June 1, 2003
Acts 1:1-11 + Ephesians 4:1-13 + Mark 16:15-20
A contemporary spiritual writer has suggested that in this age of time we have three classes of Christian people. The first are the “aristocrats” of sort. They live with solitude and contemplation. They have a special relationship with God. Many live in convents and monasteries. Some are hermits. They most often live apart from us, and some are sought for their wisdom. They are genuine their gift benefits us all.
The second are the “bourgeoisie”, to continue using that vocabulary. They are a kind of high society – upper middle class. They have aspirations, goals, hopes, and plans. They can retire to their private rooms to think about God because they have private rooms. They can go on retreats, by and read spiritual books. They can go to Bible Study classes and Adult Education classes about religion because in general they have something they often take for granted. They have a wonderful gift too. It is called: “Time.”
The third group includes most of the other people on this earth. They live day in and day out in a world that shoves them, pulls them, and sometimes crushes them. It simply seems to drag them from birth to death. Now and then they get a glimpse of Christ, but more often than not they end up feeling dissatisfied. They do not have “time” like the aristocrats and bourgeoisie. Their waking hours are spent seeking enough to eat – not just for themselves, but for their children, since if they do not eat something, their children will suffer even more. For this group, time is not a gift for seeking God,
but an extension of their struggle to survive. Now I have come to believe that the Ascension of the Lord has more to do with TIME than with where Jesus went or what happened on Easter to the Apostles and to the Risen Christ. It’s about TIME: how we use it, and where it takes us.
It is about this time, not the past when Jesus of Nazareth was here, but about June in two-thousand and three. It is about today and tomorrow and the time we have to complete our mission as it has been preserved for us in our ancient writings.
The rebuke of the first reading still sounds clear to those who stand around looking at the sky. However tempting it might be, a “wait and see” attitude is not the attitude of disciples. The consequence of the Ascension is that the goodness of this world is affirmed; that the way to God is the way of Jesus Christ, obedience, service, love, and forgiveness. The consequence of the Ascension is that mission of Jesus Christ has become our own. And so, the bind will see……see the glory of God in a people filled with Joy and with Hope. And the lame will walk…..walk upright and free from injustice and poverty, from prejudice and racism. And the lepers will be cleansed…..and all those pushed to the edges of life will be restored to their place in the heart of God. And the poor will have the Good News preached to them…. the poor who have no hope and no choices, no opportunities, and no time.
It would appear that most of us in St. Mark Parish are, in Michael Quoist’s analysis, the bourgeoisie. We have time either because money has purchased this kind of leisure or our birth-right has left us here. In this assembly today, the Word we proclaim stuns us with the expectations God seems to have of us. In the glorification of Christ, in his being taken up into heaven away from us, the plan, the will, and the intention of God becomes perfectly clear.
An English Hymn writer (Fred Pratt Green) put it this way:
“The Church of Christ in every age,
Beset by change, but spirit led,
Must claim and test its heritage,
And keep on rising from the dead.
Across the world, across the street
the victims of injustice cry
For shelter and for bread to eat
And never live before the die.
Then let the servant church arise,
A caring Church that longs to be
A partner in Christ’s sacrifice,
And clothed in Christ’s humility.
For he alone, whose blood was shed,
Can cure the fever in our blood,
And teach us how to share our bread
and feed the starving multitude.
For we have no mission but to serve
In full obedience to our Lord;
To care for all, without reserve,
And spread his liberating Word