By Fr. Glenn Jones:

So, we’re coming to graduation season again. Hard to believe how quickly the years go by, as you parents know all too well. One day you’re taking the little tykes to pre-K, and the next they’re going off to college … spreading their wings, leaving the nest and beginning to make their way in what is often a scary world. Christian parents worry: “Will they resist the myriad temptations of the world and forget what they have been taught by Christ and the Church, or will they hold fast to faith and conscience?”  Priests are not called “Father” for nothing; we, too, worry for our young charges, not unlike the parents who bore them.

After graduation, what shall they choose? Doctor, lawyer, scientist?  Certainly, those are laudable vocations. But also maybe one of the many necessary trades that keep our world up and running—nurse, welder, plumber, electrician … police, firefighter, EMT, soldier?  The list—and the opportunities—are virtually endless.  No career can be dismissed as “unimportant”.  While some are considered more glamorous or high-profile, nobody calls a physicist in a panic when the power goes out or when the plumbing backs up.  For you young ‘uns not bound for college and the more high-dollar and high-visibility careers, consider the following from scripture about those who practice essential trades:

All these rely upon their hands,
and each is skillful in his own work.
Without them a city cannot be established,
and men can neither sojourn nor live there.
 …they are not sought out for the council of the people,
nor do they attain eminence in the public assembly…

 But they keep stable the fabric of the world,
and their prayer is in the practice of their trade.

(Sirach 38:31-34)

Of course, priests and ministers hope that some might strike the path of carrying on the faith—this beautiful Christian faith which has endured for 2000 years and just keeps getting stronger. The faith waxes and wanes in certain areas and times, but overall, it continues to grow and thrive—not because of some baseless dream, but because of hope bolstered by truth and history and, most of all, grace.

This weekend most Catholic dioceses around the country celebrate the feast of the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven after His resurrection from the dead. And, of course, it all sounds so fantastic. Resurrection from the dead? Really? And ascending into Heaven? Really?!

But our faith is hardly without foundation. St. Luke, considered the author of both the Gospel known by his name as well as the Acts of the Apostles. He was a Gentile physician converted by St. Paul during one of the latter’s missionary journeys and would have heard not only Paul’s accounts of conversion, but very likely met and spoken with Jesus’ original apostles and other disciples about what they witnessed in their years of following Jesus. As to the Ascension, Luke assures us of their testimony: “…as [the apostles] were looking on, [Jesus] was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.” (Acts 1:9)

Now, one must always remember that the apostles had no earthly reason to continue Jesus’ mission after His crucifixion. At that point He seemed an apparent failure. Had nothing extraordinary happened after that, they likely would have just gone back to their old lives—fishing, tax collecting, etc. But with His ascension and the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them at Pentecost, they boldly went forth preaching Christ, and that work led more to disdain and challenge rather than to accolades, and certainly not to wealth and physical safety. After all, almost all of them would be martyred for their evangelizing. Why do that for something they knew was not true? It’s kind of hard to fake “rising into Heaven”, after all! And yet, they endured to martyrdom testifying to the truth of it and to the works and teaching that Jesus had done.

So, O sceptic: Does it make any sense that, after fleeing and hiding from the religious authorities who were hunting them down after the resurrection, that the apostles would then offer their lives to spreading falsehood after the resurrection, ascension and Pentecost? But they did witness, and thus their utter dedication to the work He sent them forth to do. What more could the apostles have done to convince the world of the truth of their witness than to die for it? What evidence would have been sufficient for one who refuses to believe?

As Jesus said, there is no greater love than to give one’s own life for another … and the apostles gave their lives both for Him and for us … to carry out their mission of spreading the Gospel and trying to lead humanity to the salvation Jesus died to offer us. Even today there is ample evidence of the truth of Christ. Not only the apostles’ witness, but the growth of the Church for 2000 years in a world hostile to it—despite wars, scandals, plagues, etc. Then the miracles that still occur today—most often cures verified as inexplicable by even atheist doctors and scientists. Yet the world just goes: “Ho hum. What’s the newest UFO news? What’s the latest on this or that celebrity relationship?!”

The apostles witnessed Jesus “rising to Heaven”, but it points to an infinitely greater reality beyond our understanding. St. Paul, echoing the prophet Isaiah, writes: “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him…” (1 Corinthians 2:9)

We live in a bubble, like an isolated tribe in a remote jungle. Jesus is like a modern explorer who comes and tells us of wonders unimaginable to us, and we scoff because we have such trouble believing something we cannot see or comprehend. Yet, those wonders exist nonetheless.

Jesus walked, talked and even ate with the apostles at various times after His resurrection until, as the Catechism puts it, “…entry of His humanity into divine glory, symbolized by the cloud and by Heaven”—the Ascension. And by the Ascension Jesus takes humanity itself—in which we all participate—into divine glory…and we the body are called to join our head—Jesus Christ—in eternal life. As the Resurrection gives us faith, the Ascension gives us hope and longing. As Jesus assured His faithful: “…I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you also may be.”  (John 14:3 )… a hope and promise attained by fidelity to Him.

Editor’s note: Rev. Glenn Jones is the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and former pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Los Alamos.