Goodbye’s

By Lisa Greey–

It’s graduation weekend at the University where I work. There is a lot of stress as everyone finishes up finals. There is a lot of excitement as the students reach the finish line one by one. However, there is also a bit of sadness in the air. Some students are going home for the summer, and they won’t see their friends until September. The seniors, of course, are graduating and will no longer be part of our University and Church community. When I was a graduating senior, I wondered how I would survive without my friends just a walk down the hallway! This must be how the disciples felt when Jesus ascended. Perhaps the disciples wondered, “How will we survive without Jesus with us, next to us, speaking to us?” Well today’s gospel gives us a sense of how they – and we – are all the more intimately connected to the Ascended Christ. In the Gospel, Jesus begs God the Father to “guard” his children on earth, to “protect” us, to keep us safe. You can really sense the urgency of Jesus’ prayer. He doesn’t want a single one of us to be “lost.” Then Jesus explains why it is he must go to heaven, so we might be sent to be Christ to the world. Jesus doesn’t ask for the Father to take his followers up to heaven with him right at that moment. No, he knows we need to be here: “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.” This same prayer prayed for the followers of Christ somewhere around 33 AD is also prayed for us today. It is difficult to be in this world, which so firmly rejects the message of Christ. It is challenging to live a life of virtue when the Devil roams about, inclining people towards sin. But all is not lost! Why? Because we are “consecrated” to the Father: “Consecrate them in the truth,” Jesus prays in the Gospel. We don’t belong to the world; we don’t belong to Satan. Even when we fall, we still belong to Christ. Consecrate means set apart for something holy and sacred. Just like the bread and wine are ‘consecrated’, set apart to become the most holy body and blood of Christ, You and I are set apart for God to be used as his instruments in the world today. The Ascension was not a goodbye as much as it was a hello – a greeting to our souls to be awakened to witness to Christ. Let us go forth to share the good news of this greeting with our peers, family and all who we meet!