May 16 is Ascension Sunday. The Mass readings tell us of a crowd of disciples looking up at the sky and wondering what to do next..
The readings are Acts 1:1-11;Ps 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9;Eph 1:17-23;Mk 16:15-20
Acts tell us that he risen Lord has just gone up into the sky. The disciples watched wondering how they will build a church without Him. Historians estimate this crowd at no more than 120 members. How did such a small band of common people become“witnesses …to the ends of the earth?” Sunday’s second reading gives us a clue:
“May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe, in accord with the exercise of his great might, which he worked in Christ, raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens, far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come.” (Eph 1:18-22)
Paul tells the Ephesians - and us - three things about what we will need when we are sent. We are sent and can proclaim even if confined by age, covid quarantine, in prison or otherwise restricted. First they will be filled with enlightened hearts as they go to “ends of the earth.” Second, Christ was seated far above every earthly and heavenly authority. We will come against “earthly authorities’ in the form of crowds, governmental and private institutions and political parties. Third, Paul reminds us that we see with our hearts as well as our minds.
May we all go forth with the good news.
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