the earthly life of Jesus. Some scripture scholars boldly argue that it is because the Resurrection, the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, and the Ascension of the Lord into Heaven are all different dimension of the mystery of the glorification of Jesus after the Crucifixion and Luke pulls them apart to help us appreciate each aspect of Christ’s transformation. Recall from the Easter readings that the gospel of John says that Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to the apostles on the night of the Resurrection when he breathed on them. Whereas Luke says in the Acts that they received the Spirit 50 days later on Pentecost, the Jewish feast marking 50days after Passover.
In Luke’s in Acts, Jesus says, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and to the ends of the earth.” When He had said this, He was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight. While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.
They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen Him going into Heaven.” Notice Luke says there were two MEN. Artists often paint them as angels, as if they are correcting Luke’s mistake!
In his gospel Luke tells the story this way, Jesus says, “Behold I am sending the promise of My Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” Then He led them out as far as Bethany. As He blessed them, He parted from them and was taken up to Heaven. They did Him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God.” The two men are not mentioned. But significantly a detail is added. The gospel says the Ascension happened near Bethany, where Martha, Mary, and their brother, Lazarus, lived, the one whom Christ raised from the dead.
What then is the meaning of the Ascension accounts found only in Luke? Some Christians assume the text is to be taken literally. The body of the glorified Jesus was lifted up into the air, beyond the clouds and taken to a physical heavenly throne at the right hand of God the Father in a physical place in the universe. But others, knowing the vastness of our solar system, our galaxy, and the universe, suggest that it seems unlikely that the Ascension means Jesus is literally in a physical place in the universe. Still others say the language of ascending up into the clouds of Heaven is a symbolic way for the biblical author who had no knowledge of the vastness of our universe, to say that not only is Jesus no longer physically in our world, but also, He has returned to His Father who sent Him. He is in a realm that is beyond the time and space of the physical world and transcends human comprehension. The Ascension is a work of God that fully ratifies the mystery of the Resurrection.
Many theologians and scripture scholars suggest that we are not only asking an unanswerable question when we ask, “Where did Jesus go?” But also, we are asking the WRONG question. The central point of the Ascension mystery is not a question of science, cosmology, or metaphysics. The central point is what the apostles were being told to do in this experience and what we as members of Christ’s body, the Church are we being told to do by the Holy Spirit whose fiery power and grace keep Christ in our midst.
Jesus tells the apostles “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and to the ends of the earth. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” He raised his hands and blessed them. The two men in white garments say, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking up? They returned to Jerusalem with great joy. The blessing of Jesus gives them courage to return to the city and continue the work of the Lord.
The heart of the Ascension story is that Jesus Christ would no longer be physically with His followers. But He would definitely be with them in another way, leading and guiding them by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Ascension experience told the apostles and today tells all of us: You have work to do! Remain in the city where the action is! Be Christ’s witness to the ends of the earth. Act with confidence because Jesus is still with us!
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Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ:
We celebrate the mystery of the Ascension as our country is deeply troubled as families in Buffalo, New York are weighed down by the unspeakable sorrow by the deaths of ten innocent people slaughtered by an 18 year old in Tops food store and as families in Ivalde, Texas are weighed down by the unspeakable sorrow by the deaths of nineteen innocent children and two teachers slaughtered by an eighteen year old in Robb Elementary School. Once again, the nation is asking: Why does this keep happening only in the United States. Once again, we see faces scared by unspeakable grief. Once again, the polarizing debate on gun safety begins. Once again, elected official offer “thoughts and prayers”. Once again, the survivors of past mass murders, like Sandy Hook School ominously warn us that nothing will change, because of powerful forces that oppose ALL forms of gun safety regulations. And, once again, commentators say it will happen again and again.
When we are told in the Ascension story to remain in the city, when we are asked why are we standing there looking up? We are being urged to take our Christian faith out of the clouds and out of pious paintings of Jesus floating in the air and apply the gospel of love to the difficult messy realities going on in our world, in our country and on our streets.
In August 2019, I published a pastoral letter, A National Crisis: A Pastoral Reflection on the Deadly Epidemic of Gun Violence in the United States, which you can find on the Diocese of Belleville website. I have been told by elected officials that my letter contributed to the urgent conversation Americans are still having with one another. I wrote:
“We are facing a national crisis in the United States. As a Catholic Bishop striving to live by and teach the good news of justice and peace proclaimed by Jesus of Nazareth, I am compelled to name this truth. It is, in some way, a crisis of gun violence I say this knowing well that guns do not kill people. Hunters and those who use guns for recreation do not ordinarily kill people. The reasons for this crisis are many. The crisis is caused, in part, by a small number of gun owners who frequently abuse the firearms that are readily available to them and by the lack of consensus on the part of the American people and their elected representatives concerning how to respond to what has become a daily occurrence. It is a crisis which could explode on any given day with bloodshed and death here in southern Illinois. It is a crisis for which there is no easy solution. But, as Christians, we are obliged to be a part of the conversation and the practical efforts to address this deadly crisis. We must Listen! Learn! Think! Pray! and Act!”
My letter continued: “The long litany of bloodshed, suffering, death and grief caused by gun violence distresses us all. I am sure that all of you have been thinking and praying about these dreadful events. But, beyond praying for the dead, suffering, and grieving, for what should we pray? That God will put an end to the violence? God does not ordinarily intervene in human history and quiet the intense emotions, rage, bias, and hatred that can invade the human heart, or remove the finger of the gunman from the trigger. Nor does God step in and bring representatives of opposing political parties and ideologies together and guide them to reasonable, commonsense compromise. Here on earth, God’s work must truly be our own.”
Later in the Letter I said: “As members of the Catholic Church, we express our solidarity with those suffering from gun violence. We want them to know of our sincere “thoughts and prayers”. At the same time, we understand that just as “thoughts and prayers” are not enough from mayors, governors, members of Congress and the President, they are not sufficient from religious communities. Those oppressed by violence want to know if the God to whom Christians pray is truly the God of the oppressed. Is God actually going to intervene in our world and do something about gun violence? Or does God rely on us to be the agents of His Grace and renewal? The Ascension of the Lord story suggests that God is counting on us who have received power from the Holy Spirit. Rather than despairing and saying there is nothing we can do, we should remind ourselves of the words of St. Teresa of Calcutta: “When we encounter pain and suffering in the world, our hearts are moved with compassion. We are frustrated when we cannot heal all of the wounds. We may be tempted to give up and do nothing. Remember everybody can do something! WE MUST DO WHAT WE CAN!”
The great African American Catholic poet, Amanda Gorman wrote these words on Thursday:
This alarm is how we know
We must be altered —
That we must differ or die,
That we must triumph or try.
Thus while hate cannot be terminated,
It can be transformed
Into a love that lets us live.
May we not just grieve, but give:
May we not just ache, but act;
May our signed right to bear arms
Never blind our sight from shared harm;
May we choose our children over chaos.
May another innocent never be lost.
Maybe everything hurts,
Our hearts shadowed & strange.
But only when everything hurts
May everything change.
Why are you standing there looking up? Do something!
Praise be Jesus Christ. Both now and forever! Amen.