Ascension of the Lord Mk 16, 15-20

The right and duty of the Christian to evangelize (Mark 16: 15-20)
With the ascension of the Lord, the missionary activity of the Church begins.

We’ve all noticed them already. They really live their beliefs and faith. They report publicly, confessing what they feel in their hearts, what they have experienced, they have known. They are not sectarians, although we can often learn to apostle from them. They are not just members of church movements, religious communities, or priests. How many young and old laypeople are in our surroundings, according to their possibilities and circumstances, proclaim the Gospel. The priest shall say of his churchman; It is my right hand. He always manages things not only in the church on time, faithfully, conscientiously, and honestly. And when the parish has an organist whose heart lives by the liturgy in the parish, how the parish feels pleasantly in the church. Especially women know how much time and effort they spend cleaning. There are people in our area who take care not only of the cleanliness of the church so that everything works, is nice, tidy, and does not wait for thanks, human praise. Others, without begging, are lecturers, psalmists, ministries, make bulletin boards, care for young people, the sick, and willing to help organize things and events. These brothers and sisters not only know the Christian’s right and duty to preach the gospel, but they also prove it with their lives.

Before His Ascension, Jesus said, “Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mk 16:15).

The Feast of the Ascension of the Lord reminds us that we are members of the missionary Church. Before His Ascension, Christ calls for His work to continue.
For three years, Jesus taught the apostles and the multitudes in words and deeds. After his resurrection, he appears to the disciples for 40 days and teaches them, complements, and entrusts tasks and duties. He especially shows that they are waiting in Jerusalem for the coming of the Holy Spirit. The apostles began to realize that they witnessed the teachings, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Jesus’ mission on earth ends with ascension. The apostles have not yet received the Holy Spirit. And yet, they know more that their mission is beginning. Jesus’ words, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15), herald a new era to begin as they receive the proclaimed Holy Spirit in Jerusalem. We do not understand the ascension of the Lord Jesus as the end of his work. Jesus said of the Father: “My Father is still working, and I am working” (Jn 5:17). “My son, go to work in my vineyard today” (Mt 21:28). One said, “I don’t want to. “Well, then he regretted it and went.” The other said, “I’m going!” But he did not go. ”(Mt 21:30), An event that will be repeated until the end of time.
Even at the ascension, the risen Lord Jesus is still “working.” Even today, when we commemorate the Lord’s ascension, the Christian is not to “look to heaven,” but to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the work to which he is called.
Jesus is not gone. He is among us. Not just in the manner of bread and wine and God’s word. The Holy Spirit, whom he commanded the apostles to wait in Jerusalem, helps us and confirms our lives, words, deeds with signs. Jesus calls his “witnesses” (cf. Lk 24:48). He sends those he has already acquired as witnesses to the world. A Christian does not have the gift of faith only for himself. The gift of knowing that he is a child of God has a duty and a right to pass on to others. Therefore, the spread of the gospel, the teachings of Jesus Christ, will not stop until Jesus’ second coming to earth, when he comes as a Judge. Our time is today and here. The parable of working in the vineyard is being realized. We, too, hear, “Go ye also into my vineyard, and I will give you that which is right.” (Mt 20: 4) Our life is a planted vineyard that we have rented from God. The words also apply to us: “He rented it to the husbandmen and traveled.” (Mt 21:33)
The celebration of the Ascension of the Lord on the fortieth day after the resurrection and ten days before the descent of the Holy Spirit is not a time of inaction, nothing to do. We are only to realize Jesus’ words: “And those who believe will be accompanied by these signs: in my name, they will cast out evil spirits, they will speak in new tongues, they will take serpents into their hands, and if they drink something deadly, they will not harm them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will heal. ”(Mark 16: 17-18). God will take care of those who will testify in their lives what they have believed.

The way we speak, think and act say how we are Christians. Christians do not live for eternity because they live for eternity. We must not live like a lame man in Bethesda, complaining that there is no one to lead us to the fountain of healing. The prayer of the Apostolic Confession of Faith in words: “He ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from there he comes to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit… ” they say that we are not abandoned and left to ourselves. Jesus returned to the Father in the source of his life. As the Son, the Word is born of the Father “before all ages,” and as the Incarnate Word begins His life journey in the womb of the Virgin. It is the life path of a suffering person, which turns into a cross and ends in a grave but only for a moment. Jesus won over death. His resurrection continues with ascension, entry into another world, where there is no more pain, sorrow, lamentation, or farewell. He went to his Father, but we are not forsaken. We believe in his words: “There are many dwellings in my Father’s house – I am going to prepare a place for you – I will come again and take you to me, so that you too may be where I am” (Jn 13: 2-3). we have at St. Masses become more aware and survive the words “up of the heart,” as it is today. Our homeland is in heaven. Therefore, the words of Jesus: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15) we accept as our own.

We don’t want to wander life, waste time, as the story of the monks tells us. They blamed in old books that somewhere at the end of the world, there is a place where the earth touches the sky. They decided to find this place. At the same time, they had to endure many hardships, give up many things, overcome difficulties, inconveniences, fears, the vagaries of the weather and people. The desire that God was waiting for them in that place encouraged them to move forward. How many times have they dreamed that it would be enough to go through the gate! That’s how it was written on old parchments. Finally, after years, tired, at the end of their lives and strength, they found what they were looking for: a door to heaven. They knocked. Delighted, fulfilling expectations, excited hearts entered. They recognized that they were in a monastery they had left years ago when they set out to find a place where the earth touched the sky.

We know our rights and responsibilities, and it is the story that reminds us that here and today, under these circumstances and nowhere else, and not at other times, we have a God-given place. When we fulfill our responsibilities and enrich our rights, we witness where the earth touches the sky. Life on earth lived in God’s intentions, which rightly places on each of us, is a life that we say is the hall of heaven.

Our witness of life needs God to reward us as righteous judges. Our neighbors need our testimony because then we show them our true love. We must do everything we can to see clearly in our surroundings the testimonies of the faith, hope, and love of our brothers and sisters, the witnesses of Jesus Christ. Then, in Jesus’ words, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” (Mark 16:15), before leaving for the Father, we give the best answer.