Jesus' Ascension empowers us to be His eyes, hands, and feet in the world to love as he did - Ascension, cycle B

         As I entered the Plainfield Correctional Facility, I felt a bit intimidated. I had been ministering in Johnson County jail for several years, but the state prison was a totally different environment.    I had been training for 16 weeks to go on a Kairos prison retreat with 25 other men. The retreat lasted four days which included reading scripture, giving witness talks, and praying together with the inmates. Many of the men had been on prior retreats were preparing us newbies for the experience. The most important thing we were told to do on the retreat, was not to preach, but to listen and show love for the inmates. Listen-Listen, Love-Love was the motto we practiced at every meeting.  We were told that almost all the men attending the retreat had requested to be there.   But one person, I’ll call him Joe, did not volunteer to attend.  He was chosen by the prison chaplain due to his challenging attitude and hardened outlook on life. The chaplain thought this retreat could be an opportunity for Joe to have a breakthrough. We were told that Joe would be a challenge.  

        Before being allowed to enter we were screened by a metal detector, frisked by the guards, and then escorted to the holding area to enter the prison. The large metal electronic door slowly opened to allow us in and then clanked shut behind us. We were now inside the prison, which was very daunting. Several guards escorted us to the gym where the retreat was being held.  We were assigned to tables where we met the inmates who were our retreat partners. Mine was a quiet young man that was glad to be there and had been looking forward to the retreat. I spotted Joe sitting at another table across the room. He was very mean looking man with white supremist tattoos covering his entire body, including his face and forehead. He had a scowl on his face and was not engaged at all with his table mates.   He obviously did not want to be there. I thought it was going to be impossible for any of us to make a connection with him.  We needed to trust in Jesus that the Holy Spirt would empower us to break through.

         Today we are celebrating the Ascension of our Lord. Jesus ascends into heaven, returning to be with his Father. He came into the world in human form, so we could come to know the love of the Father.  Now in returning to the Father he opens the gateway to heaven for each of us.  But with his Ascension, Jesus is leaving the disciples.

        Don’t we want Jesus to be with us always? He is, but in a different way, through the divine power of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit came to empower the disciples spread the Gospel to the entire world. Jesus gives the disciple their marching orders: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth”. This is a tall task for the disciples. After telling them this Jesus is lifted up and taken away.

Now that Jesus is gone, how were they going to accomplish this task?  By ascending to

heaven, Christ gave them the divine power to accomplish their mission where His presence is without limits through the power of Holy Spirit in Church and the Sacraments.  The Church is where heaven meets the earth.   It’s each one of us, as the Body of Christ, is doing our part in witnessing to the Gospel.  And how do we do this?   By our words and deeds to announce the good news by being Christ-like in showing our love to others. 

A famous quote of St. Teresa of Avila sums up our role in spreading the Gospel:

“Christ has no body on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassionately on this world.  Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands with which he blesses all the world.  Christ has no body now on earth but yours!"   To strengthen us in this mission we receive the graces of the Eucharist to be Christ’s body, hands, and feet in the world.

On the fourth day of the retreat the inmates seemed to have really had a good time. They had a change of pace from their monotonous routine, enjoyed some delicious home cooked meals, and spent time in Christian fellowship with other men who listened and showed them love. The closing session of the retreat was an opportunity for the inmates to witness how they were impacted. Surprisingly, the first person to come forward was Joe. I don’t think that anyone expected him to do so, because he didn’t seem to be engaged throughout the entire retreat, but he did stay all four days. Joe took the stage and said, “I’d like to introduce you to my new brother in Christ”. A large African American man came up on the stage and gave Joe a warm embrace and stood next to him as he continued his witness. At the start of the retreat, I would have never expected this to happen. Joe shared with us that his entire life, he had never been treated with love by anyone. Every interaction he ever had in his life was someone trying to hurt him or take something away from him. In defense to protect himself, he told us that he built up a wall of hatred, because that is all that he knew.  But the four days he spent on the retreat changed his heart to become a Christian, because he experienced being loved and listened to for the first time in his entire life.  The only way this could have happened was by the power of the Holy Spirit empowering the retreat leaders to listen and love like Christ did. 

The world today certainly needs to experience God’s love. At the end of each Mass, we are sent on a mission: Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord. By each of us living this out, empowered by the Eucharist, we can do our part in spreading the good news making God’s love present to others. Jesus commanded his disciples to witness in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. We can do the same with the people in Greenwood, Bargersville, and Indianapolis in our daily lives. Throughout the day, we can call on the Holy Spirit to help us to spread God’s love, by praying: “Come Holy Spirit”. It can be very simple acts of love that we do, that can make a big difference in bringing others to Christ. We may not all be able to go on a Kairos prison retreat, but we can surely make an impact on others who are imprisoned by a lack of love in their life.  By living out the Kairos motto: Listen-Listen, Love-Love, we can make a difference. We can say a kind word to the person who rubs us the wrong way at home or work. We can invite a classmate to play who is normally excluded from our activities.  We can visit someone who is shut-in or at a care facility who doesn’t have any family or friends to visit. So don’t just stand there looking up at the sky now that Jesus has ascended into heaven.  Call on the Holy Spirit to be his eyes, hands and feet, to make God’s love present here in the world so people can come to know Jesus by our witness in being Christ’s disciples.