Daily Reflection:
Sunday, May 24, 2020
Friends, this is my homily based on the Scriptures for today’s Feast of the Ascension of the Lord.
--Fr. Mike
I would imagine that for most of us, this year, in the midst of this pandemic, we can more easily relate or better connect with what the Apostles were feeling when, as we heard in the First Reading today: “Jesus was lifted up, and a cloud took Him from their sight…”
Jesus was gone! Where is He? We are all alone? What are we to do now?
This Feast of the Ascension is all about the absence of Jesus…
Jesus returns home to sit at the right hand of the Father…
The Apostles were feeling lost and alone…I am sure that we too are having our days when we feel lost and alone…asking where is Jesus in all of this?
The words of the two men dressed in white garments standing beside the Apostles as they watched Jesus be lifted up and then disappear from their sight, they shout out: “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus has been taken up from you…”
Those words were like a strong slap in the face, a powerful dose of reality…in essence these men in white were saying: stop looking, stop staring, and get busy…”
Get busy? Get busy doing what?
With the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, this loosely connected band of apostles and disciples soon realized that if the mission and ministry of Jesus was to continue, it would be up to them.
The presence of Jesus was now to be felt and experienced through them, through their words, actions, and deeds.
They were no longer a band of loosely grouped people, they were deeply connected, with the same purpose, vision, and goal: to be Jesus for their time and their place, to continue what Jesus began…to be Church…they became the Church…
And they went to the ends of the known world at that time continuing to do what Jesus began….
In these days, we may be looking up into the sky, looking for Jesus in all of this…
But in today’s Scripture, we hear these words addressed to us: “People of St. Thomas More Parish, why are you standing there looking up at the sky?”
So if we are saying “Where is Jesus in all of this?” What we need to be asking is: “Where am I, where are we, in all of this?”
“What am I doing to continue the mission and ministry of Jesus for this time and this place?”
As we ask that question of ourselves, we need to be careful that we do not become overwhelmed…how can I, or how can we, do all that Jesus did?
And if we have that fear or that perspective, we may end up doing nothing, because we know that we cannot do it all…
But let’s look at the life of Jesus…let’s look at this important perspective…
Jesus did not preach to everyone…
Jesus did not teach all people…
Many people were in need of healing, Jesus healed a few…
Demons abounded, and some were cast out by Jesus…
Many people were in need of forgiveness and reconciliation; a few were touched by Jesus…
And in the end, Jesus seemingly died a failure…crucified on a tree, abandoned by most of the people who said they loved Him and would follow Him to death…
Jesus did not do it all…Jesus started it all, and commissioned his disciples to go about doing what He did…
They continued His mission and His ministry in whatever place and time in which they found themselves…
We do what we can; we touch those we can touch with the Gospel message of Jesus…
We plant seeds, oftentimes not seeing the results of our faith, knowing that what may seem like failure, in the future, may somehow, in God’s time, bear fruit…
Jesus did not do it all…Jesus started it all…we are called to do what we can in our little corners of the world…we continue what Jesus began…
Whatever we say or do, no matter how small, if we do it in the name of Jesus, it will matter, it will have a positive effect, it will make a difference for the good…
On this Feast of the Ascension, we hear these words: “People of St. Thomas More, why are you standing there looking up at the sky…Jesus has been taken from your sight!”
We accept the challenge of those words: Let’s stop staring up into the sky…
Let’s get busy, let’s keep busy, especially in these days of the pandemic, keeping the mission and ministry of Jesus alive for this time and this place!
