From the holy gospel according to Mark 16:15-20
At that time, Jesus appeared to the Eleven and said to them: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to all creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; He who refuses to believe will be condemned. Those who believe will be accompanied by these signs: they will cast out demons in my name, they will speak new tongues, they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink deadly poison, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will be healed. After speaking to them, the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven and sat at the right hand of God. They went to proclaim the Gospel everywhere, and the Lord cooperated by confirming the word with the signs that accompanied them. Lord’s word
We Christians live, although we do not realize it, that situation of those first disciples, who had not yet recovered from their surprise at seeing Jesus. Resurrected Christ when they had to face their physical disappearance. The disciples enjoyed the presence of his Lord little: it lasted forty days in his company! The resurrection from the dead was followed by the ascension to heaven. And, for almost two thousand years, Jesus has been sitting next to God and the disciples have experienced his absence on earth; Such is the destiny of Christ’s disciples in the world: to live without seeing Christ around them, in his world, in his heart. As those who saw him walk away learned well, or is it not true that any obstacle, no matter how insignificant and temporary, can hide our Lord from us and separate us from him? Today, like yesterday, any little cloud is capable of taking it out of our sight and from our hearts; Any pain or difficulty makes us feel like orphans of Jesus, without him abandoned to our (bad) luck.
And yet, Christ has not abandoned us since he left us an important task, a desire to fulfill, his testament: his last words contain, in effect, his last will: “go to the whole world and proclaim the Gospel.” To help us remember him in his absence, to force us to overcome our discouragement to occupy ourselves while he cares for us with the Father, he commanded us to preach to him throughout the world, to fill with our words the void he left in the world with his departure. ; He has imposed on us to have him in our thoughts and on our lips,… having to be absent he does not want to be forgotten; physically withdrawing, he wants us to want him; Without being able to talk to him directly we will have to talk about him constantly. Just because he has left us, does not mean that he has abandoned us; He is with God interceding for us, as long as we dedicate ourselves to announcing him.
The Church has arisen precisely to remind the world that the absence of Christ is only momentary, that will come again, who is next to God watching over those who remember him. The more we miss him, the more we will want to talk about him to those who consider him lost: the world must know that Christ lives, that he will come, that he is with God; and we are in it to tell him.
Now, for our preaching to convince the world that God has not abandoned it, it is necessary that our words be followed by actions, that our preaching be above all a personal commitment to the world. And, in fact, it is the world that is waiting for these signs from us, so as not to despair of God. Christ Jesus needs us to be present today among our people and in our world. Jesus, our Lord, has not only left the world: he has left us in it so that we may continue to celebrate and serve him as Lord.; Those among us who dedicate themselves to it with all their soul will know that they have, along with God, the best lawyer and intercessor.
“We call ourselves children of God… and we really are.” Good Sunday.
#Sunday #Ascension #Lord #Cycle
