Mark 16:15

   -20



Endings are part and parcel of everyday life. Endings change things. Endings may be predictable or unpredictable, remarkable or unremarkable. The day ends, a night’s sleep ends, a meal ends, a conversation ends, a journey ends, a relationship ends, a career ends, a life ends. Day to day living simply would not go on without endings.

In our times, there is an abnormal number of significant endings. Institutions, societies, ways of thinking, cultural patterns, religious customs, expectations . . . . So many of these taken for granted parts of our lives can no longer be taken for granted. Many are simply fading from our lives. Already, many have become distant memories, if we remember them at all.

New possibilities are often born out of endings: “I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24).

The transition – from an ending to a beginning – can be easy or very difficult. Endings may thus provoke differing emotions – relief, anxiety, excitement, fear, confusion, joy, sadness, satisfaction.

Some endings are particularly momentous. For example, the passion and death of Jesus would have been such a momentous ending for the disciples. So would the “ascension of Jesus into heaven”, described in today’s Gospel – Mark 16:15-20. Whatever the disciples witnessed at that time of “the ascension”, they were clearly made aware that the time with Jesus physically present among them, had gone forever. The implications of that ending for the first disciples, are also the implications for all disciples since – including us.

If Jesus was not to be physically present any longer, that did not mean he would cease to be present altogether. A beginning is born out of the ending. His physical presence had ended but he would continue to be present with his disciples. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Luke 21:33). A new way of the disciples being with him and he with the disciples, has begun. This is highlighted by the command: “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation”. It is now the role of the disciple to radiate Jesus’ presence everywhere. And “the Lord worked with them”.

Recall the ritual of the Paschal Candle at the Easter Vigil. The Celebrant traces the sign of the cross on the candle, the numerals for the year and puts the incense capsules into the candle saying: “Christ yesterday and today, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega. All time belongs to him and all the ages. To him be glory and power through every age and

for ever. Amen”We can lose our focus on “Christ yesterday and today, the Beginning and the End” in a time such as ours. Reflecting on “the ascension” acknowledges the fact of endings, even the endings of some very significant things. It also reminds us of what does not end, will never end: “Christ yesterday and today, the Beginning and the End”.



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Date
16 May 2021

Tag 1
Gospel

Tag 2
Story

Tag 3
Teaching

Source Name
Michael Whelan sm

Source URL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6vE5pjO...

Activity

Listen to the homily by clicking play on the left.

Reflect and Discuss

The end is important because it brings into focus the now. How are we called to live?

What can not let go of? Why ?

What is most important?

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