This is graduation season, a time when students excitedly cross the stage to receive a diploma or degree while their family looks on proudly. It is something the graduates look forward to and work hard to achieve. However, this May it is not happening, at least not like the tradition. The corona virus which has changed much of our recent life has also affected school ceremonies. Students will still graduate and receive their diplomas and degrees and maybe sometime in the future there will be a crossing of a stage, but not now.
This year many students are entering a world that they did not expect, one with less opportunity, many less jobs and a lot of anxiety. Yet, they have been studying for years to move into a career and begin to accomplish what they feel they have been called to. They did not go to school to stay in school, but rather to prepare for how they will make their way in the world. In short, ceremony or no ceremony, it is time to get going.
That is what today’s first reading and gospel are about. Ready or not, the apostles are told by Jesus to get going with the conversion not just of Israel, but of the whole world. You don’t quite hear something like that in a commencement speech!
The readings from Acts and the Gospel are two distinct versions of the story of the Ascension. This happens often in the New Testament as each evangelist stresses different themes. Luke’s version in Acts separates the resurrection from ascension by forty days, symbolic of Moses and the people of Israel wandering in the desert forty years as well as Jesus fasting in the desert forty days. Luke concentrates on Jerusalem. Everything happens in Jerusalem, including the coming of the Spirit. Jerusalem is where Jesus dies, just like the prophets, and it is from where Jesus sends forth the disciples. The apostles want the restoration of Israel, they want the glory. However, Jesus says there is much to do first. They need to follow the Spirit. This is a time of witnessing. Here, the Spirit is not a one time event but an ongoing presence. There is no time to waste in star gazing as the angels tell them, in looking up to heaven. Jesus is coming back, but there is need to spread the word now. The graduation ceremony is over before it began as the urgent work of missionary activity is what they need to do now.
Matthew’s gospel is different from Luke. The disciples do not experience Jesus on the day of Easter. Matthew has them go to Galilee to a mountain where Jesus had ordered them to see him. Mountains are important in scripture. The mountain is considered the place where heaven meets earth. Important things happen there. Moses receives the commandments on a mountain. Jesus gives his most important teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. The mountain is where the transfiguration happens. Mountains are places of authority. On this occasion Jesus is in his full authority. In Matthew this is the first meeting with his disciples after the resurrection. In this scene the Resurrection, the Ascension and Pentecost all are one event.
This is the final sending by Jesus. The apostles are now to go into the world and preach. They had crossed the stage.
I remember when I was approaching my final weeks in the seminary before being sent out to the parish and on to ordination as a priest, I found myself all of a sudden doubting if I was ready, if I knew enough, if I was holy enough to do what needed to be done as a priest. I was filled with a kind of anxiety for some weeks. What finally came to me in prayer and meditations was a sense of peace that told me this was not really my work, but the work of Jesus and if he called me he would not abandon me, just as his words in the gospel today assured the disciples. I would never really be ready, but the Lord would make up whatever shortfalls I had if but I just had faith in him and the Spirit working in me. Could I allow myself to be lead and supported by the Spirit? I have found that through service, gratitude and generosity Jesus works through us and makes up for our shortcomings. It is like the student remembering his or her favorite teacher or coach who had taught them all that they can and now must see them leave the classroom and put it all into practice. You are never completely ready, but it is time to go.
The gospel makes it clear and gives us all hope. Jesus says “I am with you until the end.” This is the assurance of the presence of Jesus. Jesus is in the preaching. Jesus is in the witnessing.
The apostles are commissioned to go to ends of the earth, to transform it, by transforming people’s hearts, to care for each other and for earth. This was greater than Jesus’ own ministry, which he said was to the lost sheep of Israel. Now it is to everyone. God the Father, Son & Spirit are with us. So we have a responsibility for all the earth. This pandemic has affected the whole world. We will only be OK when the whole world is OK. We must care for people in the entire planet. At the same time, the pandemic, as bad as it has been, did have a temporary good effect by reducing the climate polluting emissions, maybe as a reminder to us of our responsibility to care for people and the environment. As Jesus told the disciples, this mission is to the whole world. This mission is more than just people.
The command of Jesus to the disciples was to preach, baptize and keep hope in his return. This is called the Great Commission: just as Jesus did the mission of the Father, so the disciples must do the mission of Jesus. Baptism is the key. It is the immersion or plunging of the believer into an incorporation into the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is the summary of the whole gospel, that we are called to be part of God, to do God’s work of love, and thus to continue the transformation of God’s creation. If we are baptized, it is to keep Jesus’ commandments, for no other purpose. Jesus had made clear what were his commandments, namely to love God and to love your neighbor. This is the Good News we proclaim in the name of Jesus: God loves us and we must love God by loving our neighbor.
I have always loved the scene in the first reading today of the moment when Jesus is taken up to heaven and the apostles stare intently at the sky. Two angels appear and ask them what they are looking at. They say Jesus will return one day. It is clear: quit stargazing, get to work! Jesus never came to stay in the world as he was. The grads never went to school to stay. It is time to move on. None of us ever gets to stay anywhere long. That is not what we are about. We need to keep moving, as Jesus has given all of us much to do.
The Feast of the Ascension challenges us with the question: Have I done enough since I walked across the stage? Have I truly lived my baptism by using my talents, abilities, gifts and experiences to be a witness, to help transform the world? Have I lived a life of gratitude and generosity while offering service? These weeks and months of the corona virus have given us all a lot to think about. Maybe it has been a wake up call, much like the angels telling the disciples, “Why are you looking up at the sky?” Even as we do what we can to stay healthy, there is much we can do to touch the world with the love of Jesus through words and actions, especially to reach those people and places most in need. It is also a time to make plans for my post-corona life.
It is never too late to complete our mission. We have crossed the stage!
Fr. David Garcia is a retired priest from the Archdiocese of San Antonio, Texas, where he served for 44 years. During that time, Fr. Garcia was instrumental in the effort to have the Old Spanish Missions recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and also oversaw the multimillion-dollar restoration of San Fernando Cathedral. Fr. David served as pastor for several parishes in San Antonio, including the historic Mission Concepción. He also served as Senior Advisor for Clergy Outreach at Catholic Relief Services, the official international humanitarian and relief agency of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.