Jesus commissions his disciples

Today is Ascension Sunday and the gospel reading is about the commissioning by our Lord Jesus Christ of his disciples before he ascended into heaven. This is like giving your final instructions to your followers just before you leave for another country for good. Today is also World Communications Day, which coincides with Ascension Sunday and today's gospel reading comes from Matt.28: 16-20.

"16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.18 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

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The last paragraph of today's gospel is a sort of last will and testament by our Lord to his disciples on their lifelong mission on earth while Jesus ascends back to his Father in heaven. The message of our Lord "go and make disciples of all nations" is not meant only for the bishops, priests or the clergy but to all baptized Christians. In the Philippines, we are a very maternal society; hence it is the mothers who transmit the Catholic faith to their children. But in truth, both parents should transmit the Catholic faith to their children. How can we make disciples of all nations when we cannot even evangelize our own children?

In the Muslim world, it is the father who transmits Islam to their children, not the mother, which is why Islam is one of the fastest growing religions of the world. I guess what our Lord Jesus has imparted to his disciples is an order to evangelize all nations. By evangelizing, it means to communicate to the people of all nations. I guess this is the reason why the Catholic Church is celebrating World Communications Sunday today.

Surely the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ have witnessed the miracles that the Lord made before their eyes, including the raising of Lazarus after four days inside his tomb. But after the Lord gave them his last instructions, his body lifted up and they were all amazed to witness their Master leaving the earth and disappearing into the clouds. This wasn't an ordinary miracle, this event made them believe that Jesus was indeed the Son of God and as he said, he was returning to the Father in heaven.

The impact of the Ascension of our Lord was so profound in the hearts of his disciples and the early Christians that through the years when the early Church leaders crafted the Apostles Creed, which appeared for the first time in a letter reportedly written by St. Ambrose during the Council in Milan to Pope Siricius around 390 AD, we recite, "He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty."

We all know that Jesus had to ascend to his Father in heaven so that he can send the Holy Spirit to his disciples because he promised them that he would never leave them orphans. Indeed, next Sunday, all of Christendom will celebrate Pentecost Sunday. Finally, in celebration of World Communications Day, let me reprint an excerpt from the message of Pope Francis:

"I would like to encourage everyone to engage in constructive forms of communication that reject prejudice towards others and foster a culture of encounter, helping all of us to view the world around us with realism and trust.

"I am convinced that we have to break the vicious circle of anxiety and stem the spiral of fear resulting from a constant focus on 'bad news' (wars, terrorism, scandals and all sorts of human failure). This has nothing to do with spreading misinformation that would ignore the tragedy of human suffering, nor is it about a naive optimism blind to the scandal of evil. Rather, I propose that all of us work at overcoming that feeling of growing discontent and resignation that can at times generate apathy, fear or the idea that evil has no limits."

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For email responses to this article, write to vsbobita@moscom.com or vsbobita@gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.