May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation
resulting in knowledge of him.

Knowledge of Him entails a lot. It is historical knowledge, knowledge of who He is, and knowledge that He is acting now, today, in our hearts and in the world. He is acting through the power of the Holy Spirit as He promissed.

This Solemnity is about the certainty of historical knowledge. It is a fact that Jesus died, rose from the dead, was seen by witnesses, and ascended into heaven before witnesses.

It was not ghost Jesus or a Jesus of the imagination or of hysteria as some scholars state nowadays. It was the Jesus who could be touched and held. It was the Jesus who ate with His Apostles and disciples, who broke bread with them in Emmaus. It was the Jesus standing by the seashore preparing a fried fish meal for His friends. It was the Jesus who questioned Peter about his love for Him.

The world is alive with doubt. We have doubts about our relationships, our jobs, our school systems, and the direction of our country. We doubt ourselves and our decisions. The world is all too happy to open a few more trapdoors for us.

Watch TV. We don’t have the coolest, fastest, sportiest, biggest, most fuel efficient cars. We don’t sleep, eat, or relate in the right ways. Our physical appearance and abilities are questioned. How about another trapdoor?

Jesus may have lived (its hard to refute independent testimony from the historians and religious leaders of the day) and Jesus certainly died. The rest, the world says, is doubtful.

There is plenty of evidence and many centuries worth of apologists to prove the case for the resurrected and ascended Jesus. But what about you and me? What are we to believe?

I welcome you to read the proofs for Jesus. To study the culture of the time and the value of witnesses. I’ve done that and more. What I learned was that all the studying in the world can only edify what I already know by faith.

If you trust in the fact of God’s inestimable, unconditional, all powerful, and overwhelming love then you trust in the fact that He would do what we profess He did. We would trust that, with great love, the Father sent His only Son, Jesus, into the world. He sent Him not just to show the way but to atone and sacrifice Himself for our redemption. We would trust that He loves us enough to die for us. That He loves us enough to want us with Him in heaven, that the world is not the end for us, ashes to ashes, but that the Kingdom of God is our destination. That God would rise from the dead, having sacrificed Himself for us He would show us our promised future, our bodily resurrection and our ascension to meet Him in glory.

If you and I trust in God’s love then no proof is needed, just faith.

With faith we are to go forward. We are to:

—Go into the whole world
and proclaim the gospel to every creature.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved—

We are to be His witnesses, witnesses by faith and by our actions.

Your faith must precede your actions. Your actions must be molded and shaped by your faith. By your faith in the resurrected Lord you will be molded and shaped into that man or woman you are to become.

So with St. Paul I say to you:

May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened,
that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call,
what are the riches of glory
in his inheritance among the holy ones,
and what is the surpassing greatness of his power
for us who believe

Amen.