Mark Twain once said, “The two most important days in your life are the day you were born…and the day you know why.”
***
Just a few days ago, I celebrated my 5th anniversary as a priest. It reminded me, again, why the Lord created me, to be his servant and to draw others closer to God.
It’s the same reason why he created Saint Paul, whom we listen to in our first reading.
***
Paul’s reached the end of his journey. He’s run the race of life and kept the faith.
Knowing his death is imminent, he gives a final sermon to the Church in Ephesus, exhorting them to remain faithful to the Gospel he preached.
He also warns them against false preachers, whom he knows will arise in their midst, against disunity, and spiritual malaise; things we must still be weary of today.
But Paul’s competed well. He’s done his part. Now he must entrust his flock to his successors.
This gesture of handing on the faith has happened over the last two millennia, some 100 generations, which now includes us.
***
The two most important days in your life are the day you were born…and the day you know why.
***
As Christians, we might add a third day to Twain’s famous line: the day you were born, the day you know why…
…and the day you go home.
***
Saint Paul’s done his part to hand on our faith. Now’s he’s heading home, trusting we’ll continue to share the Gospel.
Regardless of who we are, or what roads we take in life, this is part of the “why” we were created, to share our Christian faith.
I turned 35 just a few days ago – and it struck me that I’m now two years older than Jesus.
He died at 33.
***
Over the last several days, we’ve been listening to his final discourse in John’s Gospel; it’s Jesus’ final night on earth, so he tells his disciples everything he wants them to know before his death.
Most of what he teaches them is done so verbally. But there’s also a lesson he teaches them not by his words, but by his actions.
It’s that life is not about duration, but donation.
Time is God’s gift to us.
What matters is not how much we have, but how well we use it.
For his part, Jesus gives everything he has away – even his body as he hangs from the cross. Every moment of his life was time well spent.
***
So many of our relatives and friends – and even some of you – have done the same.
You’ve given your freedom, and some their lives, so that we might have ours. That’s what we celebrate this Memorial Day, the fact that life is not about duration, but donation.
It’s about service.
When I think about Memorial Day, my mind always drifts to the Greatest Generation. When World War Two broke out, so many of our soldiers weren’t even men; they were boys.
But they fought with courage and valor, many giving their lives for the sake of ours. They remind us that life is not about duration, but donation.
It’s about service.
Time is God’s gift to us. What matters – and ultimately what we’re judged upon – is how well we use it.
***
We should consider how well we use the time we have, how we better the lives of other people.
Most of us will not find ourselves on the shores of Normandy, or in the heart of Damascus.
But there are dozens of opportunities we have throughout our day to use our time well – to serve by being patient, thoughtful, and generous towards others.
Because the more we serve our neighbor, even in little ways, the more we become like Christ, who has loved us and given himself for us.
Fifty-one years ago, a spacecraft named Apollo 11 was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, entering the earth’s orbit after only 12 minutes in flight.
Five days later, on July 21, 1969, Neil Armstrong opened the spacecraft’s doors, becoming the first person in history to step foot on the moon.
Perhaps some of you remember the moment he spoke prophetically from space, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
The mission, which has left its mark on our national consciousness, was hailed as a scientific triumph. We’ve been exploring space ever since, reaching out for new solar systems and galaxies.
Our universe, it seems, is an infinite stretch of combusting stars, black holes, asteroids and lifeless planets.
***
One could argue that landing on the moon has damaged our religious imagination.
For millennia people arched their necks, squinted and stared into the bright blue sky, and prayed to the gods.
Some still do.
How many of us, for example, have sung about heaven as a place, “Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high, where troubles melt like lemon drops, high above the chimney top”?
But science has revealed to us time and again that that isn’t true. Heaven isn’t, “Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high.”
All that exists out there are countless galaxies devoid of life. So if heaven can’t be reached with a turbo-charged rocket, then where is it?
***
After all, on this Feast of the Ascension we celebrate our belief that Jesus was, “taken up into heaven.”
So where in the world – or where in the universe – did he go?
***
It’s a troubling question, especially for those of us with empirically driven minds.
But thinking about heaven in scientific terms can lead us astray, because Jesus didn’t rise from the earth like a rocket launched from the Kennedy Space Center; his resurrection isn’t something you can prove via autopsy or telescope.
Rather, as the Acts of the Apostles accounts, Jesus, “was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.”
That’s right.
Jesus returned to heaven enveloped in a cloud.
***
In the Bible, a cloud symbolizes much more than a puff of cotton-like matter floating effortlessly in the sky.
A cloud represents the presence of God.
In the Book of Exodus, for example, Israel was led out of slavery in Egypt by the Lord, who appeared to them in a, “pillar of a cloud.”
When Moses ascended Mount Sinai to receive the 10 Commandments, God descended upon him in a cloud.
And in Jesus’ own ministry, think of the moment that he led his disciples up a mountain and was transfigured before them. His body glowed like a light bulb and his clothes became dazzling white.
Then his Father appeared to them in a bright cloud saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him” (Matthew 17:5).
Nobody saw the Father speaking from heaven; they only heard him hidden in a cloud.
And today Jesus ascends into heaven, once again, mysteriously enveloped in a cloud.
***
So what’s the point?
Heaven isn’t some place over the rainbow; we can’t reach it with rockets or see it with telescopes. It’s not meant for our eyes to behold – or our bodies to touch.
Not yet.
Entrance into heaven only comes after living a life of faith in the Son of God, who has, “loved us and given himself for us” (Ephesians 5:2).
What we must focus on in the here-and-now is how we can follow Jesus just a little better – day-by-day, step-by-step.
But before you know it, we’ll be knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door, a place that isn’t somewhere over the rainbow.
