The Ascension of the Lord, Cycle C. Today’s readings: Acts 1:1-11; Hebrews 9:24-28, 10:19-23; Luke 24:46-53
Don’t Look Up is a 2021 film that satirises the apathy and scepticism with which society treats scientific claims about climate change, especially when these warnings clash with commercial interests. The film’s premise is that a comet is hurtling through space towards earth, and when it does eventually collide with our planet it will wipe out humanity. Scientists struggle (and generally fail) to convince politicians, celebrities and the wider population about the gravity of this threat. When, in frustration, they launch a campaign inviting people to look up at the sky (where the approaching comet is now visible), the American president irresponsibly launches her own slogan: “Don’t look up.”
A similar phrase is found in today’s first reading. Forty days after Christ’s resurrection, the apostles accompany him to Bethany where he is taken up to heaven as they watch. While they are still gazing upwards, entranced, two angels address them thus: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
This version of “don’t look up” has the opposite intention as when it is used in the eponymous film; there it signified apathy, here it signifies action. The angels are seeking to break the disciples out of their captivation, summoning them instead to roll up their sleeves and get to work. “There is a big world out there that needs saving”, they seem to be saying, “and now the Lord’s friends must continue his salvific mission”. Or, as the witty slogan goes: “Jesus is coming; look busy!”
This message is as relevant as ever. For religious people in every generation, a ‘pie in the sky’ brand of spirituality remains an easy temptation to fall into. The early Church struggled with the reality of Christians who started disregarding their social duties and domestic responsibilities with the excuse that they were awaiting the Lord’s return; unsurprisingly, the apostle Paul had harsh words for such people.
For religious people in every generation, a ‘pie in the sky’ brand of spirituality remains an easy temptation to fall into
This temptation takes on different incarnations today; like the disciples looking upwards with awe, nostalgia, or perhaps a fear of the mission to come, we too might be tempted to look away from our primary mission.
We might look backwards, for instance: longing for those ostensibly happier times when the Church played a more dominant and decisive role in society, possibly pining for the days when we didn’t need a papal visit to fill up the Floriana Granaries in glorious manifestations of faith and religiosity.
Looking inwards is another serious temptation for the Christian community. This can happen when, at one extreme, we become engrossed in activities, rituals and celebrations that make us forget our responsibility to uphold the dignity of every human person and to create a more just society. At the opposite extreme lies the temptation to focus solely or excessively on social projects while omitting the all-important proclamation of Jesus Christ, thereby reducing the Church to a humanitarian NGO.
The correct balance is given in today’s Gospel by the Lord Jesus himself when he promised his disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit so that they could be his witnesses, preaching “repentance, for the forgiveness of sins in his name to all the nations”. This is our mission as well. In the words of Pope Francis (Evangelii Gaudium, 36) we are meant to proclaim: “the beauty of the saving love of God made manifest in Jesus Christ who died and rose from the dead”.
bgatt@maltachurchtribunals.org