Deacon Tom Writes
Go, Make Disciples!
(Note
– Most Dioceses in the U.S. transfer the Feast of the Ascension from Thursday
to the following Sunday. With that in mind, This Sunday’s reflection is on The
Ascension of the Lord.)
It’s
hard to believe that three months ago we were just getting ready for the
beginning of Lent. Now, as the Easter season draws to a close we have some
perspective to reflect on where our spiritual journey has taken us over that
brief but spiritually significant time span.
Were
we able to hear God’s voice in the midst of our Lenten journey through the
desert? Or gain a new insight about God’s incredible love for us during this
Easter Season? Perhaps we have a better sense now of what God is asking of us
than we have when we started out. How successful were we in changing some of
those habits and behaviors we needed to change about ourselves - our judging
and criticizing attitudes, our negative thinking, our inertia for self-
reflection, or our sense of superiority, and our propensity to put others down
in order to fuel our own ego? Have we succeeded in elimination gossip from our
lives?
Three
months is not a long time when you think about it, especially if we are trying
to measure such things as spiritual growth…. It just not a lot of time.
I
suspect that three years isn’t a lot of time either, to make a lot of progress
in the spiritual realm. And yet, that’s, at most, all the time that the Apostles’
had to grasp Our Lord’s revolutionary way of thinking about loving, forgiving,
and serving one another… friend and enemy alike. The Apostles really were, when
you think about it, on the fast track. Once Jesus was gone, that was it. It was
all up to them to spread the Word throughout the world.
Imagine
if you were the one who Jesus told to, “Go
into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature”. What would
you do? How would you begin?
Well,
the strange thing is, this command Jesus gave His hand picked “go-to” guys was
meant for you and I also? Yes, we who hear the Word of God today are chosen to
carry the message in our times. Jesus is telling us to go into the world and
proclaim the Good News to everyone we meet along the way.
In
his Apostolic Exhortation on Evangelization in the Modern World[1],
(or as they say in Rome, Evangelii Nuntiandi- December 8, 1975 – the feast of
the Immaculate Conception), Pope
Paul VI wrote:
“Those who sincerely accept the Good News, through the power of this
acceptance and of shared faith therefore gather together in Jesus' name in
order to seek together the kingdom, build it up and live it. They make up a
community which is in its turn evangelizing. The command to the Twelve to go
out and proclaim the Good News is also valid for all Christians, though in a
different way…. Moreover, the Good News of the kingdom which is coming and
which has begun is meant for all people of all times. Those who have received
the Good News and who have been gathered by it into the community of salvation
can and must communicate and spread it”.
My brothers and sisters, there is a saying that
goes, “Faith isn’t taught, it’s caught”.
Jesus’ work of salvation has been accomplished. What remains is our
participation in that work that calls us to spread the Good News, to be living
witnesses of the faith that we profess, to do as St. Francis was fond of
telling his followers….to go out and preach the gospel, and when necessary, use
words.
Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom
Image: Mural from the
Church of the Ascension, NYC
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