Joyfully living the commission

Joyfully living the commission

Ascension

This Ascension, let us focus less on where Christ went and more on what Christ did. Christ entered heaven’s sanctuary that we might “have confidence of entrance . . . by the new and living way he opened for us” (Heb 10:19–20). That living way is the paschal mystery, the ongoing participation in Christ’s death and resurrection that draws us into the love between the Father and the Son. Christ’s ascension gives us hope that even when everything seems lost, Christ is with us. That hope sends us to do Christ’s mission.

Our Christian witness must always be grounded in the sacraments and marked by joy. For in glorifying God both in worship and by our lives, the world will recognize Christ’s presence. Click To Tweet

At every dismissal from Mass, we recall Christ’s final earthly blessing and sending of his own disciples. Having ended the liturgy of the Eucharist, we are commissioned to enter the liturgy of the world and proclaim the Gospel of hope in the Spirit. As Jesus instructed his disciples to remain in Jerusalem where he was killed, we, too, abide in the heart of humanity’s grief to be witnesses of Christ’s promise.

Luke’s gospel ends the way it began—with God’s faithful ones giving praise in the temple (1:9; 24:53). Our Christian witness must always be grounded in the sacraments and marked by joy. For in glorifying God both in worship and by our lives, the world will recognize Christ’s presence.

 
This post was first published in “GIA Quarterly: A Liturgical Music Journal.”
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Image credit: Tom Barrett, Unsplash, CC0.

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