Hey look what I have. This is coolest thing. It’s rubber Jesus, sort of like an action figure. Look at this, the arms move up and down. He can do blessings, and bow.
It’s great. We can depict all the bible stories. For example . . . here’s Jesus giving a blessing. [wave his arm]. Here’s Jesus walking on water [bring Jesus over to baptismal font]. And watch this. [go over the ceiling hoist and hook Jesus up]. Here’s today’s feast with Jesus going up into heaven.
Now the problem with this is that we can start taking things a bit too literal. But it doesn’t necessarily mean UP only. I mean, sure can be up. I remember as a kid, staring at clouds trying to catch Jesus or the saints peeking over the side. But think not just but it’s OVER, or it’s AROUND or it’s THROUGH. Christ was lifted around us, through us, in us.
But think of UP as meaning “a moving from” rather than the literally 1,000 feet above us. It would be like the response, “WE LIFT UP OUR PRAYERS.” Well no one is “yanking” on them and putting them higher up. Or we say “WE LIFT UP OUR VOICE.” We don’t rip our throats out and throw up in the air.
For instance, in the first reading after Jesus left the disciples, there were two men dressed in white (we presume that they were angels) and they ask the disciples, “Why are you looking at the sky?” Or in the gospel when Mark says that after Jesus was “taken up into heaven” the disciple went forth to preach, and Christ was WITH THEM.
It is the same with us . . . Christ dwells IN us. We are the place where God dwells and where Jesus was transported to. IN US!!! Not there [pointing to the sky] but here in each of us. [pointing to self] This is where God dwells.
It’s more in-line with what St. Paul was trying to express in the second reading, that because Jesus ascended … somewhere …WE are changed. Paul write, “You are to live a manner worthy of the call that you have received with all humility and gentleness and patience. It’s right here [point to self] because Jesus died, rose and ascended. We are the hands of Christ. We are the feet of Christ. We are the heart of Christ.
When people want to know where God is . . . show them your hands, show them your works. When people want to see where Christ walks talk about your path . . . with its struggles and challenges and joys and hopes. When people doubt the love of God, surround them in your love . . . accepting them, giving them respect.
Sing verse 1:
Christ has no hands but ours, to reach, to touch, to heal, to welcome in community, to fashion family. Christ has no hands but ours.
St. Teresa of Avila (Spanish nun who lived in the 15th century, considered a mystic and doctor of the church)
“Christ has no body now but yours. No hands, no feet on earth but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world.
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good.
Yours are the hands through which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.”
Sing verse 5:
Marked with the cross of Christ, we, as a witness, are sent forth to be the Gospel for Christ has no hands but ours. Christ has no hands but ours.