LOOKING UP TO JESUS CHRIST

SOLEMNITY OF THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD   

Acts 1:1-11; Ps 47:2-3,6-9; Eph 1:17-23; Mt 28:16-20

Developing a Heavenly Mindset

We have often written about our fixation with sensible things and the attractions of sensible life and pleasures. We are not really to be blamed as such, for the scriptures affirm that we are sinners through and through, conceived and born in sin. So, we have no knowledge of any other way to live our lives, apart from going after the sensible goods and pleasures. Hence, God takes his time to train souls he intends to work with, to imbue them with faith in the God they do not see nor perceive with their senses. The difficulty of this training for our sinful nature is confirmed by the sins and failures of the men of the Old Testament to please God. The decision of God to send his only Begotten Son in human nature is in consideration of this difficulty and in order to fit our salvation to our mode of living and acting. The Incarnation, which brought the Son of God to dwell in our nature, is a great prompt for human nature to believe and rely on God. The dwelling of the Eternal Word with us in flesh is a great vocation to us to rise from sensible life and perceptions to spiritual life and visions. The impossibility of this switch for man without divine help was expressed by the Son of Man to Nicodemus during their discussion in Jn 3:3. The Lord revealed that we need a spiritual birth to see the kingdom of God that is already with us. Nicodemus, who was a teacher of the Old Testament, was unable to understand the words of our Lord.

Based on the above difficulty, or impossibility of our sinful nature to see the kingdom of God, as asserted by our Lord, we understand the difficulties of the disciples to immediately comprehend the meaning of the kingdom of God and the identity of the Risen Lord. For forty days after his resurrection, the Risen Lord helped them to overcome their shock at his death and the loss of hope it caused them. Even as he appeared and disappeared among them, they still hoped for the restoration of the kingdom of Israel by wresting it from the hands of the Romans who ruled over them. The Lord understood their difficulties and gently directed their minds and hearts to the heavenly or spiritual realm. They were not thinking of his promise of the Holy Spirit, for they did not understand what it meant. In fact, no mere human mind can understand the spiritual promises of our Lord. Their questions clearly indicate their ignorance. “Lord, has the time come? Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” The Lord gently replied to them, leading their minds away from earthly things and kingdom to the more enduring and inestimable goods of heaven. “It is not for you to know times or dates that the Father has decided by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends of the earth.” They were demanding trifles and transitory material goods, while he was offering them everlasting life and the kingdom.

Each of us is like the apostles and disciples as described in the readings. Coming to Jesus Christ, and to spiritual life in him, we rarely know what we have come to, and whom we have received. Through our profession of faith in Jesus Christ, subsequent baptism into his death, and sharing his resurrection in a new (spiritual) life, we have received all divine authority. But this authority will be progressively unlocked in our lives as we make progress in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. We are at different stages of our journey of faith in Jesus Christ. The Gospel illustrates this. “When they saw him, they fell down before him, though some hesitated.” Some were unsure of his divinity; those who worshipped him believed, but still needed enlightenment from the Holy Spirit, which the Lord promised. The divine authority they will receive with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is solely for witnessing to the name of Jesus Christ, and not for self-glorification. “Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you.” The power and authority of Jesus Christ remain with each of his disciples and with us, only to be used for the proclamation of the Gospel and personal sanctification.

The greatest and most important of the witnessing activities is our personal life, which must be a communion with the Holy Spirit. Our personal communion with the Holy Spirit makes our lives instances of Jesus Christ in the world. If we are living the life of Christ daily, then Christ is still present here and now. “And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.” This presence of Jesus Christ within us and in the Church, into which the Holy Spirit leads us daily, is the great mystery Saint Paul prays the Father to reveal to us. “May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring you to full knowledge of him. May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit and how infinitely great is the power that he has exercised for us believers.” The full knowledge of God is Jesus Christ. Thus, when the life of Jesus Christ comes to perfection in each of us, we would come to the full possession and exercise of the authority of the Son of God. Let us cease to gaze into the empty sky, into earthly and material reality, but into the humanity of the Son of Man; That is the Way he went, he will also come back through the same Way.

Let us pray: Grant, we pray, almighty God, that we, who believe that your Only Begotten Son, our Redeemer, ascended this day to the heavens, may in spirit dwell already in heavenly realms. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.