Last Sunday we celebrated the Lord’s Ascension into heaven. After suffering so great to save us all, the time came for Him to go back to His Father in heaven where he rightfully belongs. His mission was done, and He did it just as the Father had planned. If ever there were some unfinished businesses, He entrusted everything, the future of His church to His apostles.
Not all peoples in this world heard about Jesus and there were so many others who heard about Him but decided to put their faith in Him. There were others who decided to put themselves as their own gods alongside with their selfish interests for money and power. Practically speaking, the mission of Jesus is far from being considered done and finished. It might just be starting in some places of this world and for some others it had not yet even started!
He entrusted the continuation of His work to His apostles. Just before He left, He told Peter, James, and John, and a few of their friends, to tell the rest of the world about Him having faith that they will tell as many people as they can. Those people, in turn, will tell other people. In that way, the entire world will eventually learn about His love for them. He never had a back-up plan, just in case those apostles would grow tired and exhausted in fulfilling their mission, because He counted much on them.
Even after several years, the Gospel message is very much alive in our midst although we all know that there are a lot of things which still need to be done. We are not expected to preach in the name of Jesus or to catechize everyone along the ways to which we pass by every day. We are not expected to die like the martyrs in witnessing our faith in Jesus. We are not even expected to go out of our usual daily chores just to fulfill our sharing in the mission of Christ. For some of us, it could mean this, but for most of us, it means something much more basic than this. It means something much more fundamental. It means living out Jesus’ teaching in our own personal lives.
On this day, 2,025 years ago, Jesus passed the baton of his work to Peter, James, and John. They, in turn, passed it on to the people who came after them. They, in turn, passed it on to us. And now it is our turn to pass it on to others.
This is the message of today’s feast. This is the challenge that today’s readings hold out to us. Jesus is counting on us.
The way to begin preaching Jesus to the world is to begin living like Jesus in our own lives. The ascension of Jesus into heaven is our hope that we can also possess heaven by our sharing in His divine life. His ascension clearly points out to us that our human nature will finally see the Creator of the Universe in all His glory. In heaven, as Archbishop Fulton Sheen puts it, there will be no faith because we will see, there will be no hope because we will finally possess, but there will be love for God is love and His love endures forever.
The ascension event gave us hope that one day we can also share in the bliss of God’s kingdom. It is something that we must hope for to reach one day after our earthly life. God’s kingdom is the final destiny for all Christians who had been worthy servants and bearers of God’s good news of salvation. This is the ultimate challenge which needs to be given topmost priority in our lives. The challenge lies in front of us. Sad to say that, sometimes, we just find it so hard to take on this challenge.
We are all called to live our Christian lives and imitate the ways of Christ because this is the surest way to heaven. All of us have this fervent hope than one day we can share in the eternal happiness that Christ wants to share with us as our reward for following and walking the road that leads to Him. But it seems, at times, that this is next to impossible because of our propensity to fall into sin. Sometimes we feel that this is a futile act because we simply just fail in following Him more closely. But God is so understanding that He will give us graces which we need for us to be able to bear His cross on our shoulders. What we need to do is to give up our lives to Him in surrender so that His grace will do the rest for us.
Our world today is in chaos and in sin. Wherever we turn our gaze, we can see people living in sin and utter disregard for God. Our world today is not a perfect place to live in because violence, hatred, drugs, killings, disrespect, and envy flourish everywhere. But who is to blame for all these? We continuously ravage our natural resources and destroy the balance that the Creator has designed through our indiscriminate mining explorations, illegal logging, and a lot more stupid acts. Human lives are at stake and this kind of situation is an experience of HELL on earth!
We are hoping to enjoy eternal happiness in God’s kingdom when we die. But much greater challenge confronts us because the challenge for us, even if we are still alive, is how to make this world an experience of heaven on earth. If we can only be serious followers of Christ and make good in our efforts to live by His examples, then, we can make this world a heaven on earth. This is the challenge for all of us people of today because we really must renew our lives and live by the Gospel values and ideals. Let us not just sit and watch and wait for the final judgment so we can reach heaven and be with God because we can experience heaven here in this earthly life if we can be good and real Christians. After all, God has never abandoned us, and He is still here with us in the first place. We just cannot see him because we are blinded by the gloss and glitters of this world. We just cannot hear Him because of the booming sound of noise that leads us to sin. How I wish that all is not lost for us to realize all these challenges in our Christian life.
Let us therefore pray to God to give us strength and courage so that we may be able to be vessels of His graces and thereby be instruments of His Good News and worthy heirs of His heavenly kingdom.