Homily 7th Sunday of Easter year A -21 May 2023

 

My dear friends, on this Seventh Sunday of Easter we are celebrating the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord and the readings therefore focus on the ascension and the mission command given by Jesus.

The Ascension though a Solemnity is generally overlooked in comparison to other feasts, hence, we need to look at the significance of the Ascension. First, Jesus’ ascension is the reason that he can send the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:33). Also, it is because of his ascension that Jesus can give the gifts of repentance and forgiveness of sins. “God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Saviour, that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.” (Acts 5:31) lastly, the ascended and enthroned Christ cares for his suffering people as they bear witness to him. We see this when Stephen becomes the first martyr of the Christian church. 

In the first reading taken from the Acts of the Apostles, the apostles are to wait in Jerusalem for baptism with the Holy Spirit as promised by John the Baptist (Lk 3:16). Concerning the full coming of the kingdom Jesus tells them, “It is not for you to know the times or periods.” While the apostles desired to know about the restoration of Israel’s political power, Jesus tells them that they will receive a different kind of power—God’s power—conveyed to them by the agency of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will empower his apostles at Pentecost to accomplish what Jesus wants them to do—to bear witness to him.

In the second reading taken from St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he prays that Jesus will give them “a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him” (Ephesians 1:17). The word pneuma (“spirit”) here is not referring to The Holy Spirit. Paul is praying that these Ephesian Christians will have a “spirit of wisdom.” Contrary to the Greeks who sought wisdom through philosophy, Paul asserts that God is the source of all wisdom. Paul is praying that God will reveal himself to these Ephesian Christians—that God will make it possible for them to know God more intimately.

The knowledge that comes from God’s revelation is God’s gift to us. Wisdom is also a gift—the gift of knowing how to use that knowledge effectively. Paul uses some very interesting imagery to drive home the point. He says ‘Eyes of the heart be enlightened’ - Paul is using the word ‘opthalmos’ (eye) metaphorically to mean spiritual sight. Paul also uses the word ‘kardia’ (heart) metaphorically to refer to the centre of one’s being. Essentially, Paul is praying that God will open the spiritual eyes of these Ephesian Christians so that their very beings might be transformed by the spiritual insights that God alone can provide.

In the concluding verse, Paul says that Christ’s place is at the right hand of the Father and gives him overarching power, not just in the age to come, but also in the present age. This gives hope to the reader that the day will come when Jesus’ power will triumph completely over the hostile powers. The fullness of God dwells in Christ—and Christ fills us and makes us full of the presence of God.

The Gospel taken from Matthew is the famous passage of the Great Commissioning of the Disciples by Jesus after the resurrection. On one level it’s a fairly straightforward text. Jesus asks the disciples to go and make disciples of all nations by teaching them Jesus' commands and baptizing them. However, things get complicated when you are in a multi-religious and increasingly polarized country like India where though the Constitution guarantees the fundamental right to profess, practise and propagate religion, the ground realities are quite different. We generally think that missionary work is reserved for priests and religious who work in remote areas and preach the gospel, however, that is not true. According to the Vatican II decree on the Church’s Missionary Activity, Ad Gentes Divinitus, ‘All Christians by the example of their lives and the witness of the word, wherever they live, have an obligation to manifest the new man which they put on in baptism….’(Ad Gentes Divinitus, 11). This means that every baptised person is called to be a missionary. The same document mentions that when there is no possibility of directly and immediately preaching the Gospel, missionaries can and ought at least bear witness to the love and kindness of Christ… (AG 6)

So how can we all be missionaries and bear witness to the love and kindness of Christ in unfavourable circumstances? One of the possible ways is by engaging in meaningful dialogue with those of other faith. There exist four forms of interreligious dialogue.:

The first is the dialogue of life, which refers to living the Gospel values in the environment in which one lives and works. We are called to bear witness to the gospel values of humility, mercy, honesty, and forgiveness to our neighbours and the people who live in our buildings and societies, the same applies to our support staff, colleagues and bosses at our workplace.

The second is the dialogue of action, in which Christians and others collaborate for goals of a humanitarian or social nature. A perfect example of this was seen during the Covid 19 lockdown when many lay people organised themselves and reached out to the migrants who were walking back miles to reach their villages.  

The third is the dialogue of religious experience, where persons, rooted in their religious traditions, share their spiritual experiences. This is something that we generally shy away from but something we need to do – leaving aside all technical jargon we need to speak to our non-Christian friends about our personal God experience and tell them how God has worked in our life. 

The last is the dialogue of theological exchange. This form is reserved for theologians and specialists and is something that you would generally come across in seminars on Inter-religious dialogue. Attending such seminars is useful as it helps us learn more about other faith traditions.

These are four ways in which each one of us can be a missionary. It must also be mentioned that ‘the Church strictly forbids that anyone should be forced to accept the faith, or be induced by unworthy devices..’(AG 13). Through our lives and witness value, others should feel inspired to know who Jesus is and seek baptism out of their own free will. I pray that on this Solemnity of the Ascension, we may be blessed with the gift of the Holy Spirit to enlighten the eyes of our hearts and help us to be missionaries in our day-to-day life. May God bless us all.