Homily for the Ascension of the Lord, Year B
Acts 1.1-11 Psalm 47 Ephesians 4.1-13 Mark 16.15-20
Outside of God himself, there are three people – three human beings – who are mentioned by name at every Sunday Mass in every Roman Catholic church throughout the world: Mary, the Virgin Mother of God; Pontius Pilate, the first-century Roman governor; and the Bishop of Rome, the Holy Father, currently Pope Benedict XVI. Along the way, at different Masses, we hear many other names: the names of the prophets and heroes of the Old Testament, the apostles of the New Testament; the saints celebrated on a particular feast day; those in our local community who have died or who are in need of our prayers; and the local bishop. But only three people are named at every Sunday Mass. And these three can help us understand what is unique about the Roman Catholic Mass.
First, Pontius Pilate. It seems strange that this Roman governor who condemned Jesus to death should have the honor of being mentioned in every Sunday Mass at every church throughout the world as we recite the creed. Why should such honor be shown to the man who ordered the crucifixion? But it is a good reminder for us of the original meaning of the word catholic – universal. The catholic church, with a lower-case c, is a universal church, a church for all people, saints and sinners, high and low, rich and poor, slave and free. If we only welcome the pure and holy, then we are deceiving ourselves. As a church, we welcome all people, regardless of who they are or what they have done. We are a church of forgiveness, of reconciliation, and love; a truly universal church. And Pontius Pilate can remind us of that.
But we aspire to something more. We aspire to holiness, and Mary can remind us of where we long to be. She is the perfect model of a disciple, attentive to the voice of God, willing to give up her own life for the sake of her son, faithful through the darkest days to the glory of the resurrection. We long to be like Mary – to be a model disciple – but we need help along the way. We need God’s grace, we need the wisdom of the Scriptures, we need the strength and nourishment of the Eucharist. Mary was the first person to have the privilege of receiving Christ into her very body, and in the Eucharist, we can do the same. We often hear that people don’t get anything out of the Mass. But if you know what the Mass is all about, that can never be true. The community might act like zombies, the preaching might put you to sleep, the readers might be unintelligible, the music might make you long for silence – but we always have the Eucharist. The Body and Blood of Christ is the heart of the Mass – and as long as Jesus is present, what else do we need? If we focus too much on preaching or on music or on hospitality – and all of those are good things – but if we focus too much on them, we lose the centrality of the Eucharist. And it is the Eucharist that makes the Mass Catholic.
Finally, the Holy Father. At every Mass in every Catholic church all over the world, we pray for the pope, the Bishop of Rome, the successor of St. Peter. That prayer for a very human person unites Roman Catholics as one church, one people. No other church can claim that truly world-wide connection, a world-wide presence, a unity of belief, a unity of morals, a unity of prayer and worship. When we pray for the Holy Father, we remember that we are not just one small congregation of Catholics in southern Indiana – we are part of one church uniting people of every time and place, a church of saints and sinners, a church aspiring to holiness, a church gathered around the Body and Blood of Christ.
So then the three people: Pontius Pilate, to remind us that we are sinners and that the church is universal; Mary, to remind us of the true disciple we want to be; and the Holy Father, to remind us of the unity of the Church. But it all comes back to the Eucharist. Without the Eucharist, we are nothing. Without the Eucharist, why come to church at all?
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