(Ascension Thursday 2024: This homily was given on May 9, 2024 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Mark 16:15-20.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Ascension Thursday 2024]
It’s a pretty impressive list, isn’t it?
I’m talking about the one Jesus gives us in today’s gospel: this list of signs “that will accompany those who believe.”
- Driving out demons
- Speaking new languages
- Picking up serpents (he doesn’t mean garter snakes
either!)
- Drinking deadly poison
- Healing the sick through the laying on of hands
I’ve done a few of those things, and so have many other Christians in the 2,000-year history of the Church. They are extraordinary signs of the continuing presence of Jesus Christ in our world. They remind us that, even though our Lord ascended into heaven on the first Ascension Thursday in 33 A.D., in a certain sense he never left the earth. His presence continues among us in the sacraments, in the Sacred Scriptures, and in extraordinary signs like these that are mentioned in Mark 16.
But it would be wrong for us to confine the presence of Jesus only to the Bible, the sacraments, and incredible events like healing the sick and picking up deadly snakes. The fact is, there are many other signs of Jesus’ presence in our world today that are just as noteworthy, although much more “ordinary”.
Here’s a partial list of those signs, which also “accompany those who believe”:
- Walking away from a really big temptation by relying
on your faith in Jesus. (That can
be every bit as impressive as driving out a demon or healing the sick, if
the temptation is severe.)
- Forgiving someone who has hurt you deeply, even though
the other person doesn’t repent and never says they’re sorry. (It takes a special divine grace to do
something like that.)
- Holding your tongue when you’d really like to tell
someone off, but know you shouldn’t.
“Dear Jesus, help me not to say what I feel like saying right now!”
- Speaking up when you know you should (for example, to
correct an injustice at work), even though you’d much rather be quiet and
say nothing. “Dear Jesus, give me
courage—and the right words.”
- Being kind and respectful to someone who is
continually unkind to you and has no intention of changing. (It takes a special internal power to do
that.)
- Persevering in fulfilling your family responsibilities
by tapping into God’s power through prayer, when deep down inside you feel
like giving up. (That perseverance
is a sign to others and to the world that Jesus Christ is present with you
and within you.)
All these things I just mentioned are relatively “ordinary,” compared to driving out demons, drinking deadly poison, and healing the sick; and yet, they’re just as important as those other “extraordinary signs” of the Lord’s presence. In fact, in a certain sense they’re even more important—because they involve situations that we encounter almost every day. Let’s face it, in all likelihood we will not encounter a possessed person this week who needs an exorcism; but all of us will probably be tempted to tell someone off or hold a grudge or be unkind to a person who is unkind to us.
It’s in moments like these that we have the opportunity to witness to the presence of Jesus Christ in our lives by how we respond. And that’s especially true in times of tragedy. I can’t tell you how many times over the years I’ve been inspired by people from this parish who have clung to their faith in the midst of very tragic situations, like the sudden death of a loved one. Their faithfulness in the midst of a crisis has been a sign to me (and probably to many others as well) of the presence of Jesus Christ in them.
So today let us thank God for all the “signs that accompany those who believe”: the extraordinary ones that Jesus mentions here in this gospel text from Mark 16, but also the ordinary ones that are made manifest in the everyday—and sometimes tragic—circumstances of this life.
They are signs that Jesus Christ is with us and will always be with us—until the end of the world.
