159. The Ascension of Our Lord (III)

Meditations no. 205 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Our Lord is urging us to do apostolate.

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven.

Jesus has gone up to heaven, but a Christian can talk and listen to him, in prayer and in the Eucharist, as the twelve Apostles talked and listened to him. The Christian can come to burn with an apostolic fervour that will lead him to serve, to redeem with Christ, to sow peace and joy wherever he goes. To serve, that is what apostolate is all about If we count on our own strength alone, we will achieve nothing in the supernatural order. But if we are God’s instruments, we will achieve everything. I can do all things in him who gives me strength. God, in his infinite goodness, has chosen to use inadequate instruments: and so, the apostle has no other aim than to let the Lord work in him and through him, to put himself totally at God’s disposition, allowing him to carry out his work of salvation through creatures, through that soul whom he has chosen.

An apostle - that is what a Christian is, when he knows that he has been grafted onto Christ, made one with Christ, in baptism. He has been given the capacity to carry on the battle in Christ’s name, through confirmation. He has been called to serve God by his activity in the world, because of the common priesthood of the faithful, which makes him share in some way in the priesthood of Christ. This priesthood - though essentially distinct from the ministerial priesthood - gives him the capacity to take part in the worship of the Church and to help other men in their journey to God, with the witness of his word and his example, through his prayer and work of atonement.

No one can be uninterested in this task to which God is urging all Christians. Look. The redemption was consummated when Jesus died on the Cross, in shame and glory, to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Gentiles foolishness. But the redemption will, by the will of God, be carried out continually until our Lord’s time comes. It is impossible to live according to the heart of Jesus Christ and not to know that we are sent, as he was, peccatores salvos facere, to save all sinners, with the clear realization that we ourselves need to trust in the mercy of God more and more every day. As a result, we will foster in ourselves a vehement desire to live as co-redeemers with Christ, to save all souls with him, because we are, we want to be, ipse Christus, Christ himself, and he gave himself as a ransom for all.

Apostolate must be based on understanding.

Christian apostolate is not a political programme or a cultural alternative. It implies the spreading of good, “infecting” others with a desire to love, sowing peace and joy. There is no doubt that this apostolate will produce spiritual benefits for all: more justice, more understanding and a greater mutual respect among men.

There are many souls all around us, and we have no right to be an obstacle to their eternal happiness. We have the obligation of leading a fully Christian life, of becoming saints, of not betraying God and all those who expect a Christian to be an example and a source of truth.

Our apostolate has to be based on understanding. I insist, as I have done before, on the fact that charity, more than in giving, consists in understanding. I cannot deny the fact that I have learned by my own experience what it means not to be understood. I have always tried to make myself understood, but there have been people who were bent on not understanding. This gives me one more reason, and a very practical one, for trying to be understanding toward everyone. But it is not this type of incidental reason that should prompt us to have a heart that is great, universal, catholic. The understanding we must show is a proof of Christian charity on the part of a good child of God. Our Lord wants us to be present in all the honest pursuits of the earth, so that there we may sow, not weeds, but the good seed of brotherhood, of forgiveness, of charity and of peace. Never consider yourself anybody’s enemy.

A Christian has to be ready to share his life with everyone at all times, giving to everyone the chance to come nearer to Christ Jesus. He has to sacrifice his own desires willingly for the sake of others, without separating people into watertight compartments, without pigeon-holing them or putting tags on them as though they were merchandise or dried-up insects. A Christian cannot afford to separate himself from others, because, if he did that, his life would be miserably selfish. He must become all things to all men, in order to save all men.

If only we lived like this, if only we knew how to saturate our behaviour with the good seed of generosity, with a desire for understanding and peace! We would encourage the rightful independence of all men. Each person would take on his own responsibility for the tasks that correspond to him in temporal matters. Each Christian would defend other people’s freedom in the first place, so that he could defend his own as well. His charity would lead him to accept others as they are -because everyone, without any exception, has his weaknesses and makes his mistakes. He would help them, with God’s grace and his own human refinement, to overcome evil, to remove the weeds, so that we can all help each other in living according to our dignity as human beings and as Christians.

Our apostolic work is a source of peace and joy.

For a Christian, apostolate is like breathing. A child of God cannot live without this supernatural life-force. Today’s feast reminds us that our concern for souls is a response to a command of love given to us by our Lord. As he goes up to heaven, Jesus sends us out as his witnesses throughout the whole world. Our responsibility is great, because to be Christ’s witness implies first of all that we should try to behave according to his doctrine, that we should struggle to make our actions remind others of Jesus and his most lovable personality. We have to act in such a way that others will be able to say, when they meet us: this man is a Christian, because he does not hate, because he is willing to understand, because he is not a fanatic, because he is willing to make sacrifices, because he shows that he is a man of peace, because he knows how to love.

If we behave in this way, all around us there will flourish a haven of Christian peace and joy, which will necessarily have a good effect on society. For the apostolic task that Christ entrusted to all his disciples leads to specific results in social matters. It is inconceivable that a Christian, in order to fulfil his task, should have to turn his back on the world and become a defeatist with regard to human nature. Everything, even the smallest occurrence, has a human and a divine meaning. Christ, who is perfect man, did not come to destroy what is human, but to raise it up. He took on himself our human nature, except for sin. He came to share all man’s concerns, except for the sad experience of wilful evil.

A Christian has to be ready, at all times, to sanctify society from within. He is fully present in the world, but without belonging to the world, when it denies God and opposes his lovable will of salvation, not because of its nature, but because of sin.

After our Lord’s Ascension, the Apostles returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God. Our Father comments: What an extraordinary lesson each one of the teachings of the New Testament contains. The Master, before ascending to the right hand of the Father, told the disciples: “Go and preach to all nations,” and they had remained full of peace. But they still had doubts: they did not know what to do, and they gathered around Mary, Queen of Apostles, so as to become zealous preachers of the Truth which will save the world.

We have that joy and peace ourselves when, hand in hand with our Blessed Lady, we carry out an untiring apostolate among our friends and companions.