THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD
12 MAY 2024
Today, the disciples find themselves in a place of
uncertainty, in an in-between time. They
had left everything to follow him. In
their three years with him, they had listened to his teachings and witnessed
his miracles. They were convinced that
he was the long-awaited Messiah.
However, their hopes were dashed when his life was ended by the cruelest
tool of Roman occupation. It seemed that
Rome had won again in their work of domination.
However, he not only survived Rome’s power. He was raised from the dead. Saint Luke tells us in the Acts of the
Apostles that the risen Lord had appeared to them over the course of forty
days. That symbolic number indicates that they had been given sufficient
time to appreciate his incredible victory over death and to deepen their faith
in his risen presence.
In the
Ascension, their risen Lord is taken from space and time to return to the right
hand of the Father. In this in-between
time, they do not know what to do. All of
us have been stuck at one time or another in an in-between time. Mothers, you know what the in-between time is
like. You have carefully nurtured your
children, and now you have to let them go to school. Or, you have invested all of your time and
energy in your vocation of being a mother, and your adult child has left the
nest to begin a new life. Graduating
students, you are in an in-between time.
You have completed your years of education. And now you await the next step into an
unknown way of living. To be honest, I
am in an in-between time myself. I know
what it is like to be the pastor of a parish.
I have no idea what it will be like to be a retired priest without that
role.
Anyone
caught in an in-between time can learn from the experience of the first
disciples. Like them, we need to pay
attention to the two men dressed in white garments. They were the same ones at the empty tomb on
the day of resurrection who asked the question, “Why are you looking for the
living among the dead?” Today they ask,
“Why are you standing there looking at the sky?” Their questions challenge the disciples to
see this in-between time as a new beginning both for the risen Christ and for
them. They tell them to stop looking up
to the sky and begin the mission of proclaiming the Good News they learned from
the risen Lord. The Kingdom of God is in
their midst, and that the victory has been won by the death and resurrection of
Jesus Christ.
Of course,
they will remain in the same messy occupation by Rome when they emerge from
their in-between time. That is why the
risen Christ assures the disciples that signs will accompany their
mission. In their mission to proclaim
the good news, they will have the power to drive out the demons of hatred and
division. They can speak the new
language of love. They can pick up the
serpents of oppression and persecution.
They can drink the deadly poison of lies and fake news. They can become instruments of God’s healing
for the sick.
They will
be able to do all these things, because they will receive the Holy Spirit at
Pentecost. The Holy Spirit will drive
them out of their isolation in that upper room in Jerusalem and give them the
courage for their mission. As we
celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit on each of us and on our Church next
Sunday, we can have that same confidence.
The Easter Season has not changed our world. We continue to live in the same world of
division, conflict, lies and half-truths, war, and a general disrespect for the
dignity of human life. But we can emerge
from any in-between time confident that we are not alone in our mission, and
confident that we will succeed. As the
risen Christ promised, he is with us always.
No comments:
Post a Comment