Acts 1:1-11

Today's passage takes us back to the beginning verses of the Acts of the Apostles and sets forth themes that Luke is going to develop throughout this, the longest book of the New Testament. His major theme is the role of the Holy Spirit, who enables the apostles to be effective witnesses to Jesus. The Holy Spirit is mentioned 57 times in the Acts of the Apostles.

Hebrews 9:24-28; 10:19-23

On Yom Kippur, the high priest sacrificed a goat on the altar in the temple. Then he took some of the blood into the holiest place in the temple sanctuary where only he was allowed to go. There, he sprinkled that blood as a renewal of the covenant made at Mt. Sinai, and prayed that God would forgive all their sins committed during the previous year. The ritual is the backdrop for today's reading from the letter to the Hebrews.

Luke 24: 46-53

Bishop Untener's Homily

The first thing we have to do is acknowledge the shock to our system - the jolt we all felt when we heard of Fr. Mike's sudden death, and the numbness we still feel. We can't ignore those feelings, and we shouldn't. We bring those feelings to our prayer. We "pray our feelings." The psalmists did that. Jesus did it on the cross. We bring it all to the Lord and with utter honesty we tell God how we feel. God can take it.

The Funeral Liturgy

The Funeral Liturgy has three stages. The first stage is the vigil (we often refer to it as "the wake"). This is when we look back. We remember the person who died, and we tell stories - humorous stories, touching stories. We laugh, we cry and we pray as we look back to what once was.

The second stage is the Funeral Liturgy. In this stage we look at the present, the way things are right now. Fr. Mike is no longer with us in the same way he was before. We have to deal with that and so we ask the Lord to deepen our faith. We've said the words many times before in the Creed - "I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen." Now those words take on a different ring. They are no longer simply words. They are no longer simply theory. They are our faith, our deepest faith. And we bring all our thoughts and feelings - we bring our whole selves - to the altar, and join with Christ in his dying and rising, entrusting everything as he did, to the Father.

The third stage is the Rite of Committal at the cemetery. In this stage we look ahead to the future. We let go of what was and take hold of what is, and what shall be in the days ahead. At the cemetery we pray: "Into your hands, Father of mercies, we commend our brother in the sure and certain hope that, together with all who have died in Christ, he will rise with him on the last day. Merciful Lord, turn toward us and listen to our prayers... Help us who remain to comfort one another with the assurances of faith, until we all meet in Christ and are with you and with our brother for ever."

We can't fully accomplish these three stages in a few days, but we learn how to deal with death, and we go through these three stages over and over in the weeks and months ahead.

The Ascension

Fr. Mike was killed during the Easter season, and on the day that used to be Ascension Thursday, a feast we celebrate instead today. We need to let this holy season, and this feast, speak to us.The Ascension of Jesus seemed to be a departure. He had formed a community of disciples and they became a close-knit group... and now he leaves them. It would seem to be the beginning of the fragmentation, the splitting-up of this small community that had been so close together.

Other deaths will follow. Stephen will be killed by stoning. James will be executed by Herod. Peter will die in Rome. The departure of Jesus, so it would seem, was the beginning of the end.

But it wasn't. It was the beginning of a new beginning. It was the beginning of the gift Jesus promised - His Spirit - that would come upon them and form them together with bonds that went far beyond the closeness they once knew - their meals together, their times together in a boat on the Sea of Galilee, their travels together on the roads of Palestine. They would now be "clothed with power from on high," a power that joins them even more closely with the Lord and with one another. There would now be a new closeness that not even death could break. Because each of them and all of them would have within them the Lord's own Spirit, they would be linked together in a bond that distance could not break... that not even death could break. We call it the Communion of Saints.

The Communion of Saints

In the Ascension, Jesus left the disciples so that he could come to them in a new and fuller way. And he has come in a new and fuller way. The Risen Lord is building a new and closer and happier community. St. Paul, who had an extraordinary experience of the Risen Lord said, "I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor heifght, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)

You are used to seeing Fr. Mike standing here at this altar. Today, we look and we can't see him. But there's more to our faith than what we can see. We believe in the Communion of Saints. We believe that at every Eucharist we are joined together with the whole Church around the world, and with the Church in heaven. When we begin the Eucharistic Prayer, we say in the Preface, "And so, Father, we gladly thank you with every one who believes in you; together with the saints and the angels, we rejoice and praise you as we sing: 'Holy, holy, holy Lord... '

At the Eucharist, time and space dissolve, and this altar is the great banquet table where Christ brings the whole Church together - the Church in heaven and on earth. Fr. Mike is part of this banquet. So are your fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, children who have died. Because the Lord rose from the dead, ascended to heaven, and has poured His own Spirit upon us, we have a bond of divine life that not even death can break. At every Eucharist we celebrate this, experience this.

In the Eastern Rite of the Catholic Church there is the custom of a priest saying "good-bye" to the altar as he kisses it at the end of Mass. This is the prayer he says:

Rest in peace, holy altar of the Lord.
I do not know if I will ever come back to you or not.
May the Lord grant me to see you, holy altar,
in the assembly of the faithful in heaven.
May the holy body and blood that I received from you
be the forgiveness of my sins,
and my assurance before the judgment of our Lord and God.
Rest in peace, holy altar of the Lord, table of life.
May I not cease to think of you henceforth, and forever and ever.
Amen

May Fr. Mike see the Lord at the holy altar in the assembly of the faithful in heaven.

And may we, as we gather at this altar, know that the assembly of the faithful in heaven gathers with us, and we with them as, together with the Church around the world, and together with all the angels and saints we sing,

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest."

Originally given on May 27, 2001 at St. Michael Parish, Port Austin, whose Pastor, Fr. Mike Bell had been killed in an auto accident