Happy Ascension of our Lord to you all!
One day Leonardo da Vinci started to work on a large picture in his studio. For a while he worked at it – choosing the subject, planning the perspective, sketching the outline, applying the colors, with his own unique genius. Then suddenly he stopped working on it. Summoning one of his students, the master invited him to complete the work. The horrified student protested that he was both unworthy and unable to complete the great painting which his master had begun. But da Vinci silenced him. “Will what I have done inspire you to do your best?”
Jesus our Lord and Master began to spread the Good News two thousand years ago by what he said and did. He gave us an example, illustrated his message and left us to finish the picture. Will Jesus’ life not inspire us to finish the picture? This is the message of the Ascension.
It’s tempting to see the Ascension, as the conclusion of Christ’s earthly ministry, an ending. But to think of it that way is to see it backwards. What we celebrate today is really a beginning.
In Matthew’s gospel, moments before his Ascension, Jesus told his followers very simply: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” He urged them to baptize, to teach, to carry on the work that he has begun. But his first direction was so blunt, so direct, and clear: “Go.”
The world is waiting. Act on what I have taught you, put it into practice. But the account in Acts offers another challenge – to the disciples and to us. After the disciples watched Jesus disappear into the clouds, two men appeared. “Men of Galilee”, they said, “why are you standing there looking at the sky?” In other words: what are you waiting for?
The apostles were not supposed to spend their time staring nostalgically at the stars, awaiting Christ’s return. There was work to do. There was a world waiting to be converted. They left the mountain, went into the city, and launched the greatest missionary undertaking in human history. It seems to me that Christ’s first word at that moment was a simple command to us all: “Go.”
Go – and transform yourself, your family, your parish, the world.
Go – and pick up those who have fallen.
Go – and heal those who are hurting.
Go – and love those who have been forgotten.
Or: as the dismissal puts it at the end of Mass:
“Go in peace, glorifying the Lord with your life.”
2,000 years after Christ returned to his Father and the disciples stood on a mountaintop staring into the clouds, so much of the world is still waiting to hear the good news – to hear Christ’s message of hope, and redemption, and resurrection, and to understand why all that matters.
So many are still waiting to hear and really understand, what it means to be a disciple of Christ, and to love one another. How will we make that known to those we meet today? Someone said: “Our faith is stronger than death; our philosophy is firmer than flesh; and the spread of the Kingdom of God upon the earth is more sublime and more compelling.” So the message of this beautiful feast, I think, is very simple: do not stay too long on the mountain. Do not spend all your time gazing at the stars, living in the past or dreaming about the future. Look, instead, at what lies before you. Get ready. And go. The Ascension was just the beginning. The rest is now up to us.
“Will not what Jesus has done inspire you to do your best?”
P.S. # You are all invited for the third Tuesday of the month (May 18th) St. Michael’s devotion. We start our prayer at 7 pm with Mass and after Mass we’ll continue our prayers before the Blessed Sacrament invoking St. Michael’s intervention. St. Michael has four main responsibilities or offices, as we know from scripture and Christian tradition.
- The first is to combat Satan.
- The second is to escort the faithful to heaven at their hour of death.
- The third is to be a champion of all Christians, and the Church itself.
- And the fourth is to call men from life on Earth to their heavenly judgment.
May this powerful Archangel be our protector and our intercessor!
Proclaim with St. Michael always “WHO is LIKE GOD!”
# Please join us for SPRING CLEAN UP on Saturday, May 22nd at 9 am and help us to make the property of our parish NICE, CLEAN AND BEAUTIFUL!
~Fr. Tom