Ascension 2020 - Don't just stand there

Way back at the beginning of Lent we heard the Gospel story of Jesus going out into the desert, where he fasted and prayed for 40 days. There in the desert, Our Lord prepared emotionally, mentally, and spiritually his public ministry of preaching and teaching, healing, and confronting the error and evil which had crept into jewish religious life—into the hearts of his people. Those 40 days prepared him to embrace His Father’s will, which would culminate with his sacrifice on Calvary.

After his resurrection and prior to his ascension, Our Lord also prepared for 40 days, not so much himself, but he prepared his disciples for their ministry—to preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth. St. Luke tells us in our reading from the Acts of the Apostles how Our Lord prepared his disciples: He appeared to them, he presented himself alive to them, he showed them proofs of his suffering and victory over death. And he instructed them, he spoke of the kingdom of God to them, he gave them specific marching orders and also formed them for the Gospel mission to the ends of the earth. And he spoke of their coming baptism in the Holy Spirit, Pentecost.

This time of preparation was vitally important. They would need courage. They would need competency. And they needed the divine life within them. For they would be facing torment, and opposition, and the very powers of hell bent at tearing down all that is holy.

At the end of those 40 days after the resurrection, before their very eyes, St. Luke tells us, Our Lord was lifted up, he ascended. An event which resonated deeply in the early church, for it is recorded in all four Gospels and the book of acts.

And in Acts, immediately following the Lord’s ascension, we read a very interesting detail, it’s almost comical, if not predictable, if you’ve been paying attention to how the apostles typically respond to Jesus’ instructions. Our Lord ascends into heaven, it’s time for the apostles to get to work, and what do they do? Acts tells us, they just stood there, looking intently at the sky.

They were so immobilized that God had to send angels to get them moving again.  “Men, of Galilee, why are you just standing there looking at the sky?” Don’t just stand there, do something. Get to work! 

A few years ago, Pope Francis spoke about how Christians can be alot like those disciples in that moment after the Ascension.  In fact, Pope Francis had some pretty strong words about it. He said, “Christians who stay still, who don’t go forward, are non-Christian Christians...They are slightly ‘paganized’ Christians: (they) who stay still and don’t go forward in their Christian lives, who don’t make the Beatitudes bloom in their lives, who don’t do Works of mercy… they are motionless. Excuse me for saying it,” the Pope said, “but they are like an (embalmed) mummy, a spiritual mummy. There are Christians who are ‘spiritual mummies,’ motionless.  They don’t do evil but they aren’t doing good.”

Pretty strong words! For what is a mummy, but a former human who has become dried-up, devoid of life, stuffed into a casket. Motionless.

Christians are to be so much more than mummies. The Lord said, I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly.  Our Christian faith exists to make us fully alive, to fill us with life and conviction and spiritual gifts for the building-up of the kingdom, but so often, we just stand there, fearful to step forward, afraid of making a mistake, fearful of appearing too Christian. What would our neighbors think if we invited them to church? What would our family members think if we got involved in volunteer work in the parish. What would people think if we took initiative in starting up a prayer group, a bible study?

Fear is certainly one of the great enemies of the spiritual life, fear which mummifies, paralyzes, causes us to stand still in the spiritual life and the work of the Gospel. And yet, we know that great spiritual vibrancy is possible. Up and down the centuries the saints show us what happens when you allow Christian courage and spiritual fecundity to animate one’s life.

I remember when I came face to face with Pope Saint John Paul II when I was living in Rome 16 years ago.  The man had already begun to be crippled from Parkinson’s, and yet, he was bursting with life, the light of Christ radiated from his eyes, the joy of the Gospel and the love he had for the Church bristled in every word. Though his physical life began to fail, his spiritual life thrived. It’s possible, for each one of us, spiritual vibrancy is possible whether in quarantine, in prison or poverty, peacetime or war.

Now, I know, we’ve had a very difficult, very strange Lent and Easter this year. Fear of sickness and disease may have caused us to become a little spiritually paralyzed, spiritually immobile. With eyes agape we’ve gazed for too many hours at television and computer screens. Instead of making our homes places where spiritual life thrives, we’ve made them into mummy’s caskets.

As our parish reopens for weekday mass this week and Pentecost Mass next Sunday, we do well to identify those mummified parts of our lives that need to be re-vivified, those fearful chambers of our hearts that need to be emboldened, the arid parts of our souls that need to be watered. Be generous with God this week as you prepare not only to return to Church, but for the work of the gospel out in the world. For yes, we come to Church, in order to worship and adore our God and Savior, but we come to Church in order to be strengthened and emboldened to go out into the world to preach and to teach, to make disciples, and to baptize, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.