This is the feast of the Ascension, the final act of the Easter drama. On a human level, the Ascension represented a separation, a departure, a leave-taking. The Ascension of Jesus follows the pattern of all departures. There is first of all the false expectation, an expectation that absorbs all of us for most of our lives. Those that we love, our families and our friends, will last forever. They will continue by our side, giving warmth and meaning to our lives. Then, in a twinkle, they are swept away, and we are at sea, numb.
Jesus has foreseen the devastating effect his departure would have on his close band of friends. He had gone out of his way to prepare them for that day. In today's extract from the Acts, he had assembled them for the final address before his leave-taking. And we see here how utterly useless his preparation had been. His warning words had fallen on deaf ears. Even at this late stage they ask him: 'Lord, has the time come? Are you going to restore the Kingdom to Israel?' Even after his death and resurrection, they still looked upon him as a political leader, one who would restore the Kingdom to Israel. This is the second level of their false expectations. Firstly, they assumed he would be with them in an earthly way for the entire course of their own lives. The second level was their expectations of him politically. He had had gone out of his way to disabuse them of this expectation throughout his life, he consistently renounced political ambitions. He had declared publicly before Pilate: "My kingdom is not of this world." He had rebuked Peter for drawing his sword in an attempt to prevent his arrest. And yet the expectation persisted right up to the moment of his departure.This is something that we as humans and Christians should look out for in our own lives: We invest people with false expectations, with unrealisable hopes. When they fail to deliver, we are hurt, confused and disappointed. But we fail to see that the failure rests in our expectation, not in their inability to deliver.
The second movement in our model of departure will be readily recognisable: They stood staring into the skies. they are utterly absorbed by his absence. This is a very common human response to departure. There is an inability to come to terms with an unpleasant reality. We are paralysed by the absence of the loved one. The danger was that the disciples would remain at that level, it would remain a church dedicated to mourning an absence, rather than a Church proclaiming and celebrating a presence.
But then the realisation dawns. Today's readings give the impression that this realisation dawned dramatically and suddenly. It was caused by a voice from heaven. 'Why are you men from Galilee still staring into the skies...Have you not realised...' and so on. In the gospel of Luke, the dawning is portrayed as more gradual. Luke uses the story of the two Disciples on the road to Emmaus to convey the same message. After a days journey they realise that the stranger who joined them was Jesus. But the truth didn't sink in until he had disappeared from their midst. The two fellows remain at the table after the meal, and, typically, one says to the other: "I suspected who he was all along. Didn't our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road."
The required realisation was a two-fold movement: first, that Jesus was not dead but alive in this Church. Second, that they were called to be that Church. They would not be alone in this task. The Holy Spirit would be their life, their animator. This Spirit would manifest itself in a variety of very gifted people: prophets, apostles, teachers, evangelists, pastors, administrators, and so on. 'All together make a unity in the work of service, building up the Body of Christ until we all become fully mature with the fullness of Christ himself,' as St. Paul tells us. And the very variety of his appearances after the Resurrection indicates that he will be present to us forever in a great variety of ways.
Finally, this vision, this realisation, was not a private affair. It was intended for all creation. 'Go out to the whole world,' he commanded them, 'proclaim this Good News to all creation.' So the journey from Calvary to the Ascension was a pilgrimage for the early followers. The milestones along that pilgrim way are easily recognisable: False expectations, denial and numbed disbelief, a dawning of a new reality, the reality that Jesus is present to them through the world in a very new way.
We, like they, will not find Jesus through gazing into the skies. The challenge to them (and to us) it to respond to his living presence in our brothers and sisters. Every child who is baptised becomes a new expression of God. Our faithfulness to the gospel will be measured by the quality of our response to the weakest in our midst. The first disciples made the pilgrimage from despair to hope, from mourning his loss to the celebration of his new-found presence.
Their pilgrimage is also ours, the challenge facing us today is identical.
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