June 1^st 2014. THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD

Gospel: Matthew 28:16-20

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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GOSPEL Matthew 28:16-20

The eleven disciples set out for Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had arranged to meet them. When they saw him they fell down before him, though some hesitated. Jesus came up and spoke to them. He said,

‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

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.

And know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.’

 The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . Sometimes we ask ourselves where the world is going, how it will all end. We wonder what our mission in life is. The first reading tells us that this wondering and worrying is not something that we should engage in. Our task is to place our feet in the shoes that God has assigned for us and walk the simple path that he has opened before us. But what is our mission exactly? Should we seek to defend the image of the Church? Are we to attack the errors found in other philosophies/spiritualities? No, our mission is not to defeat other people by the force of our intellectual argument but to generate new life in them. We generate new life in others by proclaiming a word that will help them to embark on a relationship with God. How wonderful is the dignity that the Lord gives us! He permits us to share in his divine work of generating new life! The Lord did not say “Go out to the whole world and organise intellectual conferences”. Our mission is to go out and generate new children for God, children in the faith.

Jesus entrusts to the disciples a mission that will lead to their fulfilment

The Gospel passage we read on Sunday does not describe the exact event of the Ascension, but it contains the sense of that moment. Christ proclaims the fundamental words that express the mission of the Church. The words are short and sweet, but packed with meaning. We are told that the eleven apostles set out for the mountain where Jesus had arranged to meet them. The fact that there is only eleven reminds us that this is a group that has lost a member because of his betrayal. It is a group that is incomplete and impoverished, and that impoverishment will not be resolved by the autonomous efforts of the group or their inherent talents. The only way that group will come to fulfilment is by carrying out the mission that has been entrusted to it.

We wish to know the future. We seek to understand everything. But our real task is to trust in the Lord and walk the path that he has opened up in front of us

In the first reading from Acts, Jesus announces the coming of the Holy Spirit. The disciples are curious and wish to know exactly what is going to happen in the future. Jesus tells them: “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”. We know that the world is passing away and we wish to know the whys and the wherefores of the whole process. But Jesus tells us that this is not something that we ought to be concerned about. Our task is to complete our mission, to be witnesses to the ends of the earth. How many people are preoccupied with knowing and understanding everything before they take the least step! We get lost in abstract planning about what we are going to do instead of actually doing anything! Our job is to place our feet in the shoes that God has assigned to us and walk the simple path that the Lord has opened up ahead of us.

The Lord entrusts us with a mission because he wants us to grow in autonomy and dignity

The traumatic aspect of the Ascension for the apostles is that the Lord is leaving them. He promises the coming of the Spirit, but this doesn’t necessarily comfort them for the loss that they are feeling. Jesus had only risen from the dead forty days before. The disciples were still struggling to understand the meaning of everything and then he goes up in the clouds! But this is how the Lord is. As soon as he feels that he can entrust us with the slightest little responsibility then he does so. God loves us and for that reason he gives us the space we need to develop. He is a Father who is happy to entrust us with the freedom that confers dignity on us. Any father is happy when he sees his son begin to do things by himself and gain autonomy. Our heavenly Father is not like the Kronos of Greek mythology who ate his children so that they would not usurp his reign. God wishes to regenerate us so that we can grow in dignity, and the mission he gives us allows us to live out this dignity.

Our mission is not to defend the image of the church but to proclaim a life-giving word that prompts others to enter into relationship with God

Our mission is to transform people into children of God, to share with them new life. This is the incredible work of spiritual procreation that we are called to. The Lord wants us to have the same joy that he has himself when he brings people to new life. Nowadays we are quite preoccupied by the image of the Church and the public perception of Christianity. We seek to promote our ideas in sophisticated ways, whilst defending our viewpoint against the erroneous positions of others. We try to dismantle the deceit contained in other philosophies that cause suffering for humanity. But this is not the most urgent task that the Lord has set before us. This is not the message that he gave us when he entrusted the Church with her mission. Life is not transmitted to others through explanations. Life is not shared with others by means of communication techniques that help us to understand. Life is conveyed to others by generation. This is the process by which a word enters the heart of someone who through that word learns to relate to God. It is not merely a word that increases that person’s understanding of something. This regeneration through the proclaimed word is the process that precedes baptism.

Our mission confers on us incredible dignity. We can share in the divine experience of generating people in the new life that comes from embarking on a relationship with God.

We have the dignity of being people entrusted with the mission of generation in the faith. Parents have the task of generating the faith in their children. This is the most important task that anyone could be given, to open in the heart of another person the door to God. The mission of the church is to generate children in the faith. Every priest, every Christian is a teacher of the faith who is called to exercise a prophetic mission. This has nothing to do with teaching people theories or moral obligations. We are not called to defeat people in arguments but to give them new life by generating in them a true relationship with God. This is something that we can offer to our most sworn enemies, a new pathway to life instead of engaging in mental combat with them. Jesus didn’t say, “Go out to the whole world and organise conferences”, or “Go out to the whole world and transmit intellectual truths through sophisticated means of communication”. Instead he commanded us to go out and make children in the faith, to generate new life and to experience at first hand the fecundity of God.