When Jesus ascended into heaven it was not the first time
Jesus left his disciples. The first time was at Calvary. When Jesus allowed
himself to be taken by the leaders of the Jews, to be crucified and died on the
cross, the disciples were left behind. They were so afraid that they runaway
and scattered. They thought it was the end.
But the story of the Ascension is different. When Jesus was
taken up to heaven and the disciples were left behind, the disciples begun
preaching boldly about the Lord, about the forgiveness of sins, about mission,
about salvation. It was only the beginning.
What happened in between? What made the difference?
Resurrection made the difference – the truth and the conviction
that Jesus did not remain dead, did not remain in the tomb, that he rose again,
appeared to them and promised to be always with them. That is enough to impel
the disciples to remain in Jesus, to support each other, to “go into the whole
world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.”
It is not enough that every time we go to Mass we say we
believe in Jesus Christ; we believe that he was crucified, died and was buried
and on the third day rose again, and do nothing about it. Our faith in the
Risen Christ should impel us to imitate him, to talk about him and to fight for
him.
Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel; proclaim
the good news that our God is a living God. He is alive. He is here. He is with
us. We must be convinced of the presence of the living God to the point that we
find in ourselves a compelling urge that we cannot refuse, to make him known
wherever we are.
I am not familiar with the music of Lady Gaga, but we hear
critics decrying her promotion of “godlessness,” that is, living a life without
any belief in a supreme being and worse with disrespect towards the divine. If
this is true, then Lady Gaga is only one of many in the secular world that
promotes a kind of lifestyle that refuses any form of regard for a supreme
being. In such a situation, we feel the urgency of letting the world know about
the living God. We recognize the imperative of proclaiming our faith in Jesus
the Christ.
As Christians we should ask ourselves: Do we talk about
Jesus? His word? His commands? His life? May be not in front of a crowd, but to
your children, to your grandchildren, to your spouse, to your friends. Do we
talk about our faith? If not, then may be we are not convinced enough that He
is truly alive! Because if we are convinced to the bone of the truth of the living God, then, like the disciples at the time of the Ascention, nothing can stop the urge to follow the Lord, to
fight for him, and to talk about him. Amen.
