7TH SUNDAY OF EASTER (B)

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

2ND SUNDAY EASTER (B)

SECOND SUNDAY EASTER (B)                                                                     15 April 2012

Last Sunday at Easter we would have all made the profession of faith as we either renewed our baptism promises or were baptised.  To make the profession of faith is not a very complicated matter, but the ritual that surrounds it – with baptismal water – indicates that it is an important moment.  It sets us on a pathway through the season of Easter until we celebrate the end of Easter at Pentecost in six weeks time.  Over these six weeks we will reflect on the meaning of the faith that we have professed.  This won’t just be a reflection that purifies ideas in our mind.  Ultimately, our faith is lived, so we must keep asking ourselves the question, what difference does faith make to our concrete lives.
 

The incident in today’s gospel tells us something fundamental about faith – what it is and how we live it.  The apostle Thomas becomes the main character.  He wasn’t in the room when Jesus appeared to the other disciples on Easter night.  A week later they are all gathered again and Thomas is with them.  He wants proof that Jesus is risen; he wants to be able to see and touch the wounds.  Jesus appears again and shows Thomas the wounds in his side and hands, and tells Thomas to touch them.  At this point Thomas realises that he doesn’t need to see and touch.  Then comes his famous profession of faith, “My Lord and my God.”  On hearing Thomas’ profession of faith, Jesus announces that for generations to come people will make the same profession of faith without seeing or touching.  He is speaking about us.

Our profession of faith is not based on any proof that Jesus is risen.  When we renewed our faith last Sunday we were recognising what God has done.  The earliest profession of faith was the simple statement: This Jesus who was crucified, God has raised him from the dead.  The focus of our faith is Jesus, whom God has raised from the dead.  To encounter Jesus is to come face to face with God’s mighty work.  Our faith is never simply a body of knowledge; it is a gift of God that gives us sight to see and recognise what God has done in the world.  Our faith is not located back two thousand years ago at that moment when Jesus appeared to his disciples.  Our faith is in the God who, in raising Jesus from the dead, has changed the world for all time.  Our faith is in the God who acts now in our world.
 

When Jesus appeared to his disciples he had a very simple greeting, “Peace be with you.”  If we know and understand this greeting of peace, then we will recognise what God has done in our world.  In the context of the gospel scene, peace is connected to seeing the wounds of Jesus.  This tells us something about what it means to say that the resurrection has changed the world.  It can be very tempting to imagine that through the resurrection of Jesus the old world has simply been wiped out, the way we might delete an image on a computer screen.  But that is not what happens in the Gospel.  The risen Jesus still bears the marks of his suffering and crucifixion.  The greeting of peace does not pretend that those wounds never happened.  Just the opposite: the peace Jesus offers is God’s action reconciling the world, transforming it, making it new.

The wounds of Jesus will be a constant reminder that the world can refuse to listen to Jesus or to know him.  They are a reminder that people can be motivated by greed, or fear, or jealousy, or anger, or any number of actions that bring destruction.  Our faith allows us to trust that God will transform these and give us peace.

There is always a temptation to see faith as some sort of magic potion that lifts us out of the world and its burdens – a type of whitewash that rubs out all the hurts, disappointments and wounds.  Rather than this, faith calls us to keep our feet firmly planted on the ground.  That is where we will see the action of the God who raised Jesus from the dead.

We are not like Thomas who saw the risen Jesus before his very eyes.  Rather we see through faith.  But we must keep the eyes of faith wide open.  We can’t see the marks that the nails made in Jesus’ hands and feet.  But we can see the wounds that still disfigure our world, and the wounds that point to our own pain.  We can see the ideologies that drive groups as well as individuals to behave in ways that break down harmony and peace.  We can see the greed that often drives people to work simply for their own interest and with little concern for others or for God’s creation.  We can see the wounds that we bear from being hurt by others; or the wounds that we see others carrying because of something we have done.

And all of this can begin to get too much for us.  We begin to think that we can’t do anything about it.  That is true.  The point of recognising these wounds is not to work out what we can or should do, but rather to open our eyes so that we might be ready to see what God will do.  It is in these concrete situations that we hear the greeting of the risen Jesus, “Peace be with you.”  The peace he offers won’t wipe out the wounds we see around us as though nothing ever went wrong, but it will open up for us a future that transforms our world and our lives.

 Fr Gerard Kelly