“GO, THEREFORE, AND MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL NATIONS”

05-21-2023Weekly ReflectionFr. Manasseh Iorchir, VC

“GO, THEREFORE, AND MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL NATIONS.” We celebrate this weekend, the feast of the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ into Heaven. This feast is ordinarily celebrated forty days after Easter on the Thursday of the sixth week of Easter, but in most Dioceses in the United States, the feast is moved to Sunday in order to lend this important feast the Grace of the Day of the Lord: Sunday.

Acts of the Apostles from where we have our First Reading provides a concise account of how the day played out. Within the forty days after the Resurrection, Jesus made multiple appearances to His Disciples and, through the Holy Spirit, instructed them.

On the fortieth day, He again appeared to them and directed them to stay in Jerusalem and wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit whom He affirmed would empower the Apostles to be witnesses in Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth. He was thereafter, taken into Heaven in a pillar of cloud while the Apostles watched. Two men (angels) stood beside them and assured them that Jesus would return the same way at the end of time.

The Ascension of our Lord offers us additional hope because, just as through the Resurrection of Jesus, we who believe and are buried with Him through Baptism are guaranteed Resurrection, so also are we assured of going where the Head of the Body of Christ has gone. Christ ascended, not only to make way for the coming of the advocate, but also to make room for us in Heaven. While we are here, getting ready for our promised reunion with Him in Heaven, Jesus has, through the great Apostolic commission, empowered and mandated all of us to go out to places, people and situations that may be different from ours in order to make disciples of all nations. The Divine Redeemer has effectively handed on to us the mandate of announcing and enabling the sustenance of the Reign of God on earth. This mandate was not restricted to the Apostolic college but has been extended to every Christian. The evangelisation of peoples is the precise reason for the existence of the Church, and every Christian is invited to activate the enabling empowerment of the Holy Spirit in order to fulfill this mandate.

It is good to note that the great commission is not simply a mandate to “preach Jesus as Lord and Savior,” it is clearly more than a directive that tasks us with simple decimation of information, it is in fact a mandate to “make disciples”. This entails enabling people to encounter Christ, know Him, experience the joy of conversion, and establish a relationship with Him that is lived in willful conformity with His standards. It is a lifelong process of formation that requires our total commitment.

As we await the celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles at Pentecost, may Jesus send us the same Holy Spirit in abundance so that each of us may become committed to the fulfillment of this Divine mandate in our world and time.

Please be kind and may God bless you.

Fr. Manasseh