Life is full of surprises and interesting moments, and at times it puts us in situations where we have to think harder and more deeply. A few weeks ago, I happened to share dinner with a few young families whose children ranged in age from one and a half to around six years old. While the adults were engaged in deep conversation, the children were running around the table, making a lot of noise, and suddenly, out of nowhere, a little child shouted, “Father Sang is God.” Everyone in the dining room burst out laughing. The child’s mother looked at me very convincingly and said, “I am not going to explain that to him; you have to explain that to him, Father.”
Being put on the spot, I panicked a little and was confused about what to say to the child at that very moment. What I did say was essentially a denial: “No, no, I am not God.” I then pointed my finger toward the little altar on the wall with a crucifix on it and continued, “I am only talking about that man up there.” Thank goodness the child ran off and joined his friends again to play. This left me pondering further.
How can we explain God to a little child? Or how can we explain the mysteries of God to one another, let alone to little children? Using human language, expressions, and symbols to describe realities that go beyond ourselves can be very challenging at times. We might fall into the trap of reducing divine truth to a very limited, earthly, and materialistic realm, or restricting it only to human ways of thinking. It leaves us wondering whether this was the same challenge faced by all the New Testament writers who attempted to present divine truth to their people and to us.
In our readings this week, we see that the writer of Acts presents the mystery of the Ascension of the Lord to his Gentile audience in a rather literal sense: “As he said this he was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud took him from their sight.” Should we dwell only on this literal sense and go no further into the mystery of the Ascension of the Lord?
Paul seems to elaborate on this mystery more deeply rather than remaining with the literal sense of flying up into the sky and being enveloped by a cloud. He gives us good hints through expressions of the Ascension that are not merely about physical upward movement, such as: “the rich glories God has promised;” “[raising] him from the dead and making him sit at his right hand in heaven, far beyond every Sovereignty, Authority, Power or Domination;” “[far beyond] any other name that can be named, not only in this age, but also in the age to come;” and “put all things under his feet, and made him ruler over everything” (Ephesians 1:17–23). These expressions seem to offer us a different perspective on the Ascension of the Lord. They present to us a state of glorification: a status awarded by God to Christ; a state of being forever with God and ruling with him over all creation. According to Paul, this is a reality that every disciple of Christ should come to know and place their hope in. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul prays: “May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring you to full knowledge of him. May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you.”
To obtain what is promised in this hope, the disciples of Jesus must not only come to know Jesus, but also respond to his call to continue his mission on earth. If we reread the passage from the Acts of the Apostles presented to us, we will notice that after his resurrection, Jesus continues to appear to his disciples, and the message he focuses on is “about the kingdom of God.” Later in the same passage, he entrusts them with bearing witness to him once they receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
In Matthew’s Gospel for this feast, we hear the mission stated quite clearly: “Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you.”
The feast of the Ascension does not simply point us toward the hope of sharing in Christ’s glorification awarded by God, but it also urges each of us to continue building the kingdom of God on earth through our witness to Jesus and his works every day of our lives. May he enlighten our hearts with this spirit at every moment of our journey, and indeed may he always be with us.
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