“All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
Many parents make it a point to have their children baptized. But it doesn't end there: "teach them," Jesus says, "to observe all that I have commanded you." (Matthew 28:18-20)
This teaching to observe what Jesus commands us, in turn leads to forming us as true, mature disciples, not just nominal Christians. And that's crucial. To be a disciple means to be "disciplined" or well- formed in our faith. A disciple is a follower or "pupil" of Christ, our Teacher. That means an ongoing process throughout our growing-up years and right through adulthood.
The beauty of that is that there's always something new to learn about God. The fascinating relationship we as disciples can have with Him can continue to unfold and develop through our whole lives. I know this is true in my own life. It seems just about every time I'm feeling smug about what I know, I'll hear a priest give a sermon or an apologist on TV or radio discuss a topic that encourages me to dig even deeper into the Mystery.
So, rather than be discouraged that we may become overwhelmed and will never fully master the practice of our Faith, we can be excited about the ongoing deepening of our faith as Jesus' disciples. Deepening our faith can only help us better observe all His commands.
Pope Saint John Paul II wrote in his homily for Ascension Thursday in 1979; “You must be strong, dear brothers and sisters. You must be strong with the strength that comes from faith. You must be strong with the strength of faith. You must be faithful. Today, more than in any other age, you need this strength. You must be strong with the strength of hope, the hope that brings perfect joy in life and which prevents us from ever grieving the Holy Spirit. You must be strong with love, the love which is stronger than death … You must be strong with the strength of faith, hope and charity, a charity that is conscious, mature and responsible, and which can help us at this moment of our history to carry on the great dialogue with man and the world, a dialogue rooted in dialogue with God Himself, with the Father, through the Son in the Holy Spirit, the dialogue of salvation.”
Strengthened by the Holy Spirit, the Feast of the Ascension invites us to devote ourselves to consolidating Our Lord’s Kingdom on earth, a kingdom of goodness, justice, solidarity, and mercy. It challenges us to give courageous witness to the Gospel before today’s world, bringing hope to the poor, the suffering, the lost and abandoned, the desperate and those yearning for freedom, truth, and peace. It inspires us to be good to those we live and work with, to love them, and by doing so to show our love for God, who in all things loves us.
The Ascension doesn’t mean that Jesus has left us behind, or that He’s departed to some faraway place, far from people and far from our world. It means He no longer belongs to the world. He belongs to God. In His Ascension, Jesus takes our human existence into the presence of God. He takes with Him our flesh and our blood, so that you and I and every human being who desires to do so can now abide in God, and God will abide in us. The mystery of the Ascension introduces us into the very life of God. The Ascension means that Christ had not departed from us. It only seemed so. In fact, He’s close to each one of us forever. On intimate terms with Him now, each of us and all of us together can work with Our Lord as He shares His strength with us to bring His own mission to conclusion.
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