Ascension
Ascension
by Paul O'Reilly, SJ

“Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you.”

When I was growing up in my country, there was a very great leader of the Catholic church. His name was Cardinal Heenan. In every way, he was a big man ­ 72 when I knew him. 6 foot 4 tall, broad and strong. {If any of you have ever seen Collin Powell, then imagine someone about twice the size.} But the biggest thing about him was an enormous booming voice which filled every room he ever entered. And with this enormous voice, he pronounced absolute certainty on any issue you cared to mention. He knew exactly the right way forward for the Church, for the people and for anyone else he happened to be talking to at the time. To put it mildly, he was not often given to self-doubt.

So, I was rather surprised when ­ a long time after his death ­ I came across a book he wrote in which he said that there was once a time when he was not happy as a priest. He came from a very wealthy background and he was sent to serve in a very poor parish. There he struggled as he discovered that he was in fact a little too used to the comfortable things in life and a little too used to the company of his own class. To put it more simply, he saw in himself a soft-living snob and he didn’t like himself very much.

But one day he was sent to see a little old lady who had severe rheumatoid arthritis and was dying of cancer. She lived with her daughter in circumstances of great poverty. When he arrived, he found the place so smelly and dirty that he could not even bring himself to sit down. And there he met a truly holy woman. She was 92, had been bedridden for four years and she died that very night. He does not remember a word of what passed between them. All he remembers is that every motion, every gesture, every word that she uttered was filled with grace and serenity. He realised that he was in the presence of a Saint ­ someone who was close to God in every way.

He has remembered that brief encounter throughout his life because it is a memory of how God can use us, wherever we are in life, to bring His love and healing into the lives of one another. There is never a moment in the life of any true Catholic Christian when she or he is not obeying this final command of the Lord ­ to be a missionary of the Faith. That does not mean shouting what we believe at other people. Nor does it mean knocking on their doors uninvited and trying to force our beliefs on them. It is those things that get Christian missionaries a bad name. What it means is showing in our lives what Christ has done for us. And offering to everyone who comes to us the peace and love of Christ, not just in our words, but in every gesture and every action. And let us hear for ourselves Jesus’ last words on earth “Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you.”

And now let us stand and profess our Faith in the presence of God in our world.

Mount Street Jesuit Centre,
114 Mount Street,
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ENGLAND.
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