Ascension Sunday C.  May 16, 2010.  Our Lady of Grace 7:30, 11:30, 6PM.   Acts 1:1-11.  Ephesians 1:17-23.  Luke 24:46-53.

There was a time when most people believed that the world ended somewhere in the ocean off the coast of Europe.  It was thought that anyone who sailed westward across the Atlantic Ocean would face certain death as their ship fell off the edge of the earth and into chaos. Because of some new theories that said that the earth was round. Christopher Columbus was confident that by sailing west from Spain he would reach the riches of India and the Far East.  With three small ships Columbus sailed into the sunset and the darkness of the ocean for hundreds and thousands of miles.  The sailors were petrified, but Columbus refused to let them turn back.  To keep his sailors from mutiny he promised them that they would turn back if they did not see land in two days.   On Friday October 12, 1492 they spotted an island off shore of Cuba and a small landing party was sent ashore.  They had been sailing since August 3 all the time seeing nothing but water.  They had not found India and the Far East – they had discovered the new world.  They had discovered American and the mighty continent that we call home.  But they didn’t know where they were and they certainly did not end up where they thought they were going.  Life is an adventure.  Life is a mystery.  God has a plan for us and for our world.

Have you ever seen the face of the man in the moon?  When the moon is full and bright it is possible to see the craters and mountains on the moon.  The moon is about 250,000 miles from the earth. On July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.  As he stepped off the spacecraft ladder onto the moon surface he said, “This is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”  A new adventure into the vastness of outer space beyond our planet had begun. Now we look forward to a journey to Mars and beyond.  Life is an adventure and a mystery.  Only God knows the future of our human race.

“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.  And 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.’”

God became human to fill human beings with the grace and power of God.  Now that Jesus had accomplished his task it was time for a new human adventure to begin.  Jesus lifted up his hands and ascended into heaven.  He disappeared from the sight of his followers and his friends. They were simple people who didn’t have much education and who had seen almost none of the world.  Yet Jesus told them to go to the ends of the earth and proclaim the gospel and a new way of life to everyone in every land, culture and period of history.  Before he launched this new adventure Jesus told his disciples to wait until they were clothed and filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.  The Church and we the people in the Church have a mission to every person in the society and country in which we live and to every person in the world.  If you think that being a Christian is boring, then we need to get up and get moving.  As the disciples were looking up into the sky after Jesus had been lifted up from them an angel appeared to them and 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.”  Don’t just stand there.  You have work to do.  You have an adventure to experience.  You have a world to win over, convert and empower. 

There are many problems in our world.  Young people have opportunities for good and temptations to evil that my generation never knew.  The economy is a problem.  Health Care is a problem. Growing older is a problem.  And hundreds of kinds of new technology are a great gift.  Why are we standing here looking into heaven and wondering about how the whole thing, our world, is going to turn out?  We do not have the answers to all the problems.  Neither did Christopher Columbus or the first followers of Jesus.  What we do have is that on the ever changing adventure of life God is with us always, even until the end of the world.

St. Paul told the Ephesians: “May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,

give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him. May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe, in accord with the exercise of his great might”

Thomas Merton, the great American Trappist Monk spoke to God about the great adventure of each of our lives.  He said:

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following Your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that, if I do this, You will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust You always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for You are ever with me, and You will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

For the great adventure of our Christian journey that began on the day Christ ascended into heaven and continues through the ages in the sure path that Christ has laid out for us and for the Church, we give God thanks and praise.