Three Important Lessons We Learn from the Ascension of Jesus

(Ascension Thursday 2025: This homily was given on May 29, 2025 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani.  Read Acts 1: 1-14; Ephesians 1: 17-23; Matthew 28: 16-20.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Ascension 2025]

I’ll share with you this afternoon three simple but important lessons that we learn from the event we commemorate today: the Ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven.

Lesson #1: God always gives us what we need, not what we want. 

The Apostles had been with Jesus for three years.  They ate with him, they travelled with him, they listened to him preach, they saw him work miracles.  He was everything to them.  He was at the center of their lives (as he should have been!).  And I’m sure they wanted that to continue!  I’m quite certain they wanted Jesus to remain with them on earth for the rest of their lives. 

And I think if we had been in their situation we would have wanted the very same thing.

But that’s not what they needed!  They didn’t need Jesus on the outside, they needed Jesus and his power on the inside (in their souls), so that they’d be able to live the life he was calling them to live, and fulfill their mission and purpose in the world.  That’s why Jesus told them at the Last Supper, “It is better for you if I go.  For if I do not go, the Advocate [that is to say, the Holy Spirit] will not come to you.  But if I go, I will send him to you.”

So that’s lesson #1: God always gives us what we need, not what we want. 

Lesson #2: Obey, even if you don’t fully understand. 

Jesus gave his Apostles a command just before he ascended.  As we were told in today’s first reading from Acts 1: “While meeting with them, [Jesus] enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for ‘the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak’.”  Now I’m sure they didn’t fully understand what that promise was (or more properly “Who” that promise was), but they obeyed.  They stayed in Jerusalem, spending most of their time in the upper room (where the Last Supper had taken place)—which is where they were when the promise was fulfilled and they received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Please note: if they had not obeyed the Lord by staying in the city, they would not have experienced that grace—that grace which changed their lives forever.

We may not always understand why God asks us to do certain things in this life—like love our enemies and forgive those who’ve hurt us—but the Ascension teaches us that it’s always better to obey the Lord in those situations, even when we don’t understand the why.

And finally, lesson #3: When it comes to prayer, never give up. 

When the Apostles went to the upper room after the Ascension of Jesus, they didn’t just sit there and reminisce about “the good old days”.  The Bible says they “devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.”  But their prayer was not answered instantaneously, was it?  Nine days passed without anything happening.  It was only on the tenth day that the prayer was finally answered and the Spirit descended on everyone who was there in the room.

Thank God they didn’t give up on the first day—or the second—or the third—or the fourth—or on any of the days between Ascension Thursday and Pentecost Sunday!  If they had, they would missed out on the incredible blessing that God wanted to give them.

And that would have been tragic for them—and literally for the whole world!

So there you have it … 

·         God always gives us what we need, not what we want 

·         Obey, even if you don’t fully understand

·         When it comes to prayer, never give up

Three important lessons from the Ascension of Jesus.  May God help us to know them, to believe them—and to live our lives accordingly.

 

Answering the ‘Big Questions’ of Life

 

(Sixth Sunday of Easter (C): This homily was given on May 25, 2025 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani.  Read Acts 15:1-29; Psalm 67:2-8; Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23; John 14: 23-29.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Sixth Sunday of Easter 2025]

Where do you go for answers to the big questions of life?  I’m talking about questions like, “What’s the meaning of human existence?” “Why am I here?” “Is there a God?” “Is he good?—and if he is good, why is there evil and suffering in the world?”  “Does God have a will—and if he does, can I know what that will is?”  “What happens when we die? Is that the end of it all, or is there something after death? And if there is a life that we experience after death, what will that life be like?”

Those are just some of the big questions that we ponder in our lives.  And it’s good that we do!  Because if we don’t—if we do not try to find answers to the basic, fundamental questions of human existence—our lives will lack meaning and purpose.  They will also lack real joy, since there can be no real joy in a meaningless life.

Some people, of course, will look to the Bible for answers to the big questions, and that’s good—or at least it’s a good start.  The problem is the Bible needs an interpreter.  By quoting one or two verses from the Bible out of context you can pretty much justify anything!

Other people will look to science for the answers.  The problem is that science is incapable of providing the answer to every question—especially when the question concerns the purpose and meaning of life.   The other day I did a search about this on Google.  I asked the question, “Does science have all the answers?” And I got this AI response: “No, science cannot answer every question. Science is limited to questions that can be answered through empirical observation and testing, and it doesn't address questions related to values, ethics, or subjective experiences. For example, science can explain the mechanics of the universe, but it cannot explain why we value human life.” 

That’s a great response: very simple and very clear.  Our world tends to treat scientists as if they’re experts on everything—but, as that AI response reminds us, they’re not.

Personally, I choose to look for my answers to life’s big questions in the same place that the early Christians did.  And where, exactly, did they look?

They looked to the Church!  They looked to the one, true Church established by Jesus Christ, and to the apostles he had chosen to guide and shepherd that Church here on earth.

We see a great example of this in today’s first reading from Acts 15.  Here the early Christians were dealing with a question that is not very big to us in 2025 but was HUGE for them back in the first century! (Of course, the reason it’s not big to us today is because it was big to them back then—and they dealt with it.)

The question was: What about the gentiles?  What about those who are not Jews?  We know Jesus wants to save everybody—Jew and Gentile alike; he’s made that clear to Peter.  But do gentile converts to the faith need to observe the Mosaic Law as Christians?  Are they bound by all the Jewish ceremonial laws in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible)?  And do the men have to be circumcised?

Some Jewish converts were saying, “Yes, they do have to be circumcised and observe the Mosaic Law”—and that was causing a split in the Christian community.  As we heard in our first reading: “Some men came down to Antioch from Judea and began to teach the brothers: ‘Unless you are circumcised according to Mosaic practice, you cannot be saved.  This created dissension and much controversy between them and Paul and Barnabas.’”

It was a very contentious issue.

And the problem was not only theological, it was also very practical.  Let me put it to you this way …

Imagine that you’re a 40 or 50 year-old gentile man living in the city of Antioch at this time.  You hear Paul and Barnabas preach about Jesus on several occasions and you’re intrigued!  In fact, you’re more than intrigued—you’re actually thinking of getting baptized and becoming a Christian.  But then you meet some of these Jewish Christians from Judea and they say to you, “Friend, it’s wonderful that you’re thinking of becoming a follower of Jesus.  We’re overjoyed!  But remember—becoming a Christian also means that you must observe all the ritual laws of Moses: all the dietary laws, all the purification rituals, all the laws of animal sacrifice.  And it means, first and foremost, that you must be CIRCUMCISED—as soon as possible!” 

That would definitely get me to think twice!  That would definitely tone down my excitement at the thought of converting to Christianity!  And I’m sure most if not all of the guys here this morning would feel the same way.

Anesthesia in the first century, remember, was not what it is today.

So what did they do with this question?  What did Paul and Barnabas and the others do to get this big question about the gentiles answered (since Jesus had not directly addressed the issue in his ministry)?

Very simply, they took it to the pope and the bishops who were in union with him!  That is to say they took the issue to Peter and the other apostles—who happened to be in Jerusalem at the time.

They met in council, prayed, talked, reflected on the matter, and finally reached a decision: a decision that they and the whole community believed was from God.  That’s why in their final decree they said, “It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us …”

In other words, “This is not just our opinion on the matter; this is what Jesus Christ—who has given us the charism to faithfully interpret his words—would say if he were physically present with us right now.”

This is why I would maintain that the two most important books every Catholic should own are the Bible and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. 

The Bible is the word of God, but, as I said earlier, the word of God needs an interpreter—always!  Otherwise it can be misinterpreted and misused to say whatever a person wants it to say.

So whenever we face a big question in this life, we should look to those two books before we look anywhere else.  We should look to the Bible, yes—but we should also read what the Catechism says about the matter in question, because the Catechism faithfully interprets what the Bible says.

If we do those two things, my brothers and sisters, then the good news is we will be well on our way to finding the answer that we’re looking for.

 

Hearing the voice of the Good Shepherd is not always a pleasant experience!

 

Pope Leo XIV

(Fourth Sunday of Easter (C): This homily was given on May 11, 2025 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani.  Read Acts 13:14, 43-52; John 10:27-30.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Fourth Sunday of Easter 2025]

Hearing the voice of the Good Shepherd is not always a pleasant experience!

Every Christian—every human person—needs to understand that.

Jesus said to us in today’s gospel reading from John 10, “My sheep hear my voice.”

That, of course, is true.  But Jesus could have added the line, “However, it’s not always a pleasant experience for them when they hear my voice”—and the statement would still have been true.

It’s providential that this gospel is being read in Catholic churches today, which, of course, is Mother’s Day.  Many of us, I’m sure, were blessed with good mothers who taught us the spiritual and moral truths of the gospel in our formative years—whether we liked it or not!  And some of us, probably, did not.  In that we were much like St. Augustine prior to his conversion at the age of 33.  For the first 3 decades of his life, Augustine lived a very hedonistic, materialistic lifestyle.  His prayer during those years was, “Oh Lord, make me chaste—but not yet!”

Needless to say, he gave his mother, Monica, fits!  But she never stopped praying for her son (as all good mothers never stop praying for their children); nor did she stop telling him the truth—whether he wanted to hear it or not (and most of the time, as you might imagine, he did not want to hear any of it!).  For the young and hedonistic Augustine, Monica was the voice of the Good Shepherd; but until he was ready to open his heart to Christ, Augustine usually had a very unpleasant experience when he heard the Good Shepherd’s voice through his mom!   We can discern that from these words which he wrote many years after his conversion: “I remember my mother warned me in private not to commit fornication, and especially not to defile another man’s wife.  These seemed to me womanish advices, which I should blush to obey.  But they were yours, O God, and I knew it not.”

But they were yours, O God, and I knew it not.  In other words, “You were speaking to me through my mother, but I didn’t listen.”  Thankfully, of course, Augustine eventually did listen, which is something that our new pope, Leo XIV, is very happy about, since he is an Augustinian—he’s a member of the religious order that follows Jesus according to the teachings of Augustine.

In today’s first reading from Acts 13, Paul and Barnabas preach the gospel message to the people of Antioch in Pisidia.  Through these two apostles, the people of that city were blessed to hear in a very clear and powerful way the voice of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd.

But not all of them were thrilled by what they heard, were they?  Quite oppositely, many of them were apoplectic!  They were enraged!  That led some of them to verbally abuse Paul and Barnabas while the two men were trying to preach God’s word to the crowd; and shortly thereafter it led others to start a persecution of Paul and Barnabas that finally resulted in the two apostles getting kicked out of town!

Hearing the voice of the Good Shepherd was definitely not a pleasant experience for the hard-hearted men and women of Antioch in Pisidia.

So, I ask you, my brothers and sisters, why should we expect things to be any different in our world today?  If the Catholic Church is what she claims to be—in other words, if the Catholic Church in her official teaching really speaks with the voice of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ—then shouldn’t we expect to hear a challenging message from time to time?  Shouldn’t we expect to hear from the Church the same kind of message that Augustine heard from his mother; the same kind of message that the people of Antioch in Pisidia heard from Paul and Barnabas?

I laugh when people in the media criticize the Catholic Church for its stance on issues like abortion, or euthanasia, or embryonic stem cell research or so-called gay marriage—as if her teachings on these issues are negotiable and subject to change.

The Bible says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever!  So if Jesus doesn’t change, how can we possibly expect his Church to change on these and other fundamental moral matters?

Is it always pleasant to hear the teaching of the Church?  No, it is not!  But remember, hearing the voice of the Good Shepherd is not always a pleasant experience!  This, by the way, is something that our new Holy Father will have to deal with constantly in his papal ministry, when the Good Shephard speaks to the world through him—which is why we need to pray for him often.

And yet it can always be a healing experience!  It can be a healing experience if we respond to the Good Shepherd’s challenging message in a positive way.

Let me conclude my homily now by sharing with you an example of this from the writings of Archbishop Fulton Sheen.  Sheen, as many of you know, preached on the Seven Last Words of Jesus on many Good Fridays at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.  That’s the context of this particular story.  Sheen wrote:

After I had been preaching on Good Friday at St. Patrick’s one year, a woman came to the back of the main altar, her hair disheveled, a haunted look on her face, and [she] cursed me violently.  I said, “Why did you come in here?”

She said, “To steal purses.”

I said, “Did you get any?”

“No,” she said, “that second word of yours got me—the word to the good thief.”  Then she said, “Why am I talking to you, you blankety-blank?  You’ll just tell the cops.”

I said, “Why do the cops want you?”  She pulled out clippings from the Los Angeles Times and FBI folders.  Three of her confreres were in San Quentin, and the FBI was looking for her.  I asked her if she had ever been a Catholic, and she said yes, she had, up until the age of fourteen.  So I heard her confession, and she became a daily communicant.  But she was unable to work.  I supported her for about twenty years until she died.  Well, I was harboring a criminal, so after some time I said to her, “I must make known to the FBI that I know about you.”  She agreed, and I told the FBI.  I said, “You’re looking for a woman.”

“Do we want her badly?” they said.

I said, “Oh yes.  Her name is so-and-so.  She’s a daily communicant at St. Patrick’s.”

They said, “You have done far more for her than we or the prisons could have done, so we’re letting her go.”

That woman heard the voice of the Good Shepherd speaking to her through Bishop Sheen on that Good Friday many years ago—and it was a very unpleasant experience!  She literally hated what she heard—until she let the message change her heart and her life!

Then she experienced forgiveness, and mercy, and healing—and she got on the narrow road that leads to eternal life.

So did Augustine, eventually—which is why we now refer to him as “St. Augustine.”

May each and every one of us respond to the challenging voice of the Good Shepherd in the same positive way whenever we hear it.

 

Forgiveness and Satisfaction

 

"Simon, son of John, do you love me?"

(Third Sunday of Easter (C): This homily was given on May 4, 2025 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani.  Read John 21:1-19.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Third Sunday of Easter 2025]

I steal a hundred dollars from you.  I ask for your forgiveness, and you graciously give it to me.  Is that where the story should end?

I write a letter to the Westerly Sun in which I accuse you of doing something that I know you haven’t done.  I call you the next day, and apologize.  You forgive me, because you’re such a nice person.  Is that where the story should end?

I’m envious because you have a nicer car than I have.  So late one night I sneak over to your house, and put scratches all over your vehicle with one of my house keys.  A week later, I apologize; and once again, you extend me mercy and forgiveness.  But is that where the story should end?

The answer, of course, in all three cases is NO!!!

These three anecdotes illustrate the difference between forgiveness and what the Church calls, “satisfaction”.  Seeking forgiveness is always necessary when we’ve wronged another human being and sinned against them in some way.  But receiving forgiveness doesn’t do away with the need to make appropriate amends for our actions!  It doesn’t do away, in other words, with the need to make “satisfaction”.  If I steal a hundred dollars from you, I definitely need to seek your forgiveness.  But I also need to give you back your hundred dollars!  If I write a letter to the Westerly Sun in which I falsely accuse you of something, I need to ask you to forgive me—and then I need to write a letter of retraction and apology, and get it published in the local newspaper!  And if I intentionally scratch your car with my key, I need your forgiveness—and then I need to open my wallet and pay for a new paint job on your nice vehicle!

This, incidentally, is akin to step eight in the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (or any other twelve step program).  Step eight reads: “Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.”

That’s satisfaction.  It’s also the purpose of the penance given in the sacrament of Reconciliation, even when that penance consists of prayers.  Normally when I give a “prayer penance” in the confessional I specifically tell the person to pray those prayers for the people whom they have hurt by their sins.

Praying for those we’ve offended is one way to make satisfaction for what we’ve done.

Here’s how the Catechism explains it in paragraph 1459: “Many sins wrong our neighbor.  One must do what is possible in order to repair the harm. . . . Simple justice requires as much.  But sin also injures and weakens the sinner himself, as well as his relationships with God and neighbor.  Absolution takes away sin, but it does not remedy all the disorders sin has caused.  Raised up from sin, the sinner must still recover his full spiritual health by doing something more to make amends for the sin: he must ‘make satisfaction for’ or ‘expiate’ his sins.  This satisfaction is also called ‘penance’.”

I mention this subject this morning because in today’s Gospel text Peter, in effect, makes satisfaction for the terrible sins he had committed on Holy Thursday night.  Three times that evening, in the courtyard of the high priest, he had denied even knowing Jesus. 

Had Jesus forgiven him?  Of course!  He had forgiven Peter, as he had forgiven the rest of the apostles for running away during his passion.  But Peter still needed to make satisfaction for what he had done!  And that’s why Jesus had him profess his love three times.  Three times Peter had denied Jesus with his words, so in order to make satisfaction Peter had to profess his love for Jesus three times with his words. 

Perhaps Jesus also required this of Peter because of what he expected from this man in the future.  Peter, as we all know, was to be the very first pope—the first visible head of the Church here on earth.  Obviously, therefore, Peter needed to have his relationship with Jesus in very good order.  He didn’t need to be carrying around any extra ‘internal baggage’ from his Holy Thursday sins!  He needed to be right with God and right with his fellow apostles.

But his Holy Thursday sins had definitely weakened him; they had affected his ability to be a strong leader in the early Church.  As the Catechism reminds us (in that text I quoted a few moments ago): “Sin also injures and weakens the sinner himself, as well as his relationships with God and neighbor.”

Peter’s three-fold profession renewed his bond of love with Jesus, and reinforced his position of leadership among the apostles and within the universal Church.  Jesus said to Peter: “Feed my lambs. . . . Tend my sheep. . . . Feed my sheep.”  The Bible tells us that Thomas, Nathaniel, James, John and two other disciples were present when the Lord said these words to the future pope.  At that moment they understood that what Jesus had said to Peter at Caesarea Philippi: “You are ‘Rock,’ and upon this Rock I will build my Church” was still valid, in spite of Peter’s denials.

And I’m sure they passed on this message to the apostles and disciples who were not present at the time: “Yes, Peter is still our leader—even though he messed up on the night before Jesus died!”

One final point needs to be made here: It wasn’t easy, nor was it pleasant.  Yes, Peter made satisfaction for his three sins of Holy Thursday night, but it was definitely not a pleasant experience for him!  As we heard a few moments ago, he was disturbed—he was deeply hurt—when Jesus said, “Simon, do you love me?” for the third time!

But when it was all over, and he realized WHY Jesus had questioned him in this way, I’m sure Peter was happy—and thankful—that he had swallowed his pride and had answered yes all three times!

Making amends—making satisfaction—isn’t normally a pleasant experience for any of us; but it is rewarding, since it improves our relationship with God, and our relationships with others.

So I leave you with this question to ponder: Do I need to make amends to anyone in my life?

Ponder that question as you pray after Communion today, and reflect on it honestly during the week.

Do I need to make amends to anyone that I’ve hurt by my sins?

And if the answer is yes, then ask the Lord to give you the grace to make those amends through prayers and through good deeds as soon as possible.

Because if we don’t do it here—if we don’t make adequate satisfaction for our forgiven sins while we’re still on this earth—we will be required to make satisfaction for them somewhere else: in purgatory.

So we can do it now, or we can do it later.  But do it, we all will—just like Peter.