As we read the Gospels and relive the mystery of the God-experience in our daily lives, we always look forward to our rebirth into the life of the Spirit at Pentecost. The Ascension story, however, is a mission given to us. The original fire of the Gospel must burn in us. This gift must bring excitement, passion, and courage to us. We must shake off complacency, intolerance, and indifference. This didn’t come easily to the first disciples. Nor does it for us.
Jesus left his followers with a mission that would provide the impetus for all they were to do to take the knowledge of salvation to the entire world. This was no small task. This mission provides focus and meaning for our existence. It is only by staying focused on the mission that we remain alert, open to the gift of the Spirit and ready to fulfill the vision of the reign of God.
Maybe that’s why, at the Ascension, they were asked a simple question: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking up to the sky?” In reality, they weren't yet ready to go off spreading the news of his resurrection. They were a small, fearful community that had no power on its own. As the Gospels often remind us, these first followers of Jesus always had a tendency to get his message all wrong. What's more, when things got tough, they often fled, locked themselves away from danger or went into hiding.
So they stood there looking up into the sky after what they felt they had lost. Maybe that question was Christ’s way of telling them that they were to look for him not in the clouds but in the experience of their own lives.
We are no different from the first followers of Jesus. As long as we live, our lives will also change, and in those changes we will lose things that are valuable to us. But where should we look?
We need to stop a moment, take a breath, and wait for God's promise to be fulfilled. And it's a difficult lesson to learn knowing that this will come at God's timing, not our own. The Risen Lord wants us to break free of our limited view, our prejudices and our tendency to misinterpret the meaning of his life. We will, he says, have to be, "my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth." But we will need help.
We are to be witnesses to Jesus by the integrity of our lives and our commitment to his Gospel. And, like the first disciples, we need to wait for the gift of the Spirit who sustains us when the going gets tough.
On this feast of the Ascension, we should look for the risen Christ in our joys, in the needs of those around us, and in the opportunities for hope and healing. It does no good to stand looking up into the sky. Christ is to be found in the contours of our lives.
