The Ascension of the Lord & Seventh Sunday of Easter
The song “Do Something” by Mathew West came out my senior year of college and it seemed like Star 99.1 and K-LOVE had it on repeat for weeks! The upbeat song describes the brokenness and hurt that surrounds our world and asks “God, why don’t You do something?” and to that God responds, “I did, yeah, I created you!”
My friends and I were involved in Campus Ministry and as we prayed about what we were going to do after college, this song was an encouragement for us as we chose our different paths. We knew God created each of us for a specific mission, and trusted that He equipped us with the gifts we needed to achieve them, or at least a sense of humor to be able to laugh at ourselves when things didn’t quite go as planned. A couple of my friends decided to become campus ministers, a couple did mission work, some went on to graduate programs while others started their first jobs, but we knew that God wanted us to “Do Something” and we were determined to not let our faith journey stop after we graduated and left the comforts of Campus Ministry.
In this weekend’s first reading, St. Luke tells us about the Ascension of Jesus. Jesus’ closest friends just saw him ascend into heaven after spending forty days performing miracles, sharing meals and continuing to teach them. They must have been in shock and awe as they stood there looking up into the sky with a million questions running through their minds. Out of nowhere, appear two angels and ask them “why are you standing there looking at the sky?”. The angels knew what just happened, but they also knew that Jesus chose these Apostles to continue His mission, even after He left Earth. The angels were saying to the Apostles – “Go, Do Something!”
Like the Apostles, as Catholics our goal is to continue Jesus’ mission and to get ourselves and everyone around us to join Him in heaven, but that’s not going to happen by us standing around looking at the sky. The Ascension of the Lord is a great reminder for us of that ultimate goal; it’s a celebration of what God wants from each of us.
This may seem difficult at times, but since our Baptism, we’ve been filled with the Holy Spirit. If we’re already Confirmed, we’ve received an even greater outpouring of His gifts to lead and guide us (unlike the Apostles who had to wait nine more days for Pentecost)! These nine days between The Ascension of the Lord and Pentecost are a great time to step back and think about what we are and can be doing to follow Christ to heaven and how the Holy Spirit is working through us to get us there. This doesn’t have to mean taking a year to do mission work but it can mean doing small things that make others see Jesus in us.
So take a second…well…4 minutes and 5 seconds, to listen to that song and let the Holy Spirit fill your heart and inspire you to “Do Something” as we celebrate Ascension, Pentecost and finish another great Easter season.
