With Us to the End of Time

Some year ago, a group of men looked up into heavens and gazed at the place, where the race of human beings lived.  The gazers were the astronauts who landed on the moon.  The place in the heavens at which they gazed was the earth.

It is good to keep that event in mind as we reflect on the feast of the Ascension.  What is the meaning of the Ascension?  To where has Jesus the Messiah gone?  And what are we to do until he returns?

Jesus’ physical ascension does not tell us where he has gone.  If we look for him in space – physically upward, would be downward at night, or the opposite side of the earth.  The astronauts might have met him somewhere up there or down there.

Our opening prayer tells us: “God our Father, may we follow him [Jesus] into the new creation.” 

By this physical ascension, Jesus expressed his passage beyond time and space, into eternity,  to dwell with the Father and share his glory. What does the ascension of Jesus mean to us? 

The departure of Jesus in his bodily form is the prelude to Pentecost.  As Jesus said at the Last Supper, “… It is better.  For if I do not go, the Advocate (the Holy Spirit) will not come to you.  But if I go, I will send him to you.”  (John 16:7)

In today’s first reading, Jesus tells his disciples to be his witnesses to the ends of the world.  And in the Gospel reading he tells them to be his teachers to the world.  It is as if Jesus were telling his disciples, “You have been with me all these years.  You have seen how I live my life and carry out my mission. Now, it is your turn to continue the mission.”

The Feast of the Ascension might be compared to the passing of the baton in a relay race.  The first runner runs the first stretch of the course with the baton in his hand until he reaches the second runner and passes the baton to him.  Then the second runner runs the second stretch with the baton until he passes the baton to the third runner and so on.

On this day more than 2,000 years ago, Jesus passed the baton of responsibility for the Kingdom of God to his followers. Jesus commissioned them to complete the work he had begun. Concretely, what does this mean? 

How do you and I, in the 21st century, carry out Jesus’ commission to be his witnesses to the world and to be his teachers to the nations? 

Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel, “Make disciples of all the nations, baptize them, and teach them the way of Christ.”  There are many ways to do this, as there are Christians. We can do what some young men and women did.

After graduation from college, or after some years of practice in their profession, some young people dedicate their whole life to the service of God and people by entering the convent or studying for the priesthood.

Many others, after finishing college, joined the Jesuit Volunteers of the Philippines (JVP) and devoted two years of their lives serving the poor in the remote areas of our country among the Mangyans of Mindoro, the Manobos or Lumads of Bukidnon. I know a few decided to continue on their own to work among the poor afterward.

There are also those who give witness to their Christian faith by standing up against graft and corruption, fighting for justice and integrity.

A public school teacher in Zamboanga del Sur had a prolonged campaign against the corrupt practice of teachers buying M.A. credits to get promotion and higher pay in the rural areas.  For more than 20 years since 1970’s she and some other teachers tried to bring the corrupt practice to the attention of the Department of Education.  Unfortunately there were some higher officials involved and their efforts could not prosper.

Instead, she was getting all kinds of threats and harassment.  When she refused to stop her campaign, she was even arrested and put in the stockade as a subversive during the Marcos regime.  And on one occasion, a grenade was hurled at her house.  Luckily, the grenade bounced off a coconut tree outside the window and exploded outside her house.  She told me she still has a lot of documents waiting for the right opportunity.

Abang was a town mayor in Camarines Sur, a graduate of Ateneo de Naga who tries to bring Christian values to politics.  Before he was elected mayor, he had organized a cooperative among the farmers and gave them Christian formation programs.  And as a mayor for the third term, he continued to resist the tempting sums being offered to him to allow the gambling syndicate operates jueteng in his area. 

He said, “Jueteng and other forms of gambling destroy our Filipino virtue of ‘tiaga’ (persevering hard-work), aside from draining off the resources of the land and people.”  He refused to sign contracts that offered attractive kickbacks.

The young Jesuit Ricky Fernando, who generously volunteered to work in the mission of Cambodia, threw himself as a shield to protect his students from a grenade tossed by a problem boy.

Some people start young.  Years ago some high school students of Ateneo de Naga spent their summer vacations going to the mountains to teach the Aetas basic skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Most commendable is the decision of the Xavier Grade School graduating class of the year 2002 to forgo the traditional graduation party, and give the money to the scholarship fund to help poor students.

Examples like these are many.  And we need more people like them.  We need Christian witnesses like them for our times and for our society.  However, there are also other ways of carrying out the commission of Jesus. 

It’s to become witnesses and teachers in the homes, in our work places, in our schools, in politics and business.  We simply make an effort to become the kind of persons the Holy Spirit inspires us to be.

We witness to Jesus and teach others by our love, when others need us – by our patience when others annoy us, by our forgiveness when others wrong us, by our honesty when others are corrupt and dishonest, by our fidelity to the spouse and family when many are unfaithful, by our concern for public and community interest when others behave “kanya-kanya” or are guided by “I and mine before others” mentality; and by our perseverance when we feel like quitting.

Our lives and actions speak more loudly than our lips do when it comes to witnessing and teaching.  People would much rather see a sermon than listen to one.

A woman saw a little girl in the street playing with filthy trash.  The child was poorly dressed and ill nourished.  The woman became upset and complained to God, “Why do you let a thing like that to happen in the world you created?  Why don’t you do something about it?”

God replied, “I did; I created you.”

That story invites us to ask ourselves: How seriously do we take Jesus’ command to transform our world into the kind of place God created it to be?

The message of the Ascension is a simple one.  Jesus invites us to take from his hand the baton he received from his Father and to continue the work that his Father gave him to do on earth.

It’s witnessing to Jesus and teaching other people about him wherever we find ourselves, and in whatever manner the Holy Spirit inspires us to use.

In summary, witnessing to Jesus and teaching others about him is simply sharing with them our own faith and love.  It’s sharing with them the one treasure we have to share.  This is what Ascension is all about. 

It’s simply taking seriously Jesus’ invitation to be his witness to this world and his teacher to the nations. “And I will be with you, always,” Jesus assures us, “to the end of time.”