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The Catholic Telegraph
June 2, 2000On the feast of the ascension of the Lord, we commemorate Jesus’ return in glory to His Father after the conclusion of His earthly ministry. But the ascension is not just concerned with Jesus. It is also concerned with the Church.
The plan of salvation is now fulfilled. Everything that Jesus had intended to do is now accomplished. Humanity has been reunited to God in and through the self-giving and faithfulness of Jesus. But what Jesus accomplished still has to be applied to human kind. We still need to be transformed into Christ. We still need to assimilate His life into our own. And that’s the task of the Church. Jesus’ human mission is over and He will no longer be present with us as He was before, but the Church’s extension of the mission of Jesus has just begun. This is why the gospel readings for all three years of the lectionary cycle are concerned with Jesus’ definitive sending His apostles out to preach the good news throughout the world.
It is appropriate, therefore, that the second reading in all three years of the cycle is taken from the letter to the Ephesians, whose principle subject is the Church. (We will be reading at some length from Ephesians later in this year’s Sunday cycle.)
The optional reading for year B is from the portion of the letter that is concerned with behavior. There are three parts to the reading.
First of all the author encourages the readers to pursue unity in the Church. Oneness is what life in Christ is all about, oneness in the faith community, oneness in the Trinity. It is in this context of unity that he calls for attitudes and actions that will promote unity: humility, gentleness, patience, willingness to bear with others’ faults, eagerness to preserve the unity and peace that are the gift of the Spirit. This is the kind of behavior that is in accord with the Christian vocation that we have received.
Now the author wants to talk about diversity, about the various kinds and degrees of gifts that Christ gives to His followers. He introduces this section with a quote from Psalm 68 (which is a victory song for God). The author comments on God’s victorious "going up" and applies it to Christ. The Son who had come from heaven has now returned there in order to exercise divine generosity by giving gifts to humankind.
Finally, in the third section of our reading, the text lists some of the gifts that Christ gives. Some people are called to be apostles, others prophets or evangelists or teachers. But the purpose of all these different gifts is the same: to enable the members of the Church ("the holy ones") to carry out their "work of ministry." This work, this calling that is given to all the members of the Church, is to express the reality of Christ and extend His work, His generosity, His love, His presence until the body of Christ (which is the Church) reaches the full extent of the growth that Christ has in mind for it. That maturity of the body of Christ also involves knowledge and unity of faith for us all.
This reading from Ephesians teaches us that we are all called to help the Church reach maturity. There are several implications to that call.
The first is that the Church is much more than a convenience store where we come to get goods and services as we need them. Our participation in the Church is not just a matter of receiving. We are all called to give, to participate in the execution of the plan that the glorious Christ wishes to unfold from His place in heaven. We all have a job to do in bringing about "the full stature of Christ", the total fulfillment of His project of salvation.
The second implication to our call to help the Church reach maturity is that we must all be dedicated to the same Christ and all extend ourselves to one another in the one life of the one Christ that we share. Selfishness and isolation in our relationship with the Lord, a "me and Jesus" mind set, is simply inappropriate to our Christian vocation. We are to be united with one another even as we are united with Christ.
Yet this does not mean that we are all called to be the same. Each of us is called to reflect and extend the saving plan of Christ but none of us can reflect Christ is His fullness. We cannot all be everything or do everything. Christ calls "some as apostles, others as prophets, others as evangelists." We could extend the list to include parents and statesmen and scholars and social workers. We are not all the same, but we are not, for that reason, unimportant to one another. The fullness of Christ needs the contributions of each of us. For that reason we are called to respect not only the gifts that we have received, but also the gifts and capabilities of our sisters and brothers in the Lord.
As Christ ascends to the right hand of the Father He leaves behind a Church gifted both with unity and with diversity in Him, a Church whose final goal is full maturity in Him.
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Conversation Questions
How do I contribute to the full growth of the body of Christ?
Is the unity or the diversity of the Church more demanding for me?
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