Acts 1:1-11 / Ephesians 1:17-23 / Mark 16:15-20
To come for Mass on a day of obligation, and more so if it’s a weekday, means that the Mass has a special significance and that the Church wants to re-affirm a tenet of faith on this occasion.
Today we have come for the Mass of the Ascension. So what is the meaning of this Mass of the Ascension?
Essentially, it means that the Risen Christ has returned back to where He had come from and now He has opened the gates of heaven to those who are faithful to Him and believed in His promise of salvation.
That is what Jesus tells us to do – Go out to the whole world, proclaim the Good News of salvation, and he who believes and is baptized will be saved.
So we are baptized, and so we are saved. Or is that so?
Maybe we need to ask ourselves if we really believed that we are saved.
Jesus said this in the gospel - These are the signs that are associated with believers: in my name they will cast out devils; they will have the gift of tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and be unharmed should they drink deadly poison; they will lay their hands on the sick who will recover.
Those are certainly spectacular signs, and we may think it’s something miraculous that happened in the past.
After all we don’t see such spectacular signs anymore and hence we don’t expect anyone in church to do it.
But as Jesus said, these are the signs that are associated with believers.
And it is quite obvious that in the early Church, these are the signs that are associated with believers as they went out to preach the Good News of salvation.
The world then needed to see these signs; the world now also needs to see these signs.
And if we really believe that we are saved, then we need to ask the Lord Jesus what signs He wants us to manifest in this present world.
To cast out devils may mean to point out evil and speak out against evil, because evil will only flourish if no one will stand up to it.
The snakes that we need to catch are those who scheme and plot so as to stop the wheeling and dealing.
And when others speak poisonous words to hurt us we must turn to the Lord for healing and to be able to forgive them.
We in turn must also ask the Lord to give us a disciple’s tongue so as to speak words and heal and to encourage others.
Yes the world needs to see the signs of healing and forgiveness and that goodness can overcome evil.
We as believers must manifest these signs.
The Lord will work with us and empower us to be these signs so that the Good News of salvation can be proclaimed and believed by others.
So as much as the Lord Jesus has ascended to heaven, He also sent the Holy Spirit to empower us to be the signs of salvation to the world.
That is what we have come to Mass for. That is what we will be empowered with.
Let us believe so that we and the world will be saved.