SEVENTH SUNDAY OF EASTER (B) 20 May
2012
It is hard for us to imagine what the
disciples must have felt as Jesus left them and ascended into heaven. There was surely a sense that he was now no
longer with them. They were now
confronted by his absence. Yet it wasn’t
as simple as that. They had already
lived through the shock of his death, and were then surprised by his
resurrection. Even though they may have
walked with him or eaten with him, they would have been very conscious that
this was somehow different to the way they had been with him before his
death. His presence after the
resurrection was different. So while his
ascension to the right hand of the Father may have seemed like a definitive
departing from them, in fact they very quickly had a greater sense of his
presence.
This seems to be the point of the
Ascension. It reminds us that Jesus had
to leave this world in order to complete the mission he had been given by his
Father. Only by leaving this world would
he become present to all people of all ages and all places. Only by leaving the world of Jerusalem and
Galilee would he become present to us today.
In recent weeks we have seen glimpses of how this would be so. He would be recognised in the breaking of
bread, in the Eucharist. He would be
heard in the proclamation of the Word of God, the Scriptures.
Today we hear something of how this
would be possible. Just before he
ascends into heaven Jesus tells the disciples to go to Jerusalem and wait for
the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit who
will keep Jesus present among them. The
Spirit will keep the memory of Jesus alive among the people. But the Spirit will also make Jesus present
among them in the sacraments. Notice
today how during the Eucharistic Prayer we will pray that the Holy Spirit will
come upon the gifts of bread and wine so that they may become the body and
blood of Christ. We will also pray that
the Spirit will come upon us who eat this Eucharistic feast so that we may be
the body of Christ. So when Jesus tells
the disciples that the Spirit will give them power, he is telling them that in
fact from now on they will be closer to Jesus than they were during his life on
earth. They will be drawn into the
divine life; they will participate in the life of God.
There is a sense in which this has been
their destiny: to share communion with God.
That is why I said earlier that the Ascension of Jesus completes his
mission. He leaves them in order to send
the Spirit so that people of all ages might share in his life, might be part of
him, might together form his body. This
began for each of us when we received that first gift of the Spirit at our
baptism. The Spirit ensures that
salvation is available to all creation.
But life with Jesus is never given for
its own sake. Salvation is not simply
something that we take to ourselves like some greedy person interested only in
themselves. The readings today make it
very clear that the ascension of Jesus makes it possible for his mission to
continue in the words and actions of the apostles and their descendants. In fact the kingdom he preached and
inaugurated now has to take root in the land of every people and every
nation. This happens by the life and
witness of those who have received the Spirit.
Every people and every nation has to be able to recognise in their own midst
the salvation Jesus brings. It will be
both familiar and unfamiliar to them. It
will be familiar because it will be dressed in the forms of their own culture. But it will be unfamiliar because it will
also challenge the culture to change and be take up what is necessary in order
that it be a place where communion with God is a reality.
I think the feast of the Ascension is
the occasion for each of us to reflect on how we are part of the mission of
Jesus. It is not going to be present
exactly as we heard in the gospel, where devils were cast out or people were
unharmed if they drank poison. These
were signs for a different time. We need
to ask ourselves, what are the signs associated with believers today. Or more specifically: what are the signs associated
with the Chinese community in Sydney.
You can probably think of many of these signs, but let me mention just
one. It is this: a strong family life
where there is great respect and care across the generations and where people
of every age can flourish. This is one
of the most important signs of salvation – if we understand salvation in terms
of communion. A strong family life will
enable family members to have a deep sense of connection with each other and therefore
with God. In this way you are a sign in
the world of what salvation looks like.
Of course this doesn’t mean that all families are perfect or that they
don’t experience disappointment. But the
thing that characterises a Christian family is that it is also a sign that
renewal and reform is possible. This is
part of the message of salvation.
So on this Ascension Day let us rejoice
that Jesus’ parting words were to wait for the Spirit so that we might be his
witnesses in the world.
Fr. Gerard Kelly
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