Our turn to share the Gospel
Reflections on the readings for the Ascension of the Lord (May 30, 2019): ACTS 1:1-11; PS 47:2-3,6-7,8-9; EPH 1:17:23; LK 24:46-53
MISSIO offers “Preaching Mission,” as a homily help, providing connections to mission from the readings of Sundays, Feast Days and Holy Days.
Preach to all who will listen. Forgive those who repent. This is what Jesus told His Apostles before He ascended to the Father.
He had spent His entire ministry showing and teaching them how much He loved them and all people – and just how much that love matters. The love of God means that His Son came to save us from sin and death. And that salvation meant that the holy and innocent Christ had to lay down His life for us. And today, we hear our Lord, crucified and risen, give His final instructions. “Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem’” (Luke 24:46-47).
Jesus turned over to His Church the mission of sharing the Good News with the whole world. They were to start where they were and go on from there. And that’s exactly what they did. And, through the power and grace of God, they succeeded. Most of the Apostles would die for their faith. And all of them must have felt some fear and failure at times as they journeyed from one town to another, spreading the word of God. For us, too, we must simply begin where we are and trustingly go where our Lord sends us, whether in our neighborhood or halfway around the world. In what we say and do, we have the obligation and opportunity to demonstrate the same love that brought our Redeemer among us. This is the life of a follower of Christ. However hard it may be, it is worth it.
