A Homily for the Feast of Ascension of the Lord
Given by Rev. Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd
At St. Patrick's Church in Wareham
On this Feast of the Ascension, the Gospel reminds us of the requirements of Love: "Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned."
Love requires us to speak, and not remain silent even when the Gospel message, the good news that death to the world begets a new beginning of Eternal life, is difficult.
Love requires us to speak because Faith is a matter of eternal life and eternal death.
And so today, I feel compelled by the Lord to speak to you about a difficult topic.
One that raises many tempers because it touches the heart of who we are, why we were created, and how we live.
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Mr. Charles Darwin, once noted that species seemed to evolve, and he theorized that the success of one genetic line, was due to survival of the fittest, the best genes.
Darwin’s theory of evolution, which in a more nuanced form remains today more or less widely accepted as the best explanation of the evidence gathered by biological science, reminds us of a biological truth, that CORRISPONDS with a truth of our FAITH but IS NOT DEPENDANT ON FAITH.
Namely that the propagation of our species, procreation, the command that the Bible renders “be fruitful and multiply” in the first pages of the book of Genesis is a SCIENTIFICLY verifiable EVOLUTIONARY IMMPERITIVE.
What we call a NATURAL LAW, that anyone: Hindu, Buddhist, Protestant, Atheist, or Agnostic, can see in nature, and accept without reference to God’s Revelation, the Church, or the Bible.
Historically, faiths, societies, and legal orders have PRIVELEDGED the relationship between a man and a woman, BECAUSE offspring, children, are good not just for the propagation of the species, or a particular family line, but also for society.
Demographers note that every stable society, like a stable building, MUST be at LEAST as large in the foundation as it is at the rooftop.
And what is the foundation or base of the societal structure: the young.
To have a STABLE society there must be at least 2.1 children born to every married couple in a society, for it to remain stable. and children, as the cliché notes, ARE THE FUTURE, so the more of them the better the chances of a bright future.
Both for the sake of society and for the individual, NATURALLY not having children is a PHYSICAL EVIL.
Let’s get that straight, a physical evil, not necessarily a moral evil, what we call a sin.
When a couple is trying to have a child and they can’t that’s a physical evil, they are not guilty of it, it’s not a sin it’s just not good.
To be clear, what I am saying as a celibate priest, is that the choice and promise I made at ordination is not natural— you could even say it’s a physical evil.
Sadly, while many of you can understand and agree that priestly celibacy is not natural
Many of the same people get enraged when the Church teaches that other forms of chosen infertility are not natural.
I chose celibacy, as Jesus suggested in the Gospel of Matthew, “For the sake of the Kingdom” for a supernatural reason to do, what I believe is God’s will, but what is the reason that so many others CHOOSE, and that’s the key word when talking morality: FREE CHOICE; what is the reason people choose behaviors that render them infertile?
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So, what’s all this got to do with the Feast of the Ascension which the Church celebrates today?
Well the Feast of the Ascension, along with the Feast of the Assumption that we will celebrate in August POINT TO a key truth of our Faith.
They point to the fact, that like Jesus who Ascended this day into Heaven, and Mary who was Assumed and sits at the right hand of the Son, we too, are DESTINED, by virtue of our Baptism, to go to heaven, BODY AND SOUL. We believe, as we will soon profess in the Resurrection of the Body.
And what will we do in Heaven?
Well as St. Paul tells us: “…the kingdom of God is not a matter of food and drink, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Spirit…”
Food, in St. Paul’s letter to the Roman’s is a analogy for pleasure, disconnected from “righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Spirit;” In a word St. Paul is telling us that we are made for Charity or Love, which the opposite of becoming a stumbling block for the sake of pleasure, but always doing what is in the best interest of the other.
Love on earth points us to Love in Heaven, and the Feast of the Ascension reminds us that we need to practice on Earth, what we are meant to do for ever in Heaven
Today the world tells us that loving other people is “affirming them” In whatever they WANT to do, irregardless of the Law of God. But our faith tells us that tolerating evil, is the opposite of love.
The other day there was a little controversy in the news, because a church in a neighboring town DARED to challenge people to change the way they were living, this church DARED to freely speak about our Catholic Faith.
The Church posted a sign in front of the Church that read “Two Men Are Friends not Spouses.”
Sadly this sign provoked outraged, But what was so bad about it?
There was once a day when signs were posted in local business that said despicable things like “Catholics need not apply” and “Whites Only” And yet in their day these signs did not cause the outrage that this sign did.
Let’s think for a minute what the sign meant: “Two Men Are Friends not Spouses.”
Obviously is a rebut to the notion of “Gay Marriage,” And our president’s recent endorsement of it. But more importantly it is a statement about the natural law, and love.
First of all it says I love you my brother or sister enough to challenge them because I care about their soul. The truth sets us free, and the truth is that marriage is about the good of procreation and the propagation of the species.
In Heaven, Jesus tells us, that despite the fact that we will have bodies, there will be no marriage.
“For in the resurrection they shall neither marry nor be married; but shall be as the angels of God in heaven,” we read in Matthew’s Gospel.
LOVE does not require marriage; the perfection of Love, is not marriage, but what many married people tell me they long for: true friendship.
Two men, who love each other, are called friends not spouses, Because while the natural good of procreation draws a man and a woman together in that sacred bond in this life, that bond is not possible for two men or two women, AND not necessary for Love, Happiness, or Holiness. The Church is against fornication: in the form of homosexual marriage, but also pre-marital relations and contraception not because the POPE said so. We are against these things, because they are not loving.
Love entails doing what’s good for the other, for your beloved, and nature and Mr. Darwin tells us that procreation is the good for which we marry.
Where procreation is not possible, LOVE still is, friendship still is, and friendship with each other and with God is the definition of the Love we hope to experience forever in Heaven.
Catholic’s don’t hate Homosexuals, we love them, and because of this we desire them to be happy, we profess the truth, that marriage, and the marital act, is only good, only loving, when it is open to the possibility of new life. We deny homosexual “Marriage” because it is contrary to the good of the individual and society And therefore not loving. But LOVE and fulfillment is possible even for those who suffer from same sex attractions, just as it is for me, and countless men and women who have chose to be celibate for the sake of the kingdom.
The Church challenges all these to Love like the Angels, and to remember that as Jesus ascended into Heaven, we are made for Heavenly Happiness not merely for Earthly pleasure.
