SOLEMNITY OF ASCENSION OF THE LORD

Lk.24:46- 53 Solemnity of Ascension.-10

Little Bobby was spending the weekend with his grandmother after a particularly trying week in kindergarten. His grandmother decided to take him to the park on Saturday morning. It had been snowing all night and everything was beautiful. His grandmother said, "Doesn't it look like an artist painted this scenery? Did you know God painted this just for you?"
Bobby said, "Yes, God did it and he did it left handed."
This confused his grandmother a bit. "What makes you say God did this with his left hand?"
"Well," said Bobby, "We learned at Sunday School last week that Jesus sits on God's right hand!"
Today we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord, Jesus ascending to the right hand of the Father. Our first reading gives a clue to the meaning of this mystery. You will notice that St. Luke does not speak about Jesus "going away," but that "a cloud took him from their sight." There is a difference between "leaving" and "disappearing." When someone leaves, it suggests separation, even finality. When a person disappears from sight, he might still be very close - in another room, or even closer. The fact that the disciples no longer see Jesus does not mean that he has gone from them. He is more present, not less, in being ascended to the Father. He is fully present, participating in every moment of our lives.
Having done all that he came to do he now ascends to the Father. His great work is now handed on to his disciples to bring to completion. But this is no task that can be worked out in a few years. No, it is an undertaking that will take his followers till the very end of time to bring to its glorious conclusion.
A high point in a relay race is the moment when one runner passes the baton to another runner. More races are won or lost at that moment than at any other moment in the race. The passing of the baton in a relay race is a good image of the ascension. Jesus passes the baton to his disciples. He passes on to us the responsibility to make God's Kingdom a living reality in our home, our schools, and our world. To make sure that we don’t drop the baton Jesus assures the Holy Spirit, the Divine power to be with us.
The role we undertake as members of the Church is to spread the Good News throughout the earth and to live our lives in such a way that they give glory to God. Our ultimate goal is that all nations and people will come to worship the one true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent.

You might be wondering why God has chosen to entrust this great work to a group of weak and fallible human beings. Surely God could utter the command and all people would bow down and worship him, if that’s what he really wants. The only problem is that by issuing such a command people everywhere would be under the obligation to worship God. It wouldn’t be their spontaneous free choice; it would be done out of compulsion and not out of love. So God chooses us, inadequate and feeble creatures, to convey his message, his Good News, to the people of the world, so that they may love him and worship him.

It is important to understand that God does not want us to worship him because he needs it or because he would gain any advantage from it. It would not add one jot to his greatness nor would it inflate his ego in some strange way. God does not desire our worship and devotion because it will do him any good, but because it will do us good.

In our text Luke tells us that they worshipped him and went back to Jerusalem full of joy. That’s exactly how it ought to be for us each Sunday as we return home from the Eucharist, going back to our ordinary lives full of joy and trust in the Lord. Though the priest says: the mass is ended go in peace- the mass really does not end here. It only begins here. And we continue the celebration outside the Church. We give witness outside the church what we experienced inside the church. Our neighbours see us go to mass every Sunday morning. But its how they see us coming back that is our real witness to them.
What are the experiences Jesus wants us to share - to witness to others? It could be a lot of things, but today's Gospel gives us the starting point: "Repentance, for the forgiveness of sins." St.Francis said preach the gospel, use words if necessary. We need to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in our homes and neighborhood by our actions.
Pope Paul VI said, "The world needs witnesses more than it needs teachers." You know, it is relatively easy to be a teacher. Most people are eager to share their knowledge - and especially their opinions. It is much harder to be a witness: To tell others what one has experienced. That can be risky and demanding. Two people can live under the same roof and never share their deepest experiences.*

Let me tell you about a man who gave a powerful witness to repentance and forgiveness. He was a slave trader, with little religious feeling. Or to be more accurate, whatever religious sentiment he had, he numbed with alcohol. Once when he piloted a slave ship across the Atlantic, a violent storm broke out. Something caused him to cry, "Jesus, have mercy on us." When the storm subsided, he reflected on what happened - and he gave up the slave trade. The captain was John Newton. He wrote a song amazing grace.
We may not have had such a dramatic experience as John Newton. We haven't enslaved others for personal gain. We have not bought and sold other human beings, but at times we have not treated someone as a person, but as an object, an instrument of selfish desires. We have sinned, but - like John Newton - we can repent and beg forgiveness. We can open ourselves to the "amazing grace" that lets us make a fresh start. And like Newton, we can witness to what Jesus has done for us.
We need to be proclaimers and evangelizers: To be a Christian is to be a proclaimer and an evangelizer. There is a difference between preaching and proclaiming. We preach with words but we proclaim with our lives. Let us ask the Spirit of God to bear witness to Jesus by our transparent Christian lives.

Cardinal Newman one of the greatest intellectuals in Church history, recognized that souls are ultimately not won by arguments and programs, but by credible witnesses. The truth of the Gospel, he said, "has been upheld in the world not as a system, not by books, not by argument, nor by temporal power, but by the personal influence of such men…, who are at once the teachers and the patterns of it."
Jesus has ascended into heaven and he wants us to be his witnesses. Like the apostles, we start in Jerusalem, that is, right where we find ourselves. Although Jesus has disappeared from our sight, he did not leave us. And he tells us, "You will be my witnesses."
The ascended Jesus is still with us because of his promise, "I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.” He is with us at all times and in all places, releasing a new energy upon the earth, the energy of the Holy Spirit to preach his Good News of salvation by bearing witness to him. We need the help of Jesus’ abiding presence in us through his Holy Spirit to accomplish our mission. Next Sunday is the feast of Pentecost. Hence let us learn to be humble and let the Holy Spirit lead the way in our witness to the world.