The Ascension feast of joy and hope gives focus to our lives. We are aware that we are pilgrims on a once made journey. The great question is "whither?". On our path through life some are without a map. Many helpful signposts have been uprooted. Conflicting voices deafen the ears, at times with siren sounds that can lead to madness. The isle is full of noises. Early in his ministry some disciples said to Jesus,
Rabbi, teacher, where dwellest thou? And he answering said, Come and see Today this questing query of every heart is answered in all fullness.
We find around us a hunger and a thirst for values that give meaning to life and a purpose to our striving. Slowly we learn that the spiritual quest (call it what we may) is the most valuable element in the individual life and the only basis for real community. ". . . Where we meet unity and love, there God is found . . ." The aching void in the human heart and the great emptiness of our days can be filled only by our quest for God. Success, development, discovery, and human love can assuage some of our human pain. But we have immortal longings in us. We remain, however unaware, pilgrims of the absolute. And, even if unacknowledged, eternity is our final harbour, our longed for landfall.
So often our hearts are troubled and we are sore afraid. The scripture of today gives solid hope and a joy that will not fail us. ". . . Trust in God and trust in me. In my Father's house there are many rooms. I go to prepare a place for you that, where I am, you also may be When we pray in stillness by the light of the Holy Spirit we realise that our personal name is already noted. We are expected. We are awaited. We will be welcomed and even now, amid our darkness and our failure an our pain, we are being most wonderfully prepared. Looking up towards the heavens today we not only see as the Apostles saw at Bethany. We are granted the inner vision that enlightens the eyes of our mind to see more clearly the hope that is ours.
Our Eucharist reminds us that Christ has gone before us, not to abandon us, but to be our lasting, hope. We can take comfort that even some of the friends of Christ still hesitated and, like us, missed the point of His message. But on us too the Holy Spirit will come. To us will be given power and we will become genuine and love filled witnesses. No longer will loss of faith and moral anarchy tear apart our lives to plunge us into dark despair.
But, filled with Resurrection hope, we can come down from the hill of the Ascension and await the daily task in generosity and in joy. As the disciples awaited the coming of the Spirit, they were united in prayer, in charity, with the women, and with Mary the mother of Jesus. We too can be a Pentecost people recognisable by the beauty of our lives. Faithful to our calling, and to our special gifts, we will be responsive to the needs around us, and inspire all whose lives we touch with unconquerable hope for a future, unselfish in service, and radiant in love.
Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for the second time in the history of the world, we will discover fire" (Teilhard de Chardin, SJ).