Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

Lectionary: 278

Many of the disciples of Jesus who were listening said,
“This saying is hard; who can accept it?”
Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this,
he said to them, “Does this shock you?
What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

Jesus often speaks of his going away in the Gospel of John, and three times of his being lifted up:

• And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. (John 3:14-15)
• So Jesus said, ‘When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me. (John 8.28)
• And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself. John 12.32

Incidentally, these three prophecies correspond to the three prophecies of his coming passion, death, and resurrection in the synoptic gospels. And to the three times the Eucharist is lifted up during the Mass. (following the Consecration, with the Great Amen, and following the Fraction of the Bread. An additional lifting up occurs as the minister offers the Sacrament to each communicant.) 

In today's gospel, rather than of being passively lifted up, the Lord's speaks of his ascending to where he was before. He uses the metaphor of descending when he speaks of  his coming to be with us through the Incarnation; and of three rather different ascensions: when he is crucified, raised up, and returns to the Father. 

We have often interpreted these metaphors quite literally, as if heaven is up in the sky. That is where God reigns with his saints and angels, where the patriarchs, prophets, and holy ones have gone, and we hope to go someday. 

But long before Yuri Gagarin (didn't) say, "“I went up to space, but I didn’t encounter God," serious theologians and most thoughtful people had dismissed the idea of heaven up there, hell down there, and our sorry world in between. Isaac Newton had demonstrated the properties and power of gravity many centuries before the cosmonaut's 108 minutes in "outer space." 

We understand that Jesus comes from the Father -- the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -- who has always been deeply engaged in, and never far from, human affairs. His Holy Spirit called Abraham out of Ur and the Hebrews out of Egypt, but it also formed this dynamic planet and its teeming life out of stardust. 

Higher and lower refer to our capacity for discovering God's hand in our life, and our reluctance to do so. We are called to discern the purpose the LORD had in creating us, and to make our lives meaningful by conforming to God's will. A higher life searches above the muck of immediate passions, fears, needs, and biases to discover the Way of Peace. A lower form of human life craves satisfactions and delight and remains forever insatiable, because it discerns neither destination nor destiny. 

That lower form of human life remembers nothing but resentments and the fear learned from past injuries. It "never learns and never forgets." It is doomed to make war in a hopeless pursuit of peace, and to drive others away in a search for security. It cannot risk cooperation, sharing, or communion. It tried those things once, and never forgot the failures, disappointments, and betrayals. 

Called to life above by the grace of God, the faithful understand futility. They have gazed upon the Crucified Christ and seen in his dying eyes not disappointment but hope and unwavering confidence. They discover through disappointment how intensely they have relied on unreliable illusions, and they see why they invested so deeply and foolishly in their own misgivings. 

Am I saddened that my friend called me arrogant? Of course. Is he right? Yes. Am I disappointed? Or relieved to be found out and forgiven? "Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly."

Will the faithful ever be satisfied? Personally, I cannot imagine a satisfaction that is not engaged, challenged, and sometimes bewildered. We can always give more, even -- I suppose -- after we have passed through those Pearly Gates, and surrender to the Infinitely Worthy Goodness of God. We must hover around the Beatific Vision like stars and planets around a massive black hole. Even as we praise God's Majesty we will want to give more, and perpetually fear doing so. It will always seem it wants too much, deserves too much, and we'll want to surrender completely, but always there will be more to give from the infinity of our God-like nature. The best artists never finish their work; the saints are never exhausted by their love for God. 

For the Lord himself, with a word of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God, will come down from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Thus we shall always be with the Lord.

Therefore, console one another with these words.  (Thessalonians 4:16)