Today we celebrate the feast
of the ascension of the Lord. After the resurrection from the death, Jesus with
His glorified body was oscillating between heaven and earth at once. With His
risen body Jesus was able to be present at different places at the same time,
He could get inside the closed room and He could disappear at instant. After 40
days of oscillation between heaven and earth, Jesus goes into heaven permanently
only to be returned to earth on the last day (Acts 1:11). Between His ascension
into heaven and second coming on the last day, the disciples are to continue
the mission of the proclamation of the kingdom of God (Mk 16:15) that He had initiated
on earth.
From the beginning of
creation till the ascension of the Lord, the God of Israel revealed Himself
progressively to His chosen people. Jesus was the final revelation. With His
ascension into heaven the revelation ends
and the interpretation begins. The proclamation
of the kingdom of the God by Jesus’ disciples is not something different from
what Jesus proclaimed; rather it is a re-proclamation of what Jesus proclaimed.
Any communication done be the other than the original author involves interpretation.
Thus, what church does today is an interpretation of Jesus’ proclamation and
the divine revelation that had preceded His coming. Jesus goes into heaven to
send the Holy Spirit down. His ascending is for the descending of the Holy
Spirit. With the ending of revelation our God has not left us alone without any
of His personal involvement. He continues to assist us with the promptings of
the Holy Spirit. Jesus told the disciples to remain in Jerusalem until they
receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4). So that, they may interpret His message
properly. It is with the assistance of the Holy Spirit that the kingdom of God
is being interpreted, rather proclaimed.
In the second reading (Eph
1:17-23) St. Paul tells the Ephesians that He prays for the Holy Spirit to come
upon them. So that they may understand what St. Paul had proclaimed to them. Holy
Spirit is the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Even today we hear people having
whispers, message, word from the Lord… they are all promptings of the Holy
Spirit. In the early kerygma, the Holy Spirit was present with the disciples to
interpret the kingdom of God properly and also confirmed their proclamation
with signs and wonders. The people hearing the message and seeing the signs
embraced the new faith that was being introduced to them. Today most of us are
already into the faith from our birth. But we long for signs to have personal
experience with God. Though we believe in God and the signs are not necessary
for us to confirm our faith still having signs from God would make us feel the individuality
and the uniqueness of us in Christ – our personal
relationship, existence with Him.
We are living in the time of
pandemic that is provoking us to look at God and question Him for his
inactiveness and not working any sings to confirm His continued presence in the
world. On the day of ascension the disciples continued to look at heaven
without moving away from that place. Two men from heaven have to come down to
help them to come to senses and remind them to do what Jesus has commanded them
(Acts 1:10-11).The natural calamities and pandemics are not punishment from
God. They are occasions to orient us into the kingdom of God. The covid-19
pandemic made us to confine ourselves to home, to live with our family and to have
only necessary things. Are these contrary not kingdom values? The pandemic has
not destroyed the kingdom values rather has become stumbling block to achieve our
wills and wants. God is reorienting us to embrace the kingdom values through this
pandemic. We need to read this act of God with the assistance of the Holy
Spirit. If we continue to look at the misery that is around us we may not get
any sings because the sign is pandemic itself. Listening to the whispers of evil
spirit would provoke us to question the reality (why this?), but listening to
the promptings of the Holy Spirit would make us know the reality (what went
wrong?). Let us remove our gaze from the pandemic and focus on building the
Kingdom of God. Remember, Covid-19 is not threat to the kingdom, rather is a
pause to re-direct us to the kingdom. Go and do what Jesus has commanded us; proclaim
His message of love.
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