Happily Ever After Husband

Ascension helps us put our hopes in heaven

05/24/2020

Acts of the Apostles 1:1-11 In the first book, Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught until the day he was taken up, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While meeting with them, he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for “the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak; for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” When they had gathered together they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.

A Jewish man, his wife and mother-in-law made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. While they were there, the mother-in-law suddenly had a heart-attack and passed away. They went to the local rabbi to get advice on what to do. He told them: “We can do a funeral service in the synagogue and bury her here for $150. Or, if you wish, you can have her shipped back to the United States for $5,000.” The man thought for a moment and replied: “We’ll have her body shipped back home.” The rabbi asked surprised: “Why would you spend $5,000 instead of burying her here for only $150?” The man answered: “Look, a man died here 2,000 years ago and you guys buried him and three days later he rose from the dead. I can’t take that chance.”

That man who died 2,000 years ago and rose 3 days later, of course, was Jesus. I hope that joke might serve as a segue to today’s sermon on the Resurrection and the Ascension. The first thing we have to realize about the Resurrection is that Jesus did not rise from the dead in order to remain here on earth. As great as the Resurrection is, it was only Jesus’ first step out of the grave, but the Ascension was his last step into glory. The Ascension is absolutely critical to Christianity. Why? Well, without the Ascension we are liable to think Jesus’ resurrection is the end of the story, like the final lines of all fairy tales: “They lived happily ever after.” And that “happily ever after” is always imagined as an earthly fulfillment of our hopes for happiness. But the Ascension tranforms that earthly hope into a much higher hope, namely, happiness in heaven. St. Paul warns against exactly that earthly emphasis saying in 1 Cor. 15:19: “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men the most to be pitied.”

If you find it difficult and disappointing to postpone your hopes for happiness until heaven, the apostles struggled too. At the end of the gospel of Matthew we read: “When they saw [Jesus], they worshiped, but they doubted.” What did they doubt? The first reading from Acts 1:6, retelling the same episode, records: “They asked him, ‘Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’” Put in modern English, they were asking: “Is this the part where we live ‘happily ever after’?” In other words, they expected Jesus to be the new Davidic king and bring back the glory days when David and Solomon sat on thrones and ruled all the nations. Indeed, the apostles would not understand the true nature of Christ’s kingdom with the Ascension, but only at Pentecost, which would turn their minds totally to heaven and radically transform their lives on earth.

Here are a few suggestions on how we can apply the Ascension into our daily lives. First of all we need the Ascension in our marriages. I work on the marriage tribunal that grants annulments. One person who petitioned for an annulment actually had four previous marriages. We know they are looking for the fairy tale ending for their marriage, for the “happily ever after husband.” The Ascension helps us realize, however, that every earthly marriage is imperfect and our only perfect marriage will be with Jesus in heaven. It says in Rev. 19:9: “Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” The only “happily ever after husband” is Jesus.

This pandemic is a perfect case in point, too, of the assistance we get from the Ascension. How many lives and livelihoods have been destroyed in just two months? A lot of people have lost their “happily ever after” on this earth when they lost their loved ones and their jobs, and especially if there’s no college football this fall! The Ascension reminds us, however, to put our hopes for happiness in heaven, where there will be no pandemics but only peace.

And thirdly, what are the only two things that we cannot escape on earth? They are death and taxes. And the resurrection is not enough to overcome death and taxes. Why not? Well, just ask Lazarus after he was raised from the dead. He still had to pay taxes to Caesar and he would die again. No, it is the Ascension alone that drives the last nail in the coffin of death and taxes. The Ascension teaches us to delay our earthly enjoyments and hope for heavenly happiness, and is really the only relief from death and taxes.

In a way, the Jewish man in the joke was right about not burying his mother-in-law in Jerusalem, even he wanted to do it for all the wrong reasons. He was right in that rising from the dead is never enough. We need more than the resurrection from the dead to discover true happiness. We need the Ascension to raise our hearts and hopes all the way to heaven. Why? Because only in heaven will we find our “happily ever after husband.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!