My Message on Ascension Thursday to my Seminarians

                            

My dear friends, today the Church celebrates the solemnity of the Ascension of Christ into heaven. The Church believes and teaches that within forty days after the resurrection, the Lord Jesus Christ continued to appear to his disciples, to strengthen them and to prove to them that he is truly risen from the dead. On this fortieth day, he was taken up into heaven in their sight. It marks the end of Christ’s visible presence among his disciples. He returns to the Father from where he came. As today’s psalm captures it, the Lord Jesus “goes up with shouts of joy; the Lord goes up with trumpet blast.”

Ascension is the highest point of the resurrection. It signifies God’s glorification of Jesus in the sight of his apostles. This celebration is a sign of hope for us – where he the head of the Church has ascended to, we the body eagerly look forward.

My reflection here circulates around the words of St Paul to the Ephesians “When it says ‘he ascended’, what can it mean if not that he descended right down to the lower regions of the earth? The one who rose higher than all the heavens to fill all things is none other than the one who descended.” (Eph. 4: 9-10)

These words simply declare to us that in order to appreciate the weight of the elevation of Jesus through his ascension, one must grasp that the man whose ascension into heaven we celebrate today, is the same person who was humiliated through his passion and death.  “The one who rose higher than all the heavens...is none other than the one who descended.”

“He descended” could be used as a metaphor of Jesus’ humiliation through the shameful death, the dishonour and ingloriousness he had to endure. The first reading of Good Friday describes him as a man of sorrow and familiar with suffering. “So disfigured did he look that he seemed no longer human. Without beauty, without majesty (we saw him) no looks to attract our eyes; a thing despised and rejected by men, ...a man to make people screen their faces; he was despised and we took no account of him....But we thought of him as someone punished, struck by God, and brought low.” (Is 52:13 – 53:12).

God raised him from the death and has today raised him even higher. He ascended into heaven. Alleluia! My dear friends, this man who ascended to the heights of heaven today, is the same man who experienced the worst part of humanity, who descended to the lowest region of the earth. He who ascended today to the heights of majesty is the same person who was “so disfigured that he no longer seemed human, without beauty to attract our eyes”. He is the same person despised and rejected by the people. He is the same person whom we thought was punished by God. He is the same person who was an object of mockery and hilarity. This stone rejected by the builders, has now become the cornerstone. He moved from the depths of hell to the heights of heaven. Alleluia. This is what makes the ascension very spectacular – that “he who ascended above all is none other than he who descended to the lowest region of the earth.” 

My dear friends, what does this mean for us within the context of training and formation? We have personal stories and life experiences. You may be experiencing financial hardship. You may be undergoing a bitter struggle with your studies. You may be confused with life or unsure about the best vocation to follow. You may be experiencing family problems. You may be an object of amusement to your friends and neighbours. You may think you are a failure in one way or the other. You may have made terrible mistakes in life or even involved yourself in a mess. You may think there are no more possibilities for you in life. You may think that your life has come to a state of death, i.e. a state of hopelessness, when no more remedy is feasible. You may have been struck to the ground by events, persons or your own miscalculation.

My dear friends, the story of the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ simply declares the infinitude of hope. There can be no end for one who believes. Your bitter life experiences are only moments in the agonies of Christ. Whatever you are passing through (disappointments, pains, agonies, failures, frustrations, etc) can be likened to the passions of Christ. Today, we celebrate his glorification. He who ascended is the same who descended into hell.”

My dear friends, can this celebration challenge you to wake up and say, I must rise from my present ugly situation; I must not be defined by my past but must defile my past. You can move from making a third class in your bachelor’s degree in philosophy to graduating with a summa cum laude in your theology. You can move from making a 30% in your first semester examinations to making a 70% in the forthcoming second semester examinations. You may have nearly escaped expulsion during last year’s reunion with your bishop but you can merit his praises this year and in subsequent years. You can move from being ‘a nobody’ to being ‘a somebody’.

Can this celebration encourage you to look to Jesus who moved from the depths of hell to the heights of heaven? Jesus has set you an example. You can move from the depths of hell to the heights of heaven. “Onye kwe chi ya ekwe.” You can change your history and you can change your story. You can rise from the ground of self-delusion, greed, craze for power, insatiability, searching for cheap popularity, arrogance, wickedness, and compromised sense of good and evil. You can arise from the ground of despair, from the ground of ‘no positive ambition in life’, from the ground of care-freeness, from the ground of insensitivity to the needs of others and from the ground of the loss of the sense of shame. Yes! You can change your story!

Albert Einstein moved from a persona non grata to being one who revolutionised physics and tremendously reshaped human thought about the natural world. Bill Gates moved from almost being a school drop out to one who has made a deep impact on information technology. Wole Soyinka moved from being a third class holder in his bachelor’s degree to a Nobel Prize holder. The history of humanity is scattered with captivating stories of people who changed the stories of their lives and through it significantly and positively affected human civilisation. Yes you can do it!

Just as the apostles looked up as Jesus ascended into heaven, may we look up to him who rose from the lowest region of the earth to the heights of heavenly majesty. May looking up to him inspire us to imitate him and may he imbue us with the graces to enable us to go with him and to rise with him from “the lowest region of the earth” to the peak of heavenly glory where he is Lord forever and ever.


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