Weekly HOMILY for May 16, 2010: Understanding the Ascension of Jesus

The Ascension of the Lord, Cycle C
Our Lady of Grace
May 16, 2010

Understanding the Ascension of Jesus
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


Life with Morrie

Most of us have heard of the book “Tuesdays with Morrie” or perhaps we have seen the movie that was based on the book.

It is a story about a Detroit sportswriter named Mitch Albom and a university professor, Doctor Morrie Schwartz.

Morrie had been Mitch Albom’s teacher, faculty advisor, and mentor at Brandeis University just outside of Boston. He helped Mitch realize his potential as a writer.

In 1994, Doctor Morrie Schwartz was diagnosed with ALS, Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Doctors told him that he had a year to live and he decided to do just that – to live his last year to the fullest.

Morrie Schwartz appeared on ABC’s Nightline program and talked about what he was learning about life.

Mitch Albom just happened to see the program and decided to visit Morrie Schwartz at his home in Massachusetts.

It was the first of fourteen weekly Tuesday visits that became the content of Mitch’s book, Tuesdays with Morrie. In these visits, Morrie and Mitch reflected on life, suffering, family, marriage, aging, and death.

Most important, all of this was from Doctor Schwartz’s perspective as a man facing his own death. The book – Tuesdays with Morrie – chronicles what Mitch heard in these visits.

Morrie Schwartz’s reflection brought a whole new perspective to Mitch. Mitch’s life had been overwhelmed with work and he was desperate to find love and meaning in it.

In the last class, Doctor Schwartz summed up everything they had discussed the prior 13 weeks. He said this.

“As long as we love each other, and remember the feeling of love we had, we can die without really going away. All the love you created is still there.

“You live on – in the hearts of everyone you have touched or nurtured while you were there. Death ends a life, not a relationship.”


Life with Jesus

That experience with Morrie Schwartz and his final words are similar to what we see and hear in Jesus today.

Jesus has taught great lessons to the Apostles. He has taught them, above all else, to become loving persons – to love God as God has loved us, and to love one another as we love ourselves.

Jesus now returns to the Father. This is what we hear in both our first reading and the Gospel.

And yet, Jesus is still with us. In fact, he has prepared the Apostles for this and told them it would happen.

He has told them he will leave them and return to the Father, but then, he will continue to be with them – and us – through his Holy Spirit.

Jesus will no longer be bound by the limitations of a physical body. Now he is still with us through his Hoy Spirit.

So, as Morrie Schwartz says, “Death ends a life, not a relationship.” We would say: “Death ends a form of life, a way of living simply in a physical state.”


Conclusion

From today’s celebration of the Ascension we learn that Jesus will live on with the Father and he will even live on with us through his Holy Spirit within us.

And now we, God’s sons and daughters, live with Jesus present within us.

Living with Jesus’ presence means living in love and out of a center of love. This is how life with Jesus continues and how we are his witnesses on this earth.