Gospel: Luke 24:46-53 (NRSVCE)
46 and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
The Ascension of Jesus
50 Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. 51 While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; 53 and they were continually in the temple blessing God.
Reflection
This Sunday we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of the risen Lord. As many biblical scholars have pointed out, it completes the 40 days of the risen Jesus’s earthly ministry from the time of his resurrection. Whilst many great reflections have been written on the Ascension of Jesus, I want to focus in on Jesus’s instruction to his disciples, “to wait in the city”.
I think it is fair to say we do not like to wait these days.
We always seem to be in some sort of rush, wanting solutions, answers, information at our fingertips. Our social structures and mediums in many ways are conditioning us to do anything but wait.
We wait for a coffee but if it takes too long, we get annoyed. We drive through Macca’s, we don’t like to wait. Our friendships or relationships may not be developing as quickly as we would like. Moving through our careers, we are in a hurry for the next promotion, pay rise or perhaps even a career change. We can sometimes find ourselves in a hurry with our children, with not much patience with their progress or development, let alone our very own selves.
Yet Jesus invites his disciples to wait. And not just anywhere, but he is clear he wants them to wait in the city. I wonder why that is.
Perhaps the city is more than just a physical location, perhaps it is a metaphor for where the reality and messiness of our life is lived. In the midst of our homes, workplaces or relationships or even within our thoughts and those parts hidden within us.
The city then becomes sacred ground, because it is here where we are invited to become more dependent on God, moving from an ‘I’ (independent) to a ‘We’ (the very nature of God being Trinitarian).
Working in a hospital and prison, one of the key characteristics patients and inmates require is waiting. Waiting for results, waiting for court hearings, waiting for treatment, waiting for a visit and the list goes on.
But Jesus does not leave his disciples in suspense either. There is a purpose to this waiting. On the other side of this waiting is a gift. In Jesus’s words, ‘a power from on high’.
One could be tempted to jump to conclusions and fill the gaps as to what this power from on high is. But does the answer come from a place of knowledge? What would it be like for us to pause and let the answer come to us rather than jump to conclusions and in turn miss the gift that happens within the waiting.
What were the disciples doing whilst they were waiting? They were in Jerusalem (the city) praising God with great joy. That is, during this time of waiting they did not lose hope, trusting that even though they had just witnessed their Lord taken up into heaven, they were not alone. They were living out their faith during that time of waiting, which is a gentle reminder to all of us.
I recently spent time with an inmate who had been in and out of prison for many years for similar offences.
The drug and alcohol usage were getting out of hand and finally the family had enough, thereby ostracising him. During our encounter, he struggled to understand his addiction, his actions; knowing the harm it was causing his family, but also himself. Unfortunately, this is more common than one would like to think.
So, we gently started to focus on the harm to himself and where this may have been coming from. He discovered this is what he felt he deserved, to punish himself. At that moment we sat in silence, waiting, perhaps a few minutes, after which he found the power within to explain why – having bottled it up for 40 years.
For this man this was his moment of great joy, where he felt his heart ascend to a place of great freedom, a freedom which had eluded him from childhood for not being able to tell his story.
During this feast of the Ascension of the risen Lord may we be reminded of the hope that this loving God gifts us with, sustaining us in all things, even whilst we wait in the cities of our own lives.
Richard Korkor is a lay Catholic chaplain serving in the Diocese of Parramatta. Through his work with Catholic Care Western Sydney and the Blue Mountains, the Diocese’s social services agency, Richard offers compassionate care and spiritual support to those in the hospital and prison system – including inmates, staff, and their families. His ministry brings hope and an encounter with Christ to those who need it most. Read more about Richard’s work in Catholic Outlook.
Learn more about Catholic Care’s prison and hospital chaplaincy services.
