Ascension of our Lord - Year C

Recently, I was speaking with a man who told me that he had gone through a harsh experience in a battle with cancer. He told me that at times he would be in a lot of pain and in those moments he would look at an image of Jesus crucified and say to Him, “Thank you, Lord, for giving me a splinter from your cross.” He continued to tell me that, remarkably, in those moments he would feel great peace and even the pain seemed to lessen in its intensity.

When will suffering come to an end? How long will we have to endure the crosses of life? For one who does not believe, the answer is “until the end”. For one who believes, the answer is totally different. For one who believes, suffering and the cross last only for the four days of this life which, as we all know, passes very quickly.

Jesus today shows us what our one true destiny is. If we believe in Him, and live His Word, our home is the Home of Heaven, in the bosom of the merciful Father. In the first reading we saw that Jesus, after His resurrection, “appeared to them and gave them many proofs that He was alive; for forty days they saw Him many times”. This is what makes the witness of the apostles a unique witness, because they truly saw Him after His resurrection. He promised them the Holy Spirit, who would be for them the strength needed to preach the Gospel amid hardship and great persecution. The Holy Spirit casts out from them—and from us—the discouragement which is the greatest weapon that the evil spirit uses against us.

After this, Jesus is taken up into Heaven, but this does not mean that He ends His presence in the world. By the power of His Spirit and through the Church, His mystical body, He now inaugurates a new presence through which He can be present in every place and time. He is now also at the right hand of God from where He defends us before the Father, but also from where He will one day return to judge us. Faced with the fact that we will all be judged, we feel fear, but let us not forget what today’s Gospel told us: “repentance for the forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in His name to all nations.” Therefore we must make every effort to avoid sin, but if we do sin, we must draw near to Him because He forgives us.

Today’s second reading gives us the programme of the Christian life: “let us draw near with a sincere heart and with full faith, with our hearts cleansed from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” What does this mean?

“Our bodies washed with pure water” – we receive Baptism which unites our life to Jesus.

• Full faith in Him who saved us – we live our faith, that is, we live as children of the Father.

• That we always have a sincere heart – with God, with others, and with ourselves.

• With our hearts cleansed from an evil conscience – a good conscience can only be formed by listening to the Word of God as explained to us by the Church.

We pray to You, Jesus, You who saved us, who are with us in the Church, and who will one day return; help us never to lose heart, but with full faith in You and through the power of Your Spirit which we have received, may we continue walking this path that leads us into the arms of our one true Father. Amen.