Coming Home
It came from the depths of her 8-year-old heart, addressed to her father who was leaving the next day on another tour of duty to a country overseas she never heard of: “You’re leaving me again?”
I can imagine that the disciples thought something very similar on the day our Lord led them to Bethany and ascended before their very eyes, returning to the Father. “You’re going away again? Why are you leaving us?”
This wasn’t the first time they felt abandoned, of course. Only forty days earlier, they watched in horror as Jesus died on a cross, murdered as a result of hate, jealousy, fear and sin. It was in that space of grief and confusion that the Risen Christ returned to them, offering grace and mercy to hearts that were broken, ashamed and afraid. For forty days, resurrected love transformed them and molded them into a bolder community of wounded healers, to borrow the phrase of the beloved Catholic writer Henri Nouwen. Wounded healers becoming Church for the first time.
And now that Resurrected Love seemed to be abandoning them once again. “What do we do now?”
Far from abandoning them, Christ actually was empowering them for even greater things, and in so doing, He was also teaching us – His disciples of 2025 – how to fully live in the Light of His Resurrection. Like all excellent teachers, there is a roadmap back to the Father filled with clues:
Firstly, the Lord says to his followers: “Thus, it is written …”
The Word is breaking open the power of the Scriptures to them, reminding them that everything we need to know – every answer to every one of life’s many challenges and struggles – can be found in the Hebrew and Christian testaments: the story of covenantal love from a Father toward His wayward children. From the dawn of creation, God wanted us back, and thus He sent His Own Heart – His Son – to rescue us and show us the way. All of the desert wanderers, the judges and the kings and all the prophets pointed to the Promise, and the Promise was fulfilled in Christ’s life, death and resurrection.
Cling, then, to the Word of God. How are we doing with that? Is Sunday the only time in the week that you and I are searching the Scriptures for answers? When I am uncertain and in need of direction, do I take Jesus at His Word, literally? Might the Lord be placing it on our hearts right now to spend a little more time praying with the psalms, the Gospels and the Pauline letters? There are so many awesome Catholic resources out there that open the Word for us – seek them out and find one that works for you.
Once rooted in the Word, the Lord then tells the disciples: “Be witnesses to these things,” namely the forgiveness of sins that comes from the Cross. Christ poured out everything to set us free from the chains which Satan uses to keep us held bound. We no longer have to be slaves to hatred or selfishness of any kind. We are no longer our shame nor our fallen sinful selves. Rather, we are made new in His Blood and the waters of Baptism.
Thus, we must witness to this: in how we live; in how we love; in how we forgive others (and even ourselves); in how we share mercy and in how we prepare for the Kingdom, both on earth and in eternity. When we witness, we die-to-self – which is the heart of the very word. To die for Christ and His Church (“He must increase and I must decrease”): witness.
In order to live in that space of self-emptying mercy, the third part of the Ascension promise that Christ offers in today’s Gospel is grounded in this truth: “Stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” In other words, wait upon the Spirit.
It is hard as Americans and challenging in today’s modern age to be obedient to a higher power. We want what we want when we want it. The only thing that matters is me and those whom I care about; I don’t want to be told what to do (Stay in the city…) and I don’t want to wait (until you are clothed with power…). How long will that be? How will I know when the Spirit comes? Will the wait be worth it?
Quite frankly, the saints who have travelled the road before us -- those who have gone where we long to one day be – have all witnessed to the very thing that Christ offers here: obedience to the Truth leads to the outpouring of the Spirit, and the Spirit leads us to heaven. There is no other way. Thus, when the wisdom of the Church guides us in her precepts and her doctrine to avoid certain sins and act according to her laws, our humble submission (and at the very least our willingness to be open to understanding) points us Home. When Moses and the Israelites listened, they moved forward in hope and peace to the Promised Land; when they didn’t, the seraph snakes and other disasters followed them. The same holds true even in 2025.
Therefore, we must ask ourselves: Today, what will we choose? “To stay and wait” (the road of obedience to God) or to go on our own, believing we know best?
Finally, there is one detail that seems rather meaningless, but to me says everything: Christ, in preparing them for His return to the Father, leads them as far as Bethany. At least as I see it, this shows how much Jesus loves His disciples, both the original crew and we who continue to follow Him.
Bethany, you see, was the place where the Lord stayed with His best friends: Mary, Martha and Lazarus. It was here where he helped Martha see the love-value that comes from choosing hospitality over complaining; where Mary listened attentively at his feet, growing in contemplative love. It was also here He wept over the death of His best friend, Lazarus, and where He raised him from the dead, prefiguring His own glorious resurrection. Bethany was where Jesus stayed in His final week between Palm Sunday and Calvary – think about what that week must have been like for Him and His best friends. Ultimately, He allowed Himself to be loved in His final hours by three very-human people who gave Him their hearts, their messiness and their struggles: pouring it all out like Mary’s costly bottle of perfume.
Bethany was the place where Christ experienced every human emotion and absorbed the hearts of all who came to Him in Love. Call it family. Call it Church. Both are true. Every time we gather together around this sacred Table as well as our kitchen table, we prepare our souls for eternity when we feed on Love. Each time we share the Good News of Jesus -- be it from the ambo or in the living room among our children or a visiting neighbor -- we prepare our hearts to receive His Spirit. When we give of ourselves to others, we are at Bethany.
Bethany is the sacredness found in family and friends.
Bethany is the willingness to make room for Christ.
Bethany is the certainty of knowing that in the messiness of daily living, the Heart of God is present to us.
Bethany is knowing this isn't the end of our story, but what a beautiful one it truly is, even when -- especially when -- we walk to Calvary with Him and help others who carry heavy burdens, too.
Christ's Bethany is where true love grows, weeps, challenges, serves, and pours out. And He left from there to remind us that everywhere we go in life, it is our Bethany. The ground where we stand -- and every present moment we offer to the Lord -- is the very place of Communion and Spirit, love and Church.
Bethany is the road back Home.
Just as the little girl asked her military father: "Do you have to go?" so, too, do we ask the same of Christ: "Did you have to ascend back to the Father?"
To which the answer comes: I go out of love and will send love in return. I go to prepare a place for you. But have no fear: where you are, I am and I will always be.
I'll see you at your Bethany.