In our second reading Paul said that, having heard of the Ephesians’ faith
in the Lord Jesus and love for the saints, he had not stopped giving thanks for
them and was constantly asking God to bless them with the Gift of the Holy
Spirit so that:
The eyes of (your) hearts may be enlightened,
that you may know what is the hope that belongs to His call,
Today’s feast makes clear what St. Paul had in mind, for surely the Apostles’
very posture as they watched their Lord’s ascension showed most manifestly the
hope that fill3ed their hearts and minds:
They were looking intently at the sky as He was
going, (when) suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you
standing there looking at the sky?
Their hope was clear indeed: to follow Jesus to heaven, to leave behind
this world where beauty does indeed abound, but not without deception and suffering;
where knowledge, though constantly increasing, can never be comprehensive; and so,
being unable to throw off that invisible companion of ignorance, does not
always or necessarily lead to peace, understanding or wisdom; and where -- because
all things have but their day before passing on -- though much is promised, no true
fulfilment can be found.
Our hope, dear friends in Christ is, likewise, to know and to share in
the riches of the God’s glorious inheritance promised to all who remain
steadfast in faith and love for Jesus: those saints glorious in their courage
under persecution and torture, to those saints, strong and faithful though, at
times, but slight in body and tender in years; those saints, whose perseverance was not
sustained by hatred or bravado but characterized by humility and forgiveness; to
those saints, whose goodness towards the poor and needy, the homeless and sick,
the outcasts and despised, inspired many thousands of followers over centuries
of darkness and cruelty; again, those saints,
whose wisdom has been such as to enlighten the whole world, and others whose humility
and artlessness characterized them as true children of God.
Yes, we know something of God’s glorious inheritance among His Saints
here on earth and how we admire them! And
yet, theirs is not the glory to which we aspire: they do indeed inspire us, but
their glory is God’s gift to them, it is theirs, personal to their
unique relationship with their God and Saviour.
We, however, aspire to share the glory of Jesus Himself, for we are
members of His Body and in Him children -- adopted children -- of the
heavenly Father, called to share in Jesus’ glory, that glory of which Jesus
spoke when He said:
I glorified You on earth by accomplishing the
work that You gave Me to do. Now glorify Me, Father, with You, with the glory
that I had with You before the world began.
Concerning such glory, our share in such an inheritance, even St. John
the beloved disciple could say nothing:
Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we
shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we
shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Everyone who has this hope based on Him makes
himself pure, as He is pure.
We hope for heaven, we admire the saints, but we aspire to share in the
glory of Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, to Whom the Father has called us
and in Whom we are made children -- adopted children in Him -- of the Father,
as St. Paul says in his letter to the Romans (8:17):
If children, then heirs – heirs of God and
fellow-heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also
be glorified with Him.
And there, dear People of God, is the rub: provided we
suffer with Him.
Who wants to suffer for being Catholic and Christian when there is so
much to hand that promises joy without violating our Catholic conscience?
Ultimately, it is love for the Person of Jesus Who died not only
to save us from the slavery and punishment of our sins, but also to offer us the
joy of becoming a true child of God worthy to be embraced as such by the Father;
and, through that love of Jesus, a gifted awareness of the sublime beauty,
holiness and goodness of God made known to us through Mother Church’s
proclamation of the Gospel, that can enable us to embrace the sufferings
inherent in life today.
That is what the Apostle finally prayed for us in our second reading
today:
May the eyes of (your) hearts be
enlightened, that you may know what is the surpassing greatness of his power
for us who believe, in accord with the exercise of his great might, which
he worked in Christ, raising him from the dead and seating him at his right
hand in the heavens.
In Mother Church our eyes are nowadays enlightened to know that the
Spirit Who raised Jesus from the dead up to the right hand of the Father in
heaven has been given to us, sent to us from the right hand of the Father by
Jesus. He is the Spirit of the Resurrection and Ascension of Our Lord, and the
Spirit of Pentecost; the Spirit who fills our minds and hearts with joy, hope
and confidence, supremely, at these times; He is -- at Jesus’ behest -- the
Spirit at work in our lives, forming us in the likeness of Jesus for the
Father.
What are the riches of God’s glorious inheritance in His Saints? They are indeed some sharing out of the glory
which Jesus had with the Father before the world began, the glory which is His now
at the right hand of the Father. We do
not know what our share will be; we do know it will not be that of any saint
known to us because it will be our own
sharing with Jesus, in Jesus, by the Spirit, before the Father:
We do know that when it is revealed we shall be
like him, for we shall see Him as He is;
in accordance with the sincerity of that prayer we all surely intend daily: ‘Lord Jesus, please help me love You more, show me something of the beauty of the Father’.
