The Solemnity of Ascension
May 16, 2021: 7th Sunday of Easter
Acts 1:1-11; Ephesians 4: 1-13; Mark 16:15-20
Why do you people stand here looking up into the sky, asks the Messenger of God... and we still stand there looking up to the Lord, ascending to his Father! In fact, looking up, we grow! Looking up to the Lord, we learn, we understand, we receive and we grow! 'Looking up,' as a phrase can mean to find, to discover, to search to arrive at... these are the cues we have today, about the relationship that we need to have with the Risen Lord. To look up to the Lord and find an inspiration in him, to look up to the Lord and understand the meaning of our life, to look up to the Lord and realise what we are called to and what we are made of.
At times we get lost in a puddle of water that we have created with our tears, thinking we have the worst of situation in the whole world. All it takes is just to look up, see the others who are suffering, those who are going through times so much more tough than ours, and then we will realise our folly! If this is the case with those around us, looking up to the Lord, is the ultimate hope-giving, and meaning-making exercise that we can ever do in our lives, that we may have meaning in life. Look up at the Lord who, as Paul reminds us in the second reading, came down, reached low, descended...that is why we can speak of ascension!
From the sky to the earth, from the earth to the cross, from the cross to the grave, and from the grave to the skies...a lovely lesson from the Lord. We are destined for greater heights, we are called to be the people of God, we are called to be part of that eternal banquet, and nothing else matters more! Everything is passing, and the Lord alone is the constant in our lives...we are bound to that permanent abode and Jesus goes before us as we look up to him!
How do we follow there? We cannot follow there alone! We reach there by building ourselves up, building up the Body of Christ, says the second reading today. When we build up the Church, the People of God, the Mystical Body of Christ, we are paving our way to where we are destined, the presence of God. We are not at times, disposed to build up because we have lost track of our destination. We lose our sight, we lose our focus, we lose our way and think this world and this life is all we have! That seems so factual, justifiable, rational and concrete - to say, this world is all we have! The Lord and the Word today remind us of the fallacy that is involved therein. Looking up is understanding that fallacy.
Building up is working on what we see when we look up! Looking up alone is not enough, at times it can lead to an endless procrastination and escapism from acting here and now. Looking up has to be followed immediately by efforts to build up. Looking up at the Lord would instantly beckon us to turn towards our fellow believers...and that is what happened with the first Christian community...as soon as they began to follow the Way, they sold everything they had and brought it to the Apostles and gave it for the community (see chapters 2 to 5 in Acts of the Apostles). Building up is not merely an extra commitment we have, but a fundamental call as a baptised child of God. It does not also mean doing some extraordinary things for the good of the other, but as fundamental as living a life that is worthy of one's own call. And that call is to rise up!
Rising up, to be truly children of God. To rise up from the selfishness of daily life, from ego driven choices in life, from pleasure governed practices of the society today, from comfort centred concept of life, from satisfaction based outlook of life, one is called to rise up to an other-centred life, to truth driven choices in life, to virtue governed practices in daily life, to righteousness centred concept of living and to vocation based outlook on life! Jesus goes before us, to show us the way!
Jesus lived a life that was other-centred, truth-driven, virtue-governed, righteousness-centred and vocation-based. Casting out devils, speaking in tongues, picking up snakes, healing persons...these are gifts that are experienced when one rises up. Jesus goes up, challenging us to rise up, and promises us a help, an advocate who will counsel us to rise up in our personal life and our life as a community of faith. When we rise up, our very lives become a proclamation to the world. We need say no words, our life shall shout out loud by itself, to the whole world.
Look up to the Lord, build yourself up and build the Body of the Lord, and rise up to be true follower of the Lord...that is the parting message that the Ascending Lord gives us this day. May the Lord ascended into heaven, strengthen us in our daily journey in life!