The disciples were sky-gazing as Christ was ascending into heaven. Two mysterious men interrupted them with these words, “This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen Him going into heaven.” (Acts 1:11) How Jesus Christ ascended into heaven tells us something about the mode of His return to judge us at the end of time.
Since Jesus Christ ascended into heaven as a faithful witness to the Father’s love, He will also return to judge us based on how faithfully we also witness to the Father’s love. This is made clearer to us when we reflect on His earlier words, “When I am lifted up, I will draw all men to myself.”(Jn 12:32) The ascended Christ is drawing us to Himself along the same path He Himself entered heaven. Thus, our pathway to heaven cannot differ from Christ’s own path of faithful witnessing to the Father’s love for us all.
This is why Jesus does not answer questions about the time of His final triumph but reminds us that we have received the Spirit to be His faithful witnesses in all times and places, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”(Acts 1:8) It is only through this Spirit-inspired witnessing to divine love that we can allow God to draw us to His heavenly kingdom.
What does it mean to be faithful witness to the Father’s love? Such witness implies four things.
Firstly, we love others enough to tell them the whole truth about life with God. We do not shrink from telling others of the “hope that belongs to this (heavenly) call,” the “riches of glory in His inheritance,” and the “surpassing greatness of His power for us who believe.”(Eph 1:18,19) We neither hide the immense joys and beauty of this life nor conceal the great sacrifices and pains involved. We neither denigrate the grace that God offers us nor reduce the demands of authentic Christian living.
Secondly, we love others enough to show them the whole truth in action by the good examples of our own lives. Our words must be backed by our own good examples of faithful living. We become counter witnesses to God’s love when we hypocritically live in stark contrast to what we profess and teach.
Thirdly, we love them enough to help them to live this life of loving relationship with God. This means that we strive to provide others what they need to grow in their life with God. We give them the forgiveness and mercy that sets them free to love God as they should. We also strive to remove the obstacles that hinder them from fully living this relationship with God.
Lastly, we love them enough to pray for them. Our intercessory prayers obtain graces that move and sustain others in their own journey to the Lord. We pray for them even if they reject us and our witnessing.
I was struck by the theme for the recently concluded 55th World Communications Day: “Come and See: Communicating by Encountering People Where and As They Are.” If we all agree as we should that Jesus Christ is the perfect communicator, did He communicate by simply encountering us where we were and as we are? Didn’t also communicate truth and grace that made us God’s children, “To those who accepted Him He gave power to become children of God.”(Jn 1:12)
The truth is that Jesus Christ is the perfect communicator because He is the perfect witness to the Father’s love. He humbled Himself to encounter us and lovingly reveal to us truths that we could never fathom, “I have called you friends because I have revealed to you all that I heard from my Father.”(Jn 15:15) He Himself is the perfect embodiment and example of all that He preached, “For the works which my Father has granted me to accomplish, these very works which I am doing, bear witness that the Father has sent me.”(Jn 5:36) He merited for us all the graces that we need and removed the sins that kill our love for God. He prayed for us then, and He even now “lives to make intercession for us.”(Heb 7:25)
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we cannot be good communicators while remaining pathetic witnesses to the love of the Father. All the evils in the world and in the Church are due to horrible communication from our own counter-witnessing to divine love. What are we really communicating to the world when Catholic clergy defiantly “bless” “same-sex” couples without any consequences from the Church? Is there now a particular breed of individuals dispensed from the precept of living chaste lives? How is such a tolerance of scandal helping faithful Catholic married couples who follow God’s unchanging plan for heterosexual and monogamous marriage, strive to raise children, and bring them up well in the faith?
Are we telling the whole truth about life with God in the Church when the hierarchy now refer to child-slaughter as simply being pro-choice? How are we helping others to advance in the spiritual life when we close our Churches because of Covid-19 and deny them the badly needed sacraments? What type of examples are we to others when we persistently hide and cover up our scandalous behaviors behind the façade of our beautiful liturgies and rich Church teachings? Are we really striving to bridge the gap between what we profess and what we actually do in our different states of life?
We seem to have forgotten that our journey to heaven depends on how we faithfully witness to God’s love in every time and place. It is definitely not enough to encounter others where they are and how they are without seeking to communicate Christ by our lives of faithful witness. We never enter heaven alone! We must strive to bring others with us through our faithful witness just as Christ Himself draws us to His place in heaven through His own faithful witness to the Fathers’ love.
So-called Catholic politicians who obstinately receive Holy Communion and the clergy who willingly offer them Communion fail to realize that the Eucharist is not an end it itself. Sacramental communion presupposes a life of witness to Christ. The Eucharist also provides us graces to give faithful witness to Christ and the teaching of His Church before others. By the power of sacramental grace, we are obliged to live for Christ in our world. When someone adamantly refuses to give witness to Him who is received in Holy Communion, the effects of the Eucharist are nullified and sacrilege is added to the soul of the recipient.
Jesus will surely return the very same way that we see Him ascend. He will surely come to judge us, not based on how much Eucharist we have consumed in this life; but we will be judged based on the authenticity of our witness to Him before others, “Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven.”(Mt 10:32-33)
He comes now in this Eucharistic sacrifice of the Mass, not to judge us, but to pour into our hearts the gift of the Father’s love through His Spirit. We need this Spirit to witness to Him faithfully in our world. God will also providentially arrange that we encounter many people in our daily lives. We may be the only ones that can give these persons that witness to Christ that they badly need to advance on their own journey. Should we fail to give such faithful witness to Christ before them, we have no reason to hope that Jesus will draw us into His heavenly kingdom along the same path that He has taken – the path of faithful witness to the love of the Father.
Glory to Jesus!!! Honor to Mary!!!
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image: Stained Glass window depicting the Ascension of Jesus Christ in the Church of Alsemberg, Belgium / jorisvo / Shutterstock.com
