Every Sunday, Bishop Edward Malesic writes a Scripture reflection for the faithful. Follow the bishop on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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Today we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven.
The first thing to notice about the account of this event in the Gospel of Matthew is that the disciples worshiped Jesus. Jesus is not simply human. They had come to know him as God.
But they “also doubted” as Jesus was about to leave them. They were not yet fully confident in their faith.
Like those early disciples, we still worship Jesus, who we have come to know as Lord and God. And, when we have lingering doubts about our faith in God, we are in good company.
But Jesus trusts us — even if we are sometimes weak — to further the announcement of the Gospel that he brought, the Gospel of forgiveness and new life in abundance through faith in him.
Jesus asks his disciples to “make disciples of all nations.” That is, he asks those who follow him to evangelize others, literally to bring the Good News of God’s saving power to them. As his worshiping followers, that is exactly what he asks of us as well — to become evangelists.
We bring the Good News of Jesus by both word and action. We should not be afraid to talk about how Jesus has given us new life and we should not be afraid to show that Jesus makes all the difference for us by how we live our lives.
Then, as Jesus is about to leave this earth in the way he walked it, he tells his followers, “And, behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
Pope Benedict said that Jesus did not leave us alone when he was lifted up from the earth. Rather, Jesus entered into a new way of being present to us “until the end of the age,” just as he promised.
Let us worship Jesus. May we never allow our doubts to overtake our faith. Let us announce his Gospel as evangelists called to share it. And then, may we know that he is with us — not occasionally, but always.
Have a blessed week everyone.