“The Twelve assembled the community of the disciples: ‘It is not right for us to neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables.’” Acts 6: 1-7
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me…the one who has faith in me will do the works I do, and far greater than these. Why? Because I go to the Father…” John 14: 1-12
Throughout the New Testament there are multiple references to Jesus’ Ascension. John has the briefest of them. It is contained in Jesus’ words addressed to Mary Magdalen on the morning of his resurrection: “Do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go and find the brothers and tell them: I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” (John 20:17) All the other references to Jesus’ Ascension are closely related to his entrusting his mission to his disciples. For instance, in the very first chapter of Acts, Luke cites Jesus’ instructions: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judea and Samaria and, indeed, to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1: 8)
In today’s gospel-reading John has described not only Jesus urging his disciples to keep on putting their trust in him but implying that he will continue to trust them because of his having placed them under his Father’s care: “I tell you most solemnly, whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, he will perform even greater works, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask for in my name I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask for anything in my name, I will do it.” (John 14: 13-14)
These words of Jesus constitute the foundation of the mission and service of the Christian community throughout its 2000+ years of existence and service. Moreover, they press us modern-day disciples to ask: “Do I have anywhere near the measure of faith in Jesus as he has in me?” There are multiple examples in Acts of how members of the earliest Christian communities took Jesus at his word. We all know the story of how Peter and John, making their way to prayer in the Temple, encountered a cripple who had been set down near the Beautiful Gate (ironically called beautiful because it had been made the very opposite by the disfigured bodies of those who had been placed there to beg), and who asked them for a donation. Peter’s response was: “I have neither silver nor gold, but I will give you what I have: in the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, walk!,,,and the man went with them into the Temple, walking and jumping and praising God.” (Acts 3: 1-10)
How, then, might we appropriately apply the message inherent in today’s gospel-reading, as we go about our lives in 2026? Are there ways we can find to give practical expression to the mission entrusted to us by Jesus? Is there anyone in our world suffering greater need and deprivation than our sisters and brothers in the Ukraine, Lebanon, Gaza and the Sudan? Might we not reach out to them through practical outreach via Australian Catholic Relief. Because these people are geographically distant from us, they are often overlooked. Are they not neighbours whom Jesus called us to love as we love him? Closer to home, what practical measure might we adopt to reach out to those forced to sleep on our streets? What practical strategies might we pursue to mobilise the members of our own parishes?
To begin with, we must believe that God can work through us and the ordinary circumstances of our lives in order to bring about good that we have not yet been able to imagine. In an adaptation of the serenity prayer, we may have to learn to pray: “God, give us the courage and determination to change those things that only we can change, assisted by your grace and inspiration.”
Today’s gospel-reading opens with a line we cannot afford to overlook: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still and trust in me.” (John 14: 1) Surely that is a surprising statement from one whom John had described several times in his Gospel as “troubled”. When Jesus revealed to his disciples that one of their number would betray him, he was clearly emotionally distraught: “Jesus was troubled in spirit and declared: ‘I tell you most solemnly, one of you will betray me.’ The disciples looked at one another, wondering what he meant.” (John 13: 21-22) A little earlier, in predicting his approaching death and glorification, he disclosed his emotional upset: “Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you, most solemnly, unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest…Now my soul is troubled.” (John 12: 23-27)
Earlier still, John had described Jesus’ emotional turmoil just before he raised his friend Lazarus from the grave: “As soon as Mary saw Jesus, she threw herself at his feet, saying: ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died’. At the sight of her tears, and those of the Jews who followed her, Jesus said in great distress, with a sigh that came straight from the heart: ‘Where have you put him?’ They said: ‘Lord, come and see’. Jesus wept; and the Jews said: ‘See how much he loved him!’ (John 11: 32-37)
While the opening words from Jesus in today’s gospel-reading: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still, and trust in me.” might puzzle us as we recall the three previous occasions on which John described him as being “troubled” or “distressed”, I suggest that here Jesus was urging his followers to hold firmly to their faith and trust in him and in God, especially when strong emotions surged through their bodies. From here through to the end of chapter 17 of John’s Gospel, Jesus repeatedly assures his disciples that even though they will be threatened and pressured by forces at work in the world around them, they will always be assured his ongoing presence, by God’s love and support and by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, their Advocate. Lively faith and trust are confidence and assurance that God is always with us even when we are unable to imagine positive outcomes to the traumas and disasters that befall us or the challenging projects we undertake.
As Jesus moves on to announce to his disciples that “there are many rooms in my Father’s house”, he was not talking of a physical mansion or a block of flats. Similar to his reference to his body as a “temple” (“Destroy this temple/sanctuary, and in three days I will raise it up, again” John 2: 19-22), Jesus was telling his disciples that he was the dwelling place of God and that through him God would come to dwell in them. We, too, are numbered among Jesus’ disciples. John’s line of theological explanation is that, through Jesus, our brother, God is also present in us. That’s something which we will come to assimilate only through faith-filled reflection. Let’s
start out on that path!