Today’s Gospel Story for the Feast of the Ascension (Matthew 28:16-20) tells of Jesus sending his apostles out to make disciples of all nations, and reminding them that he will be with them always. On this feast we recall when he returned to his Abba. The majority report of this event is that Jesus ascended, went up, to heaven. A challenge of this feast is that it presents Abba, God, as “up there somewhere” very far away from us, while we are down here. St John Paul II said, “heaven is neither an abstraction nor a physical place in the clouds. Instead, it is the realization of our deep, transcendent meeting with God”. There is a saying in scriptural theology that all the scriptural stories are true, and some of them even happened. The Ascension Story does not tell of an historical event, but offers insight to what Christ’s followers in different places over the years thought about Him, how He was different after His Crucifixion and Resurrection. The communities used typical images of the day to express their belief.
As usual, the minority report can be much different, depending what is going on in our life when we hear or read it. Jesus told his apostles “I am with you always, until the end of time”. This does not mean he is among us in his human presence as he was when he walked the earth in human form. It does mean that the same Christ who became human back then is among us in our here and now, and as he is in us, we are in him, in a way more intimate to us as the very basis of our existence. Everything in our tradition, when we consent to it, leads us to know and experience Christ in our life. This does not mean our relationship with Jesus Christ is a personal and private affair. While it is personal, because it happens with our consent and effort to live in a way that leads us to be open to the Spirit, who reminds us of everything Jesus taught, it is in no way ever private, because it involves everybody in our life. Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, and who did some work in the town where I live, believed Christ is in everyone, especially the needy and the poor: “whatever you did for one of these least brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me”. There are no exceptions.
The Gospel Story tells us, “when they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted”. Many of us were raised with the idea that doubting, questioning, wondering, are not good things. Some go so far as to call them sinful. Yet they are how we grow in our understanding and experience of Christ among us. Everything in our life far has been a preparation, a formation for where we are now, so we always are in a position to ask “what is our now saying to us?”. How am I being invited to grow and move ahead in my particular circumstances?
In my own life I am most grateful for my HAC (Heart Attack in the Car) experience. I’m still not sure what exactly happened, but for quite a while afterward Abba became a living experience, approaching the point of being physical. As I watched the people around me in the hospital and other places it was being in the midst of God, Abba, happening all around me. I did not hear any religious words or terminology, yet I experienced what Jesus referred to as the kingdom of God happening all around me. These wonderful people cared, and it was clear that they enjoyed caring. They did everything with an amazing attitude of cheerfulness.
These past several days I have been with good folks who are hurting for any number of reasons I know some friends who have a relative suffering intense pain from cancer surgery. They have pretty much reorganized their lives to spend time with her so she doesn’t feel alone or have to suffer by herself. What they are doing is an example of the Gospel happening, what Jesus calls his followers to do. My guess is they don’t see any Gospel connection, but it is there. Then there are folks feeling alone or ignored, angry, mistreated, accused or blamed for whatever, folks feeling betrayed by their religious tradition and its interpretation of the gospel, people carrying unbelievable loads, other priests who are having a most difficult time just doing what the church gives them to do and feeling unsupported, alone, misjudged — the not so nice human side of the church. Especially painful are good folks judged and condemned, allegedly in your name, because of how they see themselves or whom they love. How do I deal with the people who are doing the judging, labeling, and condemning while claiming to act in Jesus’ name, locally and elsewhere? This is a real problem, and for me a painful one. I know folks on all sides, and they are good people.
Richard Rohr says “Christ is another word for everything”, the good behind all the bad. You are the creative compassionate presence of Abba happening in and around us since the beginning and in our here and now, and I know this in my own life, how real you are. What are you saying to me? Don’t know if I can ask what you are saying to us, I’m too narrow minded and weak for that. You say, “I am with you always”. Where are you now? What do you ask of me? Is it time to pull pitch? Will I ever know? The mission you give is not about telling others how to live, but to be aware of you on my own journey, to question, to doubt, to wonder.
The Gospel happens in life as it is, among real people as they/we are, not as we wish it were or somebody tells us it ought to be. It is not so much about what Jesus did, but what he is doing now. It happens in me as/if I let myself be led to learn to deal with the different folks in our/my life at any given time. We have the power to bring caring and healing to others, even without religious terminology. Thec gospel is a call to act as you did, something I’m not too good at. You don’t call me to know, but to trust. I’m ok with that. You have been, and are now, very good to me, much more than I could ever deserve, and I am grateful. And I doubt, wander, and wonder. Wouldn’t change a thing. Just sayin . .