On April 1, 2018, I had the opportunity to spend almost two hours alone, sitting on the ground, at the place where tradition says that the story we heard today in the first reading took place. The Dome of the Ascension is a unique place for many reasons. It is a small space, which is now part of a mosque. The dome is open at the top, evoking in this simple way the mystery we celebrate today: The Ascension of our Lord into heaven. On the floor, there is a stone where you can see where Jesus stepped on before ascending to the glory of the Father, the last step of the Lord in this world. When I saw it I remembered a funny anecdote I had read as a child in the Autobiography of St. Ignatius. When he went on pilgrimage to the Holy Places in 1523, he too prayed in that small space and saw the footprint of Christ. He had already left there when he realized that he had not noticed whether the footprint engraved in the rock was of the Lord's right or left foot, so he turned around and went back to look at that detail. If you are wondering which foot it was... it seems it was the right foot.
St. Mark told us that the Lord ascended and is seated at the right hand of God. The accounts of the Ascension that we read in the Holy Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles convey to us the promise of the Holy Spirit and what is often called "the missionary mandate" of Jesus.
"Proclaim the Gospel to every creature". In this way, Christ sends us into a world that He loved to the end, but that is hostile to the Gospel. At times we who are so small can feel incapable of such a great mission, and it is then that we must remember that our strength lies precisely in our weakness.
In one of his homilies, St. John Chrysostom has some wonderful words about this:
"As long as we are sheep, we overcome and, though surrounded by countless wolves, we emerge victorious; but if we turn into wolves, we are overcome, for we love the shepherd’s help. He, after all, feeds the sheep not wolves, and will abandon you if you do not let him show his power in you.
What he says is this: “Do not be upset that, as I send you out among the wolves, I bid you be as sheep and doves. I could have managed things quite differently and sent you, not to suffer evil nor to yield like sheep to the wolves, but to be fiercer than lions. But the way I have chosen is right. It will bring you greater praise and at the same time manifest my power”. That is what he told Paul: My grace is enough for you, for in weakness my power is made perfect. “I intend”, he says, “to deal in the same way with you”. For, when he says, I am sending you out like sheep, he implies: “But do not therefore lose heart, for I know and am certain that no one will be able to overcome you”.
The Lord ascends today, but very soon the Holy Spirit will descend upon us. It is He who will give us the strength to be witnesses of Christ and propagators of His Gospel. We only have to be sheep of the Lord's flock and follow in obedience and humility the voice of our shepherd.
Let us ask the Lord today to help us embrace the mission that he entrusts to us to bring his salvation to all the peoples of the earth. May we too be witnesses of the Resurrection and may the Holy Spirit be for us, as he was for the disciples, the starting point of a new life in which zeal for the salvation of mankind leads us to a holy life, spending our lives for the cause of the Gospel.
