As He ascends to heaven, Jesus entrusts His mission to His disciples: they are to proclaim the Good News to every creature. From the beginning and through the centuries, this mission has proven to be both easy and hard: easy to understand, but hard to carry out. “Proclaiming the Good News to every creature” means to teach and show others all that Jesus has taught and shown us. Just as He has asked His first followers and us to follow His way, we are to do what we can so that still others might follow that way, too.
A question worth pondering this weekend: Has a doctor ever put you on a course of antibiotics? The most basic guidance about antibiotics is to complete the course. Even if the patient starts to feel well after a few days, to discontinue taking the medicine can let the condition grow worse. Similarly, in a positive way, the message of salvation must continue to be shared until the end of time. Even if we have momentary or short-term hardship or “success,” we are asked to fulfill our mission over the long haul. A loose translation of Jesus’ words might be: “Don’t quit!”
With all the changes in the Church and in society, neither Jesus nor His message have changed. His Gospel remains a call to live our lives to the full and to give glory to God. In a sense, we write a new page of the Gospel each day, through everything we do and whatever you say. Take that into account the next time you hear “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.”
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Ascension Bonus: St. Leo the Great lived from 400-461 and was elected pope in 440. He provides a commentary which may help us further prepare for the celebration of the Feast of the Ascension:
“The sacred work of our salvation was of such value in the sight of the Creator of the universe that He counted it worth the shedding of His own blood. From the day of His birth until His passion and death, this work was carried out in conditions of self-abasement; and although He showed many signs of His divinity even when He bore the form of a slave, yet, strictly speaking, the events of that time were concerned with proving the reality of the humanity He had assumed. But He was innocent of any sin, and so when death launched its attack upon Him He burst its bonds and robbed it of its power. After His Passion, weakness was turned into strength, mortality into eternal life, and disgrace into glory.
Of all this our Lord Jesus Christ gave ample proof in the sight of many, until at last He entered heaven in triumph, bearing with Him the trophy of His victory over death. And so, while at Easter it was the Lord’s Resurrection which was the cause of our joy, our present rejoicing is on account of His ascension into heaven. With all due solemnity we are commemorating that day on which our poor human nature was carried up in Christ – above all the hosts of heaven, above all the ranks of angels, beyond the highest heavenly powers to the very throne of God the Father. Our Redeemer’s visible presence and powerful grace have passed into the Sacraments. Let us rejoice and be glad.”
