So, the ascension, kind of wrapping up the easter season,
Next week we’re going to have Pentecost,
The birthday of the church.
The two feasts are very much linked together,
Ascension and Pentecost.
Why ascension is such a glorious day and not a sad day
Is because Christ doesn’t necessarily leave us,
But he enters into a deeper depth of our soul.
He goes up to heaven and then inward,
Inward to us, you could say.
And then he sends the holy spirit down,
And the holy spirit comes and remains with us forever.
Holy spirit, father and son.
So again, on the surface, it might seem confusing,
Like again, why are we celebrating
Jesus departing from us?
Don’t we want him on this earth?
But again, this is where, as we heard in the readings,
The eyes of our faith, the eyes of our heart
Are able to really see Jesus within us.
So, Jesus gives us this instruction then,
Or he gives the apostles as he leaves.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
Baptized in the name of the father,
Son, and the holy spirit,
And do all that I’ve commanded you to do.”
That word “disciple” or “make disciples,”
I kind of want to focus on that
Because that’s a buzzword these days in the catholic church.
See this a lot in parishes.
We’ve got to make disciples, and, you know,
Parish slogans are all about making disciples,
And there’s programs and all these companies,
Frankly, that are around for trying to make disciples.
So, what does it mean to make a disciple?
Now, before I answer that question,
Let me just make a point about this.
Okay, the church, and I don’t mean this, like, arrogantly,
But the church doesn’t need to make disciples, okay?
That might be a controversial statement
Even because our Lord said that all right?
The church doesn’t rely on people in the pews, in fact.
Okay, we’re not a corporation.
We’re not a business that if we lose all of our customers,
We’re going to go under.
The church, as Jesus promised us,
Is always going to be around until the end of time.
The gates of the netherworld are never going to prevail against us.
So, we don’t need to go out there
And try to convince people to come.
We don’t need to harangue them or whatever,
Have catchy slogans, whatever it might be,
Entertainment, to get people into the church.
Now, it’d be nice to have them in the church,
And yes, there are plenty of examples
Of parishes closing, of dioceses, in fact, disappearing.
In fact, the history of the church
Has many dioceses that have disappeared.
Yes, parishes will close, dioceses will disappear.
Religious orders might go away too,
But the church will not go away.
The church doesn’t need it
Because the church is the source itself of life.
So, wherever the church is, there will always be Catholics.
Now, the church might move around different locations,
But we have the fullness of it.
So, we don’t need to put this pressure on ourselves.
Like, we got to convince people.
We got to have the best homilies and the best music
Because otherwise, we’re going to go down.
We won’t go down, okay?
So that takes a little pressure
Off evangelizing or discipling people.
So again, what does it mean then to disciple?
So, it’s not just to convince someone of the truth.
I don’t think that’s what discipleship is.
There’s plenty of people that might know the truth,
But are they really close to God?
It’s not about getting people to go to the sacraments.
Plenty of people that go to mass,
Plenty of people that go to confession regularly.
They’re not close to God either.
The sacraments aren’t just these magic pills.
We’re not just trying to check proxies to get numbers, okay?
So, what is discipleship?
Now, unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to
To answer this question even though I set it up for it
Because it’s something you got to figure out yourself.
All we know is that Jesus is telling us to make disciples.
So how can you, in your own way, make a disciple
That maybe is not one of those things,
Like trying to argue with people and convince them,
Or trying to just get them to partake of the sacraments.
That might be like the end, you know, some fruit of it.
But I sense it’s something about
You are having that personal relationship with God.
You really loving Christ?
You are being able to tell God, “Hey, this is why I love you.
This is why I need you in my life.
This is why my life is better off with you.”
And then somehow in your own way, conveying that.
You might not even convey it with your words,
But just by your loving actions and like a deep peace
That you have in your life that resonates out of you.
Maybe that’s what it is to make a disciple.
But something perhaps we can pray with today,
And something, a grace that we can ask for,
That we are radiant light for people,
And that we reflect the face of God.
Amen.