St. Joseph Catholic Church, Vancouver WA

Today’s Feast of the Ascension and next week’s Feast of Pentecost are both about being empowered and sent to witness to Jesus. How do you and I do that in our lives?

It seems to me that we do it directly by what we say and do, and how we say and do it; and we do it indirectly by what we choose to support.

This past week Pope Francis preached a homily on the importance of joy in witnessing to the Risen Lord. This is an important dimension of the witness you and I are called to because it roots us in the original experience of the disciples.

Luke tells us in today’s Gospel that after Jesus had been taken up to heaven the disciples returned to Jerusalem with great joy, “and they were continually in the temple praising God.”

Instead of Jesus’ departure being an occasion of sadness or fear, it was an occasion of inspiration and excitement. Such excitement, such joy can be infectious. We know that in our own lives when we have something exciting and new to share, our message is much more attractive to others than if we have something heavy and burdensome to share.

Pope Francis put it this way: “When Christians have more of a sourpuss than a face that communicates the joy of being loved by God, they harm the witness of the church.”

“The Christian is a man or woman of joy,” the pope said. While happiness is a good thing, it’s not the same as the profound joy that comes from “the certainty that Jesus is with us and with the Father.”

That’s what we celebrate on this Feast of the Ascension: that Jesus is with us and with the Father forever.
As his followers, as his disciples in the 21st century, we are sent to witness with great joy to his presence among us and his place with the Father in heaven.

The pope contrasted joy with happiness. He said they are not the same thing. If one tries to be happy all the time, that happiness ends up “transforming itself into lightness, superficiality and leads to a state of lacking Christian wisdom, it can make us fools. Joy is something else. Joy is a gift from the Lord. It fills us from the inside.”

That’s what we seek – being filled from the inside so that what we say and do reflect the joy that comes from our relationship with God. If we seek to draw closer and closer to the Lord, we will be filled with the joy that comes only from him.

Then, even in the midst of disappointment or the struggles of life, we will be able to remain joyful. We may not be happy in the face of sickness or bad news, but if we live from the inside, where God has planted the joy that comes only from Him, then we can still be joyful.

That joy comes for us, as it did for Jesus’ disciples, from what we have celebrated all during this Easter season. The joy comes from trusting the one who has conquered sin and death once and for all time.

In the words of the Letter to the Hebrews, “let us approach with a sincere heart and in absolute trust, with our hearts sprinkled clean…and our bodies washed in pure water. Let us hold unwaveringly to our confession that gives us hope, for he who made the promise is trustworthy.”

Being rooted in that trust brings us deep joy. Such joy, Pope Francis tells us, is a “pilgrim virtue,” one that moves Christians to journey out into the world preaching the Gospel and proclaiming Christ.

Last week Natalie described how she was able to overcome her fear and experience the deep joy of reaching out, being of service and witnessing to the Lord through the One Week service learning experience in Forks.

You and I can witness with joy to the Good News of Jesus Christ directly through such experiences ourselves, as well as indirectly through our support of experiences like these for young people like Natalie.

The Annual Catholic Appeal is an opportunity for us to assure those experiences remain available for people like Natalie.

If you have already made your pledge to this year’s appeal, thank you! Those of you who brought your pledge envelopes today can place them in the regular collection.

If you have not yet made your pledge, there are envelopes in the pews and chairs today and I invite you, in the quiet following the homily, to take some time to prayerfully consider the gift you can give this year.

My friends, every Mass concludes with our being sent forth on mission, just as Jesus sent his disciples when he ascended to the Father. Like them, we are the indispensible witnesses to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

May the Eucharist we share today empower us to be his joy-filled witnesses to the ends of the earth!