Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
OLR, NOLA
Right
before their eyes “as they were looking on, [Jesus] was lifted up,
and a cloud took him from their sight.” Place yourself in this
scene. You're just standing there with your friends, listening to
your teacher lecture. He's repeating some of the same stuff he's said
a thousand times before. You have absolutely no idea what he's
talking about. One of your more impatient classmates asks Jesus if
and when he plans on restoring the kingdom of Israel. Ah! Finally, a
real question! Time to get this revolution started! Then Jesus starts
taking about times and seasons and the Holy Spirit and Jerusalem and
being his witnesses all over the world. And just as your eyes are
about to glaze over. . .WHOOSH!. . .he flies up into the sky in a
cloud, disappearing from sight. Like everyone else who sees this,
you're standing with your mouth open, wondering what just happened.
Then two guys dressed in white show up and ask, “Why are you
standing there looking at the sky?” Why are we standing here
looking at the sky!? Um, b/c our teacher just got kidnapped by a
cloud? Here's another question just for us: why do the guys in white
ask the stunned disciples why they are looking up at the sky?
Had
the disciples been paying attention to Jesus' answer to the question
about restoring the kingdom of Israel. . .had they been paying
attention for the three years they were with him. . .they would not
have been at all shocked by his ascension into the clouds. Not only
would they not have been shocked, they would've been expecting it.
And they would've watched his rise for a second or two and then
waited for the coming of the Holy Spirit so that their work could
begin. Before he disappeared into the sky, Jesus had instructed his
students, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
That's pretty clear. Make disciples. Baptize them. Teach them my
commandments. Not all that complicated really. So, why the
hesitation? Notice how the disciples approached Jesus that day on the
mountain in Galilee, “When they saw [Jesus], they worshiped, but
they doubted.” They offer him due praise and adoration, but they
also doubt him. How do they both worship Jesus and doubt him at the
same time? The answer to that question tells us why they are standing
there looking at the sky.
Seeing
your teacher and friend kidnapped by a cloud is pretty amazing. It's
worth a gawk or two. But when you think back to the work he's given
you to do – make disciples, baptize them, teach them his
commandments – his sudden disappearance is a little traumatic. He's
leaving us with all this work! All that doubt that you felt
comes roaring back and you start to wonder if you can really finish
all that he's given you to finish. Even before he charged you with
making disciples and teaching them his commandments, you knew that he
would going away. Not how exactly but that he would be. So, you do
what comes naturally: you worship the Son of God as you should but
you also feel the pressure of uncertainty, the heavy burden of
not-knowing whether or not you can do all that he asks of you. In the
drama of his ascension, you forget that he said, “And behold, I am
with you always, until the end of the age.” Then two guys dressed
in white show up and ask you why you're standing there looking at the
sky. You answer, “I'm mourning. I'm wondering where to go from
here, how to get started on all I have to do.” And there's another
week to wait before the Answer comes in fire and wind.
Right
before Jesus gives them the Great Commission, the disciples worship
their teacher. They give him thanks and praise for his presence among
them. But under their adoration is a shadow of doubt, just a hint of
uncertainty and fear. Can we go on without him? How do we follow him
if he's gone? What's happens to us once he leaves? All of them are
disciples. All of them are baptized. All of them are well-educated in
his commandments. Yet, they doubt. These men and women are not fairy
tale heroes. They are not mythical figures that embody archetypal
truths. They are men and women. Mothers, fathers, sons and daughters.
Real flesh and blood folks. Jesus doesn't teach them fables to guide
them through life's hard choices. He doesn't offer them sage advice
or moral lessons. In word and deed, he reveals to them the purpose
and plan of his Father. He brings them into the history of salvation
and makes them participants, players in his Father's program of
redemption. Of course they doubt! What ordinary person wouldn't
doubt, knowing that he or she is cast as an agent in the rescue of
Creation from sin and death? The Holy Spirit has not yet come to
them, so their worship and doubt is perfectly ordinary.
Ask yourself: am I standing around looking at the sky?
Do I understand my commission from Christ solely in terms of
waiting and watching for his return? If so, then your doubt has won
out over your zeal for witness; that is, if we still think of our
faith as a life lived watching the sky instead of as a means of
bringing others to Christ, then we are failing to carry out Our
Lord's commission. Jesus says, “Make disciples. Baptize them. Teach
them my commandments.” That's our fundamental task. Whatever else
we may be doing as his followers, whatever else we may think is
necessary for our growth in holiness, our job description as
Christians is crystal clear. And yes, even as we carry out Christ's
commission, we will doubt. We will be afraid. We'll fall and get back
up. We'll fuss and fight with one another over big questions and
small. But when our lives together as brothers and sisters in Christ
become an elaborate picnic of standing around looking up into the
sky, we must immediately remember Christ's words to his friends, “I
am with you always, until the end of the age.” Why are we staring
at the sky looking for Christ? He is with us always.
Jesus'
ascension directly challenges the disciples and us to think hard
about how we are spending our time and energy as followers of Christ.
There is a heaven. And we are made and remade to spend eternity
there. There is a time and place to build an interior castle, to
wander around in our own souls, seeking the presence of God. We
should ponder the divine mysteries, explore our vocations – run
after all the things of heaven! But none of these is an end in
itself, none of these is our charge. We are disciples. Baptized and
well-educated in the commandments of Christ. We are still here b/c
there are still some out there who have not heard God's freely
offered mercy to sinners. There are still some out there who have not
seen God's love at work in the world. They've not seen me or you
following Christ. Do they see us standing around looking up at the
sky? Wondering what could possibly be so fascinating about a cloud?
Make sure they see you and hear you doing Christ's work and speaking
his word. That's the only reason any of us are still here.
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