Seek what is above, where Christ is seated (Col 3, 1)
The Ascension of the Lord (C), May 12, 2013 – Acts 1, 1-11; Eph 1, 17-23; Lk 24, 46-53
The disciples look at the sky captivated. They get out of their ecstasy with the intervention of messengers who point out to them the similarity between the departure and the return of Jesus. In effect, the two indicate that, with the Lord’s ascension, his earthly ministry closes and the ministry of the Church, until Jesus comes back, opens with the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
And it is fine that we look intently towards heaven. It is our way, while we are still at home in the body, of going up to where the Ascended one is. Thus, too, we train ourselves now for the future life of eternal contemplation (St. Augustine).
By keeping our eyes fixed on the one whom God has seated at his right and in whom divine liberality is displayed, we hope to know better and better the hope to which God has called us, the riches of his glorious inheritance and the surpassing greatness of his power for us. Looking at the splendid outcome of the Lord’s way of life, we will, moreover, neither grow weary nor lose heart. Heartened by him, we also will be ready to endure opposition from the worldly.
Indeed, the Ascension impels us witnesses of Jesus to challenge the world. Our prayer before God and the one seated at the right of the throne will make us capable of everything (Coste XI, 83). We cannot just be standing there looking at the sky. We will leave our special places of contemplation to return to where the diverse multitudes are; we will leave God for God (Coste X, 55). In full view of the people, we will always praise God in our churches. We will proclaim in these centers of worship the other-worldly vision of the heavenly City where there is no temple, since its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb. We will bring such other-worldly message to the ends of the earth.
The credible testimony both to Jesus and to the Holy Spirit who declares the world guilty demands, of course, that we adopt our Teacher’s lifestyle. The way we live will serve as a sacrament that makes the one who is not of this world present. Hence, we will rise above the world and put into practice the meaning of our proclamation of Jesus’ death until he comes, which the world cannot bear certainly: repentance and forgiveness, simplicity, humility, poverty, mercy, compassion. If we do this, we will fulfill the same mission as that of St. John the Baptist, the mission announced in the ancient temple, of preparing a people fit for the Lord.
And we are ready for the Lord inasmuch as we, among other things, keep the faith that the Son of Man hopes to find when he returns. People fit for the Lord are no longer captivated either by fine clothes, gold rings or reserved places of honor, all admired by the promoters of worldly partiality.
Ross Reyes Dizon
Tags: A Vincentian reading of the Sunday readings, Contemplation and action