Today’s readings give us two versions of what happened on the day we remember today - the Ascension of the Lord. Luke’s gospel gives us the briefer story: Jesus took his disciples to Bethany, blessed them and told them, “Behold I am sending the promise of my Father upon you.” Then he was taken up to heaven and the disciples “returned to Jerusalem with great joy.”
But Luke, who also wrote the Acts of the Apostles, fills in the story a little more in the first reading. The two books, Luke and Acts, work together in partnership, and today’s readings, the ending of Luke and the beginning of Acts, mark the transition both in Luke’s story and in this early Christian movement.
In the gospel, Jesus blesses his disciples, but tells them to wait in the city “until you are clothed in power from on high.” But that time of waiting is over by the time we read it in Acts. There, just before he is “lifted up,” Jesus tells them they will receive the Holy Spirit and “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” He is sending them on their -- and our -- mission.
We watch with the disciples as Jesus is lifted up, and we are left still staring at the sky. As if to add urgency to the message, two angels break our dazed contemplation. They say, “Why are you standing there looking at the sky?” It is as if Jesus wanted to waken us from our dream-state and go to the mission he is sending us on - to be witnesses for him on this earth. We may want to cling to the “old, familiar” Jesus of the gospels, but this is the mission we are given - not to cling but to embrace. We are being sent out into the world to care for the people Jesus would have embraced - the poor, the marginal, those who are rejected by society, those who are weak or mentally ill.
It’s easier for us to be Christians standing on a hillside gazing at the sky, but our mission is to move off that hill, to stop staring open-mouthed at the miracle of Jesus in our lives and act on it - to witness, to serve as Christ’s representative here on earth.
It is then that we will really understand what it means to be a disciple of Christ and we, too, can “return to Jerusalem with great joy.”
Maureen McCann Waldron
The most important part of my life is my family – Jim my husband of 47 years and our two children. Our daughter Katy, a banker here in Omaha, and her husband John, have three wonderful children: Charlotte, Daniel and Elizabeth Grace. Our son Jack and his wife, Ellie, have added to our joy with their sons, Peter and Joseph.
I think family life is an incredible way to find God, even in (or maybe I should say, especially in) the most frustrating or mundane moments.
I am a native of the East Coast after graduating in 1971 from Archbishop John Carroll High School in suburban Philadelphia. I graduated from Creighton University in 1975 with a degree in Journalism and spent most of the next 20 years in corporate public relations in Omaha. I returned to Creighton in the 1990s and completed a master’s degree in Christian Spirituality in 1998.
As our children were growing up, my favorite times were always family dinners at home when the four of us would talk about our days. But now that our kids are gone from home, my husband and I have rediscovered how nice it is to have a quiet dinner together. I also have a special place in my heart for family vacations when the kids were little and four of us were away from home together. It’s a joy to be with my growing family.
Writing a Daily Reflection is always a graced moment, because only with God’s help could I ever write one. I know my own life is hectic, disjointed and imperfect and I know most of us have lives like that. I usually write from that point of view and I always seem to find some sentence, some word in the readings that speaks right to me, in all of my imperfection. I hope that whatever I write is in some way supportive of others.
It’s an incredibly humbling experience to hear from someone who was touched by something I wrote. Whether the note is from someone across campus or across the world, it makes me realize how connected we are all in our longing to grow closer to God.
