Today’s readings: Acts 1,1-11; Ephesians 4,1-13; Mark 16, 15-20

The 40 days that have elapsed since we celebrated Easter evoke the 40 years’ journey of Israel from exodus to the Promised Land. The Ascension of the Lord Jesus in heaven today should make us think about our promised land, and ask ourselves whether we still find meaning in thinking of heaven.

Many do not have time for that or think it is pure escapism. In our faith, thinking of heaven should be quite a serious matter. It is not contemplation in isolation from the world but immersed in it. It is not “staring into the sky” as we read from Acts, but “leading a life worthy of our vocation” as St Paul implores.

We are here to live our life fully, and thinking of heaven is not an alienation, just as a life worthy of our vocation concerns basically how we live and what we live for, independently of religion. It is essentially about finding meaning in whatever we do. St Paul speaks further of becoming “the perfect man, fully mature with the fullness of Christ himself”. The world is rich with a rainbow of faiths, religions and paths, and this diversity should not confuse us but rather make us realise that the healing of the world and of humanity cannot be seen narrowly from the sole standpoint of our Christian story. Jesus sets off something which is still in process, in becoming and we are all involved in it, whatever our religion or faith or philosophy of life.

This is not religious relativism. It is rather a confirmation that God’s ways are not our ways, that God is bigger than the world and reaches out beyond our religious perspectives. At the time of Jesus, the disciples thought on a short-term basis and believed that the restoration of God’s kingdom was imminent and restricted to Israel. It was a narrow perspective which subsequently and to date kept returning with fundamentalist sects and religions.

Faith in Jesus Christ is a gift and a blessing; it should gift us with a universalistic perspective on the world and cannot be nailed down to a mere ideology that loses the breadth of understanding that pertains to God. This is the sad state of religion at present in the US, with even bishops shamefully pontificating on whether President Joe Biden should be given or denied Holy Communion. They see religion exclusively in terms of a culture war. If that is what religion stands for, then the world would absolutely be better off without it.

The Scriptures today give a completely different view. They offer the challenge to see the world as the space for God’s kingdom. St Mark’s gospel speaks of signs we are called to give and that corroborate what we proclaim. It is our task as believers to identify in our times which are the ‘devils’ that need to be cast out, what is the ‘gift of tongues’ that makes our speaking meaningful, what are the safeguards we need from whatever is harmful and how the world at large still craves for healing.

There is always the risk of contradiction between the world as it is and as we believe it should be. As we read from Acts, the disciples became impatient, and their concern with the when and how and if made them lose perspective. They were warned not to stare into the sky and “not to leave Jerusalem”, which has been the constant temptation in Christianity to run away from the world.

It is true that the world has turned secular and the signs of Christendom have disappeared. People have seemingly become less religious and come less to our churches. But it is not secularity in itself that is tragic. The tragedy is rather when religion narrows our perspective, when it becomes merely a system of belief that lacks the power to transmit meaningful signs, and when it fails to kindle in us the desire of a promised land beyond our earthly existence.