The Gospel passage for this Sunday ends with the Great Commission, the final instruction that Jesus gives to the disciples before ascending into Heaven: "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19). The words of Jesus are straightforward. We are not to rest until we have brought the Gospel to all the peoples of the world.
But the question arises, has our missionary zeal weakened over the centuries? Are we still on fire with the desire to bring all people to Christ? In discussing the health of the Church, both globally and locally, the phrase "mission vs maintenance" often comes up. The temptation is for us to settle into a pattern of maintenance, where we focus on keeping the status quo going but do not seek growth. But as Pope Francis and many others have emphasized, maintenance is not enough. The Church is to be a Church of mission, always going forth, always proclaiming the Gospel and calling people to Christ.
Today, we see a lot of emphasis on dialog - dialoging with Christians of other denomination and with people of other faiths. Dialog is important, but it is not the end goal. Dialog can help us to get to know each other, to diffuse generational conflict, and to establish civil discourse. But, as Jesus instructs us, we must go beyond dialog to evangelization, calling others to conversion to Christ.
One danger of too much focus on dialog is indifferentism, the idea that it doesn't matter to what religion, if any, a person belongs, as long as they are a good person. Indifferentism assumes that all roads lead to Heaven, as long as each person adheres to a basic sense of decency. The problem with such a perspective is that it denies the role of Christ in salvation.
Christ makes it very clear in the Gospels, as does the Catholic Church in her teachings, that he is the only path of salvation. True, the Second Vatican Council is open to the concept of invincible ignorance, the idea that if a person does not choose Christ through no fault of their own, then their failure will not be held against them and they will be judged on choosing that which they recognized to be good. But even so, the person in question would be choosing Christ implicitly, without full understanding, and will encounter Christ in his fullness in the afterlife. Salvation comes only from Christ. Every person who reaches Heaven does so only through Christ.
Indifferentism is sometimes presented as a form of love. If, the argument goes, we truly love our brothers and sisters outside of the Church, we would just support them in whatever path they are pursuing and not seek to bring them to Christ. But, quite to the contrary, not sharing Christ with someone shows the greatest possible lack of love for the person. As Catholics, we believe that Christ is our only true fulfillment, the only source of ultimate, eternal joy, peace, and contentment. Not to share Christ with someone is to cause the greatest possible injury to that person.
To go further, our belief is not in a generic sort of Christ. As Catholics, we believe that the fullness of Christ is found in the Catholic Church. To encounter Christ as fully as possible in this life, we need to be members of the Catholic Church, live according to the teachings and precepts of the Church, and immerse ourselves in the sacramental and prayer life of the Church. Thus, to share Christ with others, we need to be calling them to the Catholic faith.
But, the question will no doubt arise, how can we do so in our everyday lives? We are not all priests or missionaries or Catholic YouTubers. What can we do if have an ordinary job and lead an ordinary life?
To begin, we need to love our faith fully. We cannot give that which we don't have. The first step to evangelization is to proclaim Christ with who we are, with our very being. Let us let Christ shrine through us to the world around us. As we do, our day-to-day decision making, in both small and large matters, should be grounded in Christ. Whatever action we take, we should consider if that action will lead us closer to Christ or not. Our motivation should always be ever-deeper union with Christ.
The next step toward everyday evangelization is to speak in a way consistent with our love of Christ. Do our words reflect our commitment to Christ? Do we ever say things that undermine our relationship with Christ and act to scandalize others? Furthermore, when we interact with others, are we willing to defend Christ and his teachings with our words? We don't have to argue with everyone but if someone makes a statement contrary to Christ and expects us to agree with it, we need to draw a line and speak up. We can do so with gentle love, but we need to speak up.
Furthermore, our love for Christ should be reflected in our social media posts, in the way we dress, in the way we decorate our homes, and the entertainment we consume and invite others to share with us. When our entire life is grounded in Christ, everything about us will invite others into his love.
But we shouldn't just be passive. We should actively invite others to Christ in whatever ways we can, even if we are not leading a ministry as evangelists. We can invite them to Mass and to parish events. We should always share our faith in the right moments, always asking the Holy Spirit to guide our words. We can offer to pray for them and with them when the right opportunity arises. We should also pray daily for others in our lives and for all of humanity to come to Christ. Moreover, let us remember the power of fasting. Fasting, when offered as a sacrifice to God, unlocks great spiritual graces. Fasting for others so that they may open their hearts to Christ is a powerful way to help them. What is more, whenever we offer up the spiritual value of our suffering for others, we are gifting them with great blessings. That is especially true if we offer up for their spiritual healing the suffering that they themselves have caused us. That is what Christ did upon the Cross, when he offered up for our salvation the suffering that all of us have caused him through our sins.
In the Gospel passage for today, we also see that the disciples "worshiped, but they doubted" (Matthew 28:17). We too will be beset by doubts at various times. But the key is to persevere in the midst of doubts. St. Therese of Lisieux, one of the greatest saints of the modern era, experienced such an oppression of doubts at one point in her life that she wrote down the Creed with her own blood, so as to keep the dark thoughts at bay. St. Mother Teresa too was beset with immense spiritual desolation through most of her ministry, but she kept on keeping on. The most important thing for us to remember is that we are not expected to succeed on our own. Victory comes only through the strength of Christ. Let us call him into our lives daily, incessantly, trusting in his words from the Gospel passage for today: "And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20).
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The readings for the Ascension Sunday, Cycle A are:
Acts 1:1-11
Psalm 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9
Ephesians 1:17-23
Matthew 28:16-20
The full text can be found at the USCCB website.
Photo Credit: The Church of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives, where Jesus ascended into Heaven by Zoltan Abraham (c) 2016.