Pastor’s Weekly Message 6
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven. The Ascension, or the return of Christ to Heaven in His human but glorified body, is the culmination—the sign and seal of His accomplishment of His salvific mission on earth. Jesus became man, and lived and died on earth so that we could live with God forever in Heaven. By His death on the cross, He reconciled sinful man with His Divine Creator. His human death earned for us a share in the Divine life. His Resurrection is the Divine guarantee that we, too, shall rise again, and His Ascension to the Father is the prelude to our entrance into God’s everlasting Kingdom.
Christ, who suffered hardship, humiliations, and finally the painful and degrading death on the cross for our sake, while here on earth, is now seated in the place of honor at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. He is there as our representative and our intercessor. He has gone to Heaven to prepare a place for us. What a consolation…what a source of joy this Feast of Ascension is for any true believer.
Jesus came to earth with a mission that the Father gave Him to do. He prepared for that mission for thirty years and only worked for three years. He had preached the Gospel only to Israel. But now that He is ascending to Heaven, He wants the disciples to continue with the task God had given Him. He commissioned the Apostles (and us) to preach the Gospel to all the nations of the world and to every creature. It was a daunting task. But He promised that He would send the Holy Spirit. He also assured them that He would be with them always—to the end of time.
Go, preach the Gospel to all nations. This was the farewell command of Christ. As St.Theresa of Avila wrote, ‘Christ has no body now on earth, but ours. He has no hands but ours, to raise up the fallen. He has no feet but ours, to seek out the lost. He has no eyes but ours, to see the silent tears of the suffering. He has no ears but ours, to listen to the lonely. He has no tongue but ours, to speak a word of comfort to the sad. He has no heart but ours, to love the unloved.’ So, Jesus now depends on us. We are to be His witnesses before the world. Even though the task is difficult, it is a great privilege He has given us. We witness to Jesus by witnessing to truth, justice, love, and peace. The way we witness to truth is to live truthfully. We witness to justice by acting justly in all our dealings with others. We witness to love by acting lovingly towards others. To witness to peace is to live in peace with others. We can say the most effective way to witness to Jesus is to live a Christian life.
Go and make disciples of all the nations. Share the good news with everyone you meet. Reach out to those who are different, to people of other races, nationalities, and other religious backgrounds, and work together for the common good. To take Christ’s command seriously, we must be proactive, take the initiative, make the first move. Before Jesus ascended into Heaven, He gave the apostles and us, the commission to convert the world. Do it where you are, with those whom you meet, with those you work with, with those you go to school with, etc. Be a witness for Jesus in your lives and when necessary, talk about Him too. How seriously do we take Jesus’ invitation to be His witness to the world and His teacher to the nations? Are we afraid to witness to others about Christ and do we take every available opportunity to talk about Him? Go, preach the Gospel to all nations!