This Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. For forty days
we have been living in the joy of our new life in Christ that we celebrated at Easter.
We have been examining the meaning of this new life that is given to us through our union with Christ in his suffering, death and resurrection. Now as we confess our belief that is expressed in the words, “he ascended into heaven”, we ask ourselves, “What next?” To consider this question we join the disciples on the mountain in Galilee. Galilee is the place of discipleship, where the disciples first heard the Lord calling them, where they began their journey with Jesus and where they were taught by him each day. We are told in the gospels that Jesus often went to the mountain to pray. It was on the mountain that Jesus would meet the Father in prayer and discern what the Father had planned for him. The mountain is a place of prayer, where one goes to meet God and to be sent out into the world. Now the disciples have gathered together again on the mountaintop to wait for Jesus. On this mountain the disciples face the future caught between two conflicting experiences – doubt and hope.
The doubt the disciples are facing is not a crisis in faith concerning Jesus, his identity, his real presence or the teachings that he has entrusted to them. They have witnessed the resurrection of Jesus, they have been with him from the beginning and have seen the signs of his divinity and they know that he has the words of everlasting life. Their doubt lies in their own limitations and weaknesses. They have seen the denial of Peter, the betrayal of Judas and their own abandonment of the Lord in the hour of his greatest need. They know that they are weak and prone to sin. They have a sense that the Lord is going to ask something great of them and that they will not have him to help them accomplish their task. Throughout the gospels they have proved themselves to be men of “little faith”.
How often are we like the disciples in their doubt?! We want to do something great and prove our love for the Lord but we are painfully aware of our own faults and weaknesses. We don’t see ourselves as worthy of his trust and call. Surely Jesus has made a fatal error in judgment in entrusting the kingdom to us. Every vocation seems like it is beyond our strength and ability to carry it out. Whether it is a vocation to priesthood, religious life or marriage, how can we persevere through our weaknesses and remain faithful to the Lord’s calling? It is beyond our foreseeable abilities.
Against their doubt the disciples have their worship of the Lord. Worship is always an expression of our hope in the new life that Jesus has called us to. As St. Paul prays for the Ephesians today in our second reading, “May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call…” As we have seen with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, the Eucharist is the place where the disciples are enlightened and recognize the risen Lord and where they renew their hope and return to discipleship. St. Paul also tells us in Romans that our hope does not disappoint us “because of the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us.” Our hope is not in our own strength or talents but in the Lord who loves us and is with us always. Jesus assures his disciples today, “I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
The disciples are given a great commission by Jesus to go out to all the nations and preach the gospel, making disciples of all nations. This is a tremendous challenge for the disciples and it seems impossible but with God all things are possible. As St. Paul would tell us, “I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me.” The key for the disciples is to “remain in me and I will remain in you”, to remain in Jesus and in his love is the key to their hope to carry out the call that Jesus has entrusted to them. The love of Christ enables us to “believe all things, hope all things, endure all things. Love never fails.”
We have our doubts but we are never without hope as long as we remain in the love of Christ, poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. When we are faithful to prayer and the sacramental life, we always have Jesus with us to strengthen us, enlighten us and guide us in living out our vocational call as disciples. So, as they say, work as if all things depended upon you but pray as if all things depended upon the Lord. In this way we may overcome our doubts and fulfill all of our hopes in Christ Jesus.