Deacon Mike Meyer / Sunday, June 1, 2025 / Categories: Blog, Homilies Aim High Homily for the Ascension of the Lord, Year C Between fifth and sixth grade, I went to a summer camp in Sussex County, where I tried archery for the first time. I wasn’t very good, not because I hadn’t yet developed the massive upper body strength I now have, but because I hadn’t mastered a fundamental archery lesson: aim high. You see, wind resistance and gravity drag the arrow down before it reaches its target. If you aim at the center of the target, you’ll come in low. If you aim high, you’ll hit the bullseye. It seems like today’s readings may have been selected by archers since their message and the message of the Lord’s Ascension into Heaven is: Aim high. In my opinion, today’s Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord gets short shrift. We focus on Easter and Pentecost in Church and Religious Education, and with the Ascension traditionally falling on a Thursday, few attended Mass, even though it’s a Holy Day of Obligation. But the Ascension’s a big deal, so much so that it’s one of the twelve articles of faith we profess in the Creed and the second Glorious Mystery of the Rosary. Like Christmas, Jesus’ bodily Ascension into Heaven changed the relationship between God and humanity in unimaginable ways. While “the Incarnation revealed that God could become flesh and dwell among [us,] the Ascension revealed that [humanity] could be divinized and dwell eternally with God.”[1] As we know, original sin separated humanity from God. Though God never stopped trying to reconcile us to himself, God’s definitive act of reconciliation came in Jesus Christ. As fully God and fully human, Jesus’ Ascension reestablished humanity’s intended place in Heaven with God. Men and women, body and soul, can now live in God’s presence forever in Jesus Christ. The Ascension teaches us, then, that we’re called to new heights: we’re intended to live and are capable of living with God. So, every person should have one goal—to be a saint, to live with God forever in Heaven. That’s our bullseye. Every other goal we set for ourselves in life should aim at and contribute to the ultimate goal of Heaven. In short, in everything we do, we need to aim high. The Ascension also reveals that we mere mortals can be divinized. What does that mean? We learn in Genesis that Adam and Eve were created in God’s image and likeness and that one lasting effect of their original sin was that human beings were no longer like God, until Jesus came along, that is. God sent Jesus to divinize us, to allow us to share in his divine nature, to make us like God. As we pray in one of today’s Prefaces, Jesus “was taken up to heaven in their sight that he might make us sharers of his divinity.” Put another way by Saint Augustine, “God wanted to be the Son of Man, and he wanted men to be the Sons of God.” Why? So we can extend God’s glory to the ends of the earth. How do we do that? We aim high in everything we do. We all received a threefold mission at baptism—priest, prophet, and king. As such, God calls us to worship, preach, and lead people to God, which we accomplish by being God-like, by loving our neighbor as Jesus loves us. It’s incumbent upon us, then, to consider everything we do and everything we say with the bullseye in mind. Are we aiming high, or do our words create resistance? Do our actions raise us and others to the heights of Heaven or drag us and others down to the depths of despair? Like skillful archers, we need to assess each shot that missed the mark, figure out where we went wrong, and adjust our aim for the next shot. As much as I know that we’re good people, we can all find situations where we can aim higher. Perhaps we snap impatiently at our spouses, children, or elderly parents. Maybe we post negative comments on social media that fail to respect the God-given dignity of those we disagree with. Perhaps we focus too much on our rights and needs, while neglecting the rights and needs of others. We should think of our time here on earth as target practice, taking every opportunity to correct, adjust, and aim higher so we all can hit the bullseye, become like God, and live with God forever in Heaven. C. S. Lewis tells us in Mere Christianity that if we “aim at Heaven, [we’ll] get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth, and [we’ll] get neither.”[2] The things of this earth contribute nothing to our goal of eternal life with God unless we use them for the greater glory of God. Armed with our choices, words, and deeds as the arrows in our quiver, we need to set our sights on Heaven. We need to master the fundamental lesson of Christ’s Ascension into Heaven: Aim high. Readings: Acts 1:1-11; Psalm 47; Ephesians 1:17-23; Luke 24: 46-53 [1] Carl E. Olson, “The Ascension Reveals Man’s Calling to Eternal, Divine Life,” The Catholic World Report (May 29, 2025), https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2025/05/29/the-ascension-reveals-mans-calling-to-eternal-divine-life/. [2] C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1996), 134. Do You Love Me? Aim High Print 110 Please login or register to post comments.