READINGS: Acts 1:1-11; Psalm 46:2-3.6-9; Eph 4:1-13; Mk 16:15-20
THEME: Do Not Stay Gazing But Go Out to Proclaim the Good News
On 13th October 2019, I witnessed for the first time, the canonization Mass at St. Peter’s Square, Rome. One of the people canonized was John Henry Cardinal Newman. I was sitting with my friend, Alfred, and in the same row were some people who came down all the way from Canada.
After the Mass, one of the women sitting with us approached me and thanked me for carrying them along during the liturgy. Then she told me how she had known John Henry Cardinal Newman, and how she had had several personal sessions with him.
Then, she added, “I am happy that I have someone whom I know, who knows me and who lived with me, who now dwells eternally in the presence of God. It will be easier for me to make my daily requests to God through him.”
Dearest friends, every year, on the feast of the Ascension, I remember these words of the woman: “I am happy that I have someone whom I know, who knows me and who lived with me, who now dwells eternally in the presence of God.”
The feast of Ascension celebrates the final stage of Jesus’ triumph, and inauguration of the Messiah’s kingdom, with Jesus sitting at the Father’s right hand. But in addition to this, the feast of Ascension celebrates the assurance of the believers that they now have someone who has lived with them, who now stands always for them before the Father.
Having lived with us and in our human form, and having experienced our lacks, difficulties and pains, Jesus, now sitting with the Father, knows all we go through.
And having ascended with the same human body he took in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the same body that was scorned and inflicted with wounds, the same body that was glorified in his Resurrection, Jesus now gives us assurance that we have someone who represents us before the throne of justice.
WHY ARE YOU STANDING HERE LOOKING INTO THE SKY?
After Jesus ascended, his disciples stood there, looking into the sky where he had gone into. The Greek word ἀτενίζοντες (ἀτενίζω) is not just a mere looking but to look intently, to fix one’s gaze upon something. It is a ‘looking’ that focuses on the object that is being looked at without wanting to be distracted from it. The disciples were amazed at what happened before them, and they remained speechless and motionless.
They were focused on the sky without knowing what next to do. The disciples’ ‘look’ was filled with ‘missing’ and ‘not-letting-go’. The ascension of Jesus takes the attention of the disciples from concentrating on the things of this world to focusing on the things of heaven where Jesus now sits at the right hand of the Father. It invites all of us to focus on the things of heaven for there is where our destination lies.
The disciples were so much focused on gazing into the sky such that it took the intervention of the two men (taken to be angels) who appeared to them in order to console them that the same Jesus, who has gone up before them, will still come back to them.
While the attention of the disciples are henceforth to be where Jesus had gone into, they do not need to remain there, gazing intently and waiting for him. Jesus himself has given them what to do while waiting for his return.
GO OUT TO THE WHOLE WORLD, PROCLAIM THE GOOD NEWS TO ALL CREATION
This is the work which Jesus assigned to his disciples. Jesus himself came into the world, in order to proclaim the Good News to all men (Lk 4:18-21; Matt 4:23-25; Mk 1:14-15, 38-39).
Hence, by giving this order to his disciples, Jesus is transferring his own work of evangelization to them. In the gospel of Mark, this injunction is immediately followed by Jesus’ ascension into heaven.
Hence, before Jesus left, he made a request to his disciples, and this request is that they continue with his own mission of bringing Good News to all creation. The instruction is of two parts:
Part A: GO OUT TO THE WHOLE WORLD
Part B: PROCLAIM THE GOOD NEWS TO ALL CREATION
GO OUT TO THE WHOLE WORLD attends to two questions: “do what?” and “where?”.
Jesus’ words: “Go out” involves an action. It calls for an action to go into a meeting. The work of evangelization is that which demands our going out. It is not that which waits for people to come to us but requires our going out to the people.
And the destination of this ‘going out’ is not to some chosen people, or where we feel comfortable, or where we think we are needed or accepted, but to the whole world. The proclamation of Good News is not limited to a particular area but to all people. Whoever I encounter, no matter his origin or color or language, must not depart from me without having encountered the grace of God working in me.
PROCLAIM THE GOOD NEWS TO ALL CREATION responds to the purpose of ‘going out to all creation’. The going out to all people which Jesus invites them to do is not to go and create problems but to bring to them the consoling message of God’s mercy.
If our going out to the people is not to proclaim the Good News, if our going out to the people is not to show them the loving and merciful face of God, if our going out to the people do not end in them calling us “Christians (Christ-like)”, then we are not responding to Christ’s call.
One thing is to go out to people, another thing is what we bring to them upon meeting them. Many have gone out in order to proclaim the Good News, but they end bearing the face of the evil one. Hence, we must always stay with Christ, gazing at him always, so that his face reflecting on our face, our purpose of going out may always bear the needed fruit.
Dearest friends, it is Christ himself who equips us for this work of evangelization. Every one of us has something of God which we can bring to other people. In the second reading, St. Paul expresses this when he speaks of the different gifts and evangelical dispositions which God has given to each and every one of us, in order to share with others. Some are apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers.
All these gifts are to enable us in bringing the Good News of God to all. And while we do that, there should not be competition nor division among us. There is only one Good News of Christ: God is love.
All our gifts and their uses must aim at spreading this Good News of Christ, and in uniting us as the messengers of the one and only message of God’s love. The disciples should not be divided because Christ has gone up, rather they all should be united by the same spreading of the Good News.