Some of us would have experienced, every now and then, the necessity for us to go away from where we presently are to another place where we are needed. Quite often, our duty and responsibility would require us to move on to another kind of duty or responsibility, or to another location where our services are needed. For example, priests and religious are transferred from one location to another, or from one parish to another, to serve the needs of the faithful in different parts of the diocese or even in different countries. Even teachers too are sometimes transferred from one school to another, depending on where their skills and specialties are needed. For some, it seems difficult and painful to move on, especially when we have become quite comfortable with where we are and with the people we are familiar with, but life is such that sooner or later, we would need to go.
This is why we could understand how the disciples must have felt when Jesus, after His resurrection, had to leave and return to His Father. His first departure when He died was already devastating enough, and now a second departure? It must have been unthinkable and disconcerting for the disciples to lose Jesus, this time for an unknown period of time. But why did Jesus leave? He left so that He could send the Holy Spirit to the disciples, giving them the strength, courage and that extra oomph to become His witnesses to the ends of the earth. This would not have been possible if Jesus had remained with His disciples, since they would still have clung close to him and not have been able to move off on their own.
So what can we learn from this? Many of us try to help others, accompany them, or even offer solutions to their problems, but we sometimes do not know when to stop. We give so much time and effort to help people that we fail to allow God to help them. Some of us even begin to act as if we are God and without us, people would go astray and there would be chaos. If such people whom we are helping become so dependent on us, then there is no need for them to seek God’s help, since we would have become like their ‘saviour.’ So, we must ‘leave’ like Jesus, so that the Holy Spirit could come and touch the lives of these people. This does not mean that we are trying to shirk our responsibilities, but what we are doing is to allow space for God to work in our lives and the lives of others, so that we and they could learn to grow in His love and care, and let Him be our guide.
Today, let us learn to know when and how to let go, and have greater faith and trust that God will take care of things. Even though Jesus has already ascended, even though He has already ‘left’ us, He is still present with us in a very special way: in the Body and Blood of Christ. May we be humble and docile enough to let God take control, so that we can be His witnesses for His glory.