The Ascension of the Lord
My decision to go the seminary at seventeen-and-a-half was no easy decision. Going to the seminary is unlike going to college. It is a renunciation. There is a radicalness to it. It rips you, as it were, from home and family. My family and I knew the implications. The day my parents and I left my home and hometown for Bangalore is still fresh in my mind. But even more vivid is the day my parents returned home without me. I remember the three of us at the railway station. Mom and dad had boarded the train, and I stood there alone on the railway platform. This was the first time I had stood alone. As the train slowly pulled away, dad stood at the door waving. I stood there watching the two most precious people in life disappearing into the distance till I saw could see them no more. At that moment, just as I turned around, I felt something deep inside. I was still incredibly sad, but I felt an inexplicable assurance. There was a presence I had not experienced before. I felt stronger and more confident than I had ever felt before. I wiped my tears and looked up. It was the first confirmation of my vocation to the priesthood. 42 years later, I stand here before you.
I think of the Ascension of Jesus as something like my story. When Jesus called the disciples, they renounced it all – their nets, their families, their past, and followed him. Their lives were turned inside out as they saw him brutally put to death. The resurrection restored their hope. But now they stood on a mountain and saw Jesus gradually depart from them. They kept looking and waving until they could see him no more. Suddenly, two men dressed in white came to them and said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?” Whether these were to people, two angels or whether it was an inner conviction I do not know. I do know this – that the day I stood at a railway station and waved my parents goodbye, I felt an inexplicable assurance. I did not see angels or hear a voice. But you cannot give anything in the world to deny that that day I experienced divine presence in the most real way.
Ascension: A New Presence
It is easy to look at the ascension of Jesus as his return back to Heaven. But, in reality, it is the beginning of a new era with a new presence. Before Jesus came, God’s presence was experienced differently. When Jesus came God’s presence was experienced in a radically new way. And now that Jesus has ascended to Heaven, it is a newer way of experiencing God’s presence. If Christ’s presence was once limited to his physical presence, now there are any number of ways in which Christ is present to us. Today, we experience his presence in the Scripture we just read, in the gathering of this community, in the celebration of this Eucharist, in all the other Sacraments. But then, the same Christ was present to me at a railway station. You might be driving to work in your car. You raise your mind in prayer. Christ is present there. You might be sitting in a doctor’s office nervous about a test result. You might have your fingers cross. Christ is present there. You might be sitting attending a funeral. Your grief might be deep. Christ is present there.
When Jesus promised his disciples, “I am with you always,” he was promising them and us a new presence. Today, the various ways in which Christ is present sustains our faith.
Ascension: A New Maturity
I was seventeen-and-a-half when I left home. Seminary offers many resources, but I had to also stop being the child I was at home. I had to stop being a teenager before my teenage years were over. I had to grow up. It’s debatable if I did.
I think this is also true of the disciples. As long as Jesus was with them, they were at one level of maturity. As Jesus formed into disciples, they argued about who is the greatest and who would sit at the right hand and left hand of Christ in his kingdom. One of them betrayed him, another denied him and rest of them ran away. Even after his resurrection they were timid and frightened. But the post-ascension and post-Pentecost disciples were a whole new group of followers. They matured in their faith, took responsibility for it, boldly bore witness to Him.
The feast of the Ascension invites us to new levels of maturity. Our faith, our commitment, our discipleship must grow as we grow. The question we need to ask today is if our faith matches our maturity in other areas of life. Also, has our faith matured enough to match the challenges life presents to us? Often, we grow up, life presents complexities, and we try to address it with childish faith. Our faith-maturity must match our life-maturity.
Ascension: A New Mission
Ascension took the disciples from being an inward-looking group to an upward and outward looking community. While Jesus was with them, he sent them out two-by-two to preach to the local towns and villages. But now, the whole world was their mission field. At the Ascension, Jesus said to them, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations!”
By our baptism, not only has faith been handed to us, but a mission is handed to us. For those who understand faith in a mature way, life and faith are not two different realities. The goal is not that we preach the gospel but that our life itself becomes the gospel. A mature Christian life is lived by and for the sake of the gospel and itself becomes a witness to the world around us.
As we celebrate the ascension of Jesus, we realize that Christ has entrusted his presence and his mission to us. May our lives bear witness to the risen Christ as we maturely live our faith in the world.
- Fr. Satish Joseph