We are now the witnesses, and Jesus promised us that we would not be left alone

John 24:46–53

He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

You are witnesses of these things.

I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”

When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them.

While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.

Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.

Music Meditations

Nada Te Turbe--Mostar Taize
Jesus Christ, Yesterday Today and Forever--Mayor McNugget
Yahweh I Know You Are Near
Be Not Afraid

Opening Prayer

Jesus, open my heart and free me from my selfish preoccupations so that I can hear the message of love and support you gave the disciples, and are giving now, to me. Let me not be distracted from this promise by my everyday cares and worries. Remind me that you are always there and that I can always call on you. Then, give me the energy and the courage to spread the hope of your promise in a world so broken by selfishness and violence.

Companions for the Journey

Commentary on the current gospel from John Kerrigan’s homily for the Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord 2012:

Did you ever wonder why the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus—albeit three notable events in his life—get so much attention and yet his ascension hardly ever seems to merit honorable mention? After all, this great ecumenical feast of the Church, which occurs 40 days after Easter, appears equally important even if it is far less well understood. It’s important because the Ascension has very little to do with the absence of Christ, and everything to do with his magnification. Pope Benedict tells us that Jesus was “not transported to another cosmic location.” Rather, his Ascension galvanized his disciples; they became witnesses who resembled thunderbolts in terms of the energy they brought to the task of proclaiming the Good News.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Allow me to take a step back, and ask you to picture with me three short vignettes. The first took place 16 years ago this week. It was Friday, May 24th, 1996, three days after our oldest daughter, Lauren, was born and time to leave the hospital and go home. After months of preparation, days spent devouring numerous books and articles—including the classic “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” putting time aside to baby proof our home, and the wonderful support of hospital staff and family, it was now time for Elizabeth and me to take full responsibility for this beautiful little girl. Among the many emotions I experienced that Friday morning was a genuine fear—one might even say panic—that I was utterly unprepared for this challenging task. Elizabeth and I looked at each other and I said, “It’s our baby, baby!” I suspect many parents have had a similar experience.

Vignette two: a few weeks ago, a Stanford student told me about the end of her first day as a freshman here at The Farm. Here are her words: “That first night, as I lay in bed, I thought to myself, I may never live at home again. I am on my own.” Can any of you identify with this thrilling, and at the same time, intimidating feeling?

This third vignette occurs at Stanford every year just about mid-June when thousands of black robed students in mortarboard hats flow past this Memorial Church, with beaming relatives trailing behind them decked out with cameras and bouquets. It’s graduation time, a time of great celebration. The students will be told many wonderful things, about leadership, about staying true to their ideals…. And implicit in all the speeches is this sobering point: now, perhaps for the first time in your life, you are going to be held responsible. After graduation parties have wound down, and academic gowns have been turned in, it may come as a shock for many graduates that from here on out the responsibility of making decisions and putting their lives together, getting jobs, paying off loans, even folding their clothes, rests no longer on parents or teachers, advisors or counselors, but on themselves. Life: “it’s your baby, baby!”

The joys and apprehensions felt by new parents, or a first-year or graduating student, are, I suspect, similar to the emotions experienced by the disciples described in today’s reading from Scripture. For a period of time after Christ’s death and resurrection, the apostles and disciples would encounter the risen Christ in unexpected places—in the upper room, or at the seashore of Lake Tiberius, or on the Road to Emmaus. But gradually these encounters grew less frequent, until finally they stopped altogether and the apostles realized that they were on their own. They couldn’t run to Jesus and ask “What do we do now?” Or “what’s next on the agenda? Where do we go next week to attend the sick or preach the Gospel?” No, now they had to figure that out for themselves.

This is the meaning of the feast of the Ascension: it marks that point in the mystery of Easter when the apostles realized that Jesus was now in the full embrace of God’s love, or as the readings put it, had been taken up into heaven. Neither they nor we are going to see him again until the end of time. This message is also clear: don’t stand there staring at the sky; the ball is in your court now! And whether they know it or not, the disciples are more than ready for the ball to be in their court. For over the past 40 days after Easter, we’ve been hearing about the transformation of Jesus’s followers from tentative, afraid and anxious men and women into persons who resemble thunderbolts in their zeal to proclaim and witness to the Good News.

Well, the ball is in our court too. The Feast of the Ascension reminds us each year that the apprenticeship is over; we’re the witnesses now. Whether you and I feel strong and firm in our faith, or like so many, have as many questions and doubts as answers—you and I are the ones chosen to make God’s love known, not throughout Judea and Samaria, but here in Palo Alto and the Bay Area, or in the daily asceticism of our academic disciplines and professional lives.

And when we do so with the vigor of these early disciples, these thunderbolts, we like Jesus before us will find ourselves more and more in the full embrace of God’s love.

Read another reflection on The Real Meaning of the Ascension >>

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

You are witnesses to these things

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

Have I ever felt bereft and abandoned by someone’s leaving my life?
Did my life change?
Did I turn outward to others and the world or did I withdraw into myself?
Which response is more like that of the Apostles?
Do I see Jesus’ ascension as his liberation of the smallness of a world which could no longer contain him?
Can I look at the death of someone I know or love in the same way and rejoice for them?
Why is this hard?
How well do you keep your promises?
Has anyone ever broken a promise to you?
Has Jesus?
What does it mean to me to “witness” something?
Is it a passive observation or a more active testimony?
Which am I more comfortable with?
I think of something I have experienced (religious or not) that I want to witness to.
In what ways am I a witness (an active sign) of God’s presence in the world?
In what ways is my witness to Christ a declaration of faith, and in what ways is my witness a more active testimony?
How can I carry the reality of Christ to those around me?
Where does prayer fit in?
In what ways is my Church a witness to the risen Christ?
In what ways could the Church do a better job?
Do I believe that I am Church; that witnessing to Christ is my responsibility as well that of the ordained or other leaders?
“God has not called you to be a successful witness; God has called you to be a faithful one.” (adapted from Mother Teresa of Calcutta). Has a personal feeling of inexperience, lack of theological training or gift for ministry held me back?
What can I do to change this?
Jesus’ leaving could bring fear and doubt to the disciples, as expressed by another gospel account of this event. How is Joy an antidote to doubt and fear and a sign of trust in the promises of Jesus?
A theme of this week’s reading is JOY. How do I radiate the joy of the Gospel?
In the Lord’s Prayer, we wish that God’s will be done here as well as in heaven—we wish for a meeting of heaven and earth.
How does this come about, and what is my role in the transformation of the world?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:

Adapted from Praying with Julian of Norwich by Gloria Durka, pp 64-66:

Julian of Norwich: Just so [Our Lord] said in the last words with perfect fidelity, alluding to us all: You will not be overcome, And all his teaching and this true strengthening apply generally to all my fellow Christians, as is said before and so it’s the will of God.

And these words: you will not be overcome, were said very insistently and strongly, for certainty and strength against every tribulation which may come. He did not say: You will not be troubled, you will not be belabored, you will not be disquieted; but he said: you will not be overcome. (Showings, p. 315)

I reflect on the stresses and anxieties of my life and ask myself which are truly important. What can worrying do to alleviate the situation? I pray this litany in such times:

In all my anxious moments, O God.
I know I shall not be overcome.
In all my fears, O God,
I know I shall not be overcome.
In all my attempts at peacemaking, O God
I know I shall not be overcome.
In a world where there is so much suffering,
You will overcome, O God.
In a world of dying hopes,
You will overcome, O God.

(Continue the litany with your own worries, and concerns, ending each with your statement of trust in God.)

Spend a few minutes of silent communion with the God who loves you so very much and cares for you absolutely, followed by the Lord’s Prayer, in which we say “Your will be done”.

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Mini-Examen

I spend some time at the end of the day, reflecting on my thoughts, emotions and actions as I consider my role as a disciple and how I have lived that discipleship this day. The Ascension, after all, is the passing of the torch on to the disciples, a commissioning, as it were. “This commission is four-fold: Hear Jesus’ word, accept Jesus’ word, follow Jesus’ word, spread Jesus’ word.” (from “Sacred Space”) In my everyday life, how do I hear Jesus’ word? What of Jesus words have I accepted? Which have I found hard to accept? In what ways have I actually followed Jesus? In what ways can I do better? Which of my words, behaviors and actions actually spread God’s word? Which do not? Which of my loving actions toward another make the presence of Jesus real to them? Then: I thank Jesus for the wisdom and the perseverance he has given me so far. I make a mental list of some areas in which I can do better, and ask for Jesus’ help in doing so. I rest in the peace that is Christ.

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Read the following spectacular apocalyptic scene by the prophet Daniel (7:13-14) and the adapted commentary from the Irish Jesuits:

I saw one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him. To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed.

If we were to think very schematically, we might say we have two styles of Christian living here: let’s call them Resurrection-Christianity and Kingdom-Christianity. (I am sketching here ‘ideal types’ for the sake of reflection and these should not be taken as applying to any individual or group in particular, still less as criteria for some kind of orthodoxy.) Resurrection-Christianity would focus, obviously, on the Resurrection, on the fact that Christ has overcome death and won eternal life for those who believe in Him. Kingdom-Christianity is more attentive to the arrival of the Kingdom of God, in other words a state of affairs abroad in the world, such that a new source of power and of ultimate authority is enabling and challenging human beings to allow themselves to be transformed, to receive ‘eternal life.’

What, for me, are the implications of a focused and prolonged imaginative effort to contemplate the world under the aspect of the Kingdom of Christ?

How do I discern in depth the difference that this truth makes: i.e. that it calls me to become a servant of Christ’s mission? Specifically, to what am I called as guardian of The Kingdom here on earth? How am I living out this mission?

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:

Imagine that you are one of the disciples, returning from that scene on the mountain where Jesus disappeared forever. What do you remember about his final words, and how you felt to see him leave? What questions are in your mind at this point—such issues as “Is it really over?”, or “Who will lead us now?”, or “Am I willing to commit to this group to complete what Jesus started?”, or “Is it time for me to go back home, to my former life?” What joy do I feel as I move forward with our mission? What gives me that joy? What do I say to my friends? What do I tell our followers? How do those in the temple receive our message?

In my own 21st-century life, all I have is the story of Jesus that those before me have told. Do I believe it? If so, how do I live out my call to carry on the work of Jesus and the early disciples? Compose a prayer, asking Jesus to give you the tools you need to spread the joy of the gospel, and to give you the energy you need to change the world, to make a difference.

Poetic Reflection

How does this poem comfort us with an understanding that a) there is life after death, and b) that Jesus is with us still?

“Ascension”

And if I go,
while you’re still here…
Know that I live on,
vibrating to a different measure
—behind a thin veil you cannot see through.
You will not see me,
so you must have faith.
I wait for the time when we can soar together again,
—both aware of each other.
Until then, live your life to its fullest.
And when you need me,
Just whisper my name in your heart,
…I will be there.

—Colleen Hitchcock

Poetic Reflection:

This poem by Mary Oliver examines what our role is now that Jesus is no longer among us. Do you see yourself in this description of someone who carries a deeply joyful message of God's goodness and love?

“Messenger”

My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird—
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.

Closing Prayer

Let me not be afraid of joy, O Lord, and help me to live that joy every moment. Help me to move beyond fear to hope. Hope in your love, hope in your presence among us, hope in our world. Help me spread joy and hope.

Weekly Reflections

The Ascension of the Lord, May 29, 2022