Understanding the Ascension

Here is the text of the reflection I shared with those who came to pray with us this past weekend, some thoughts about the process of learning, truths that are just as valid today as they always have been.

Seek … test … apply

During this past week, I was invited to attend a session that was held to introduce parents and very young children to Saint Luke School.  All the students who attended have already been registered and will be beginning school in September, but this session gave them and their parents a chance to see the school, to meet the teachers and to get a feel for the kinds of activities they will be involved in once they arrive.  Little minds are very active.  Even as they play, they are learning, absorbing knowledge, testing its limits and applying their new-found knowledge to an ever-increasing array of situations.  As they grow, I hope that these children will remember to implement all the stages of learning: seeking out knowledge, testing it in order to prove its validity, and applying it to newfound situations.

The scripture passages appointed for today’s commemoration of the Lord’s Ascension show us that these same principles of learning also apply to questions of faith.  Saint Luke, the author of the Acts of the Apostles, begins by telling us that what we are about to hear is a part of the story that he has already written: In the first book (that is, the Gospel of Luke), I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven (Acts 1:1-2).  They had experienced the pain of being separated from Jesus, but they still needed some time to test the theories he had spoken about, and because Jesus knew that they would be skeptical about his promise, he presented himself alive to them … appearing to them … and speaking to them about the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3).  In a way, you might say that Jesus was helping the disciples during this second period, to test the knowledge that he had imparted to them while he was living with them.  Even today, at each stage of their academic journey, teachers impart knowledge to their students, and they help them to test that knowledge too.  Sometimes we call this second part of the learning phase a quiz, a test or an exam.  No matter what form it might take, the purpose is the same: to verify whether or not the lesson has been received and whether the process of integration has begun.

At some point in the process, all students reach graduation: the moment of transition when they move on from one phase of the learning process to another.  Once Jesus had completed the review of all that he had taught his disciples, he sent them out: Go into the world, he told them, proclaim the good news to the whole creation (Mk 16:15) and that is what disciples have been doing ever since.  Jesus even gave them a list of signs to watch out for - the answer key if you wish, so that they would know whether their students were actually learning the lessons (Mk 16:17-18).

Once he had said all of this to them, he was taken up into heaven (Mk 16:19).  Saint Luke tells us that at the moment when Jesus left the disciples, two men in white robes stood by them (Acts 1:10).  Angels have always been present at moments when human beings are experiencing great sorrow, in order to console us and to remind us that we are not alone.

In time, the disciples would indeed go out to other places to tell other people about Jesus.  In each situation, they would have to apply the lessons they had learned in order to share this good news with others, and that was the true test that confirmed the fact that the lessons Jesus had taught had actually taken root in their lives.  In turn, these new teachers also needed to help their students to grow in their convictions until the theories they had spoken about could be tested and proven.  Sometimes, students need to be reminded about the wisdom that has been taught, especially when they haven’t mastered the art of applying the lessons they have learned to their own lives.  So it was that Saint Paul had to plead with the neophyte Christians at Ephesus to lead a life worthy of the calling to which they had been called (Eph 4:1).

Even today, as we gather in this place, as we listen to the words that Jesus offers to us, as we are nourished with his body and blood, we strengthen our faith and our belief that there is one body and one Spirit … that we are called to the one hope of our calling, that there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all (Eph 4:4-5).  These are the truths we profess in the creed that we will repeat in just a few moments.  These are the truths that we seek to joyfully share with everyone we meet.