St. John The Baptist

Browsing A message from Father Mark

Ascension Sunday Homily

ASCENSION A
Jesus had spent three years with the apostles. For three years they had heard him teach
and watched him heal. They had seen him crucified and saw him after he had been raised from
the dead. And now, the future movement that Jesus had started comes down to these words:
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be
my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
It is here that Jesus defines what the Church will do, what the mission of the Church will
be.
The disciples were just ordinary people. As far as we know, none of them had traveled
more than 40 or 50 miles from where they were born. The closest they had come to travelling
into a foreign land were some brief visits to Samaria – which was more like going to
Sherreville.
They were immersed in their own customs and their own language. They probably knew
the best places to eat and they knew the places to avoid. They were comfortable where they
were.
But, Jesus knew that if Christianity was going to become a world changing movement
then his disciples would have to change. And within one generation after Jesus’ Ascension the
church was made up of more Gentiles than Jews. And within two generations the Church had
spread to the ends of the known world. It was in Italy, Greece, Turkey, India, Egypt, and
Ethiopia.

Jesus told his followers that if they were going to be obedient that it was going to require
change on their behalf - and nobody likes change – but at the end of the day it’s about being
obedient to Jesus and about the lives that will be changed and saved that otherwise would not
be.
And because we choose to do that hard work, there will be people in heaven who might
not have been there otherwise. Because we choose to do the hard work to step out of our own
comfort zones, there will be lives saved, children educated, and people reached for Jesus in our
own community and in the wider world.
As we continue on our own mission journey we will encounter rejection, some opposition
and other detours.
If you are seeking for Jesus to give you some direction on those detours, do not look up
in the sky, look in front of you. Seek Jesus in those people under siege from disease. Find him
jailed at the borders, under attack by racism, hatred, and violence. Look for him among the
unemployed and the anxious and the lonely.
Jesus is found behind a mask, caring for the sick and vulnerable. Jesus is living with all
of us as we follow stay-at-home directives and he is present in long walks and attentiveness to
the wonder and beauty of the world around us.
The Ascension reminds us to keep looking forward in hope. Jesus is with us until the end
of the age.

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