The ascension of the Lord heralds a new age: the age of the church. Luke ends his gospel with the account of the ascension and he begins his second volume, the Acts of the Apostles, where he left off in the gospel: with the ascension of Christ. The ascension is the springboard that casts the mission of the church into front and center. Jesus had to ascend before the mission could go forward. What is the mission? The Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations. The mission is simply to be witnesses of these things.
“There are no proofs for the existence of God, there are only witnesses.” Since we are baptized with the Holy Spirit, the spirit of God is with us, prompting us, teaching and challenging us to new growth. We are witnesses to the incredible power of God’s love and action. The power of the Spirit is unleashed in our midst through the witness of God’s action in our lives. To witness God’s action in our lives, we the Living Person run. Here is my witness when I tried a first full marathon in Cleveland in 2006.
The last Sunday revealed all aspects of the weather in Cleveland. It was raining when I woke up at five o’clock in the morning. It was quite chilly, so I hesitated to wear short sleeves. But no choice; the Living Man must go. At 7am, we started running with ten thousands runners wearing the wet shoes because of raining. Nevertheless, we were not afraid of moving forward for we were together encouraging one another. After running couple of miles, it became very pleasant to run in a cool weather. With the thirteen mile sign the sun came out. The sky and the earth met together, twinkling so brightly; all runners were blessed to run on such a beautiful day. I had kept a pretty good pace under 7:30 per mile before the eighteen mile. But when I ran to the lakeshore in the point of the nineteen mile, my body became exhausted. At the same time, the wind strongly blowing against the runners made the race more difficult. I couldn’t control my body, so that I literally dragged my legs. The last four miles seemed endless. I had to give up a qualifying time within 3:10 to go to the Boston Marathon at that point. Many runners passed by me. One woman who had an artificial leg flew by me. I seemed to be lost in the downtown Cleveland, keeping reciting Hail Mary. There was nothing left: cheers from the crowd and sightseeing in the downtown disappeared, and I was only able to think moving my exhausted body forward one step by one step. Finally, when I saw the finish line, it seemed there was no one around, namely, peculiar quietness. Frankly I had dreamed for a long time how to run through the finish line: raising my fists up as a sign of victory or big smiling responding to the cheering crowd. But I didn’t do anything what I had thought before. When I passed through the finish line, I was silently making a sign of cross from my mouth—I couldn’t raise my one hand to the head—to the chest and from the left shoulder to the right shoulder. I said, Amen! As if the race was a prayer, my long prayer ended with the sign of cross: the shift from self-centeredness to God-centeredness. I was moved not by I but by God and became deeply humbled in the last few miles. I stood still for a while because my soul as well as my body was overwhelmed by God’s presence in me. As St. Irenaeus said, the glory of God is not only the living man but the man who is trying to live fully.
This is a witness that a runner suffered and rose from the dead and repentance for the forgiveness of sins, that is, self-centeredness, and proclaimed Jesus to all spectators by making a sign of cross at the finish line.
Gandhi said, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” Being witnesses means to be a change that we wish to see in the world. Running a marathon is not a just cool thing to do but often a painful thing to achieve. It takes a tremendous time and energy of runners who become someone bigger than themselves because “The highest reward for man’s toil is not what he gets from it, but what he becomes by it.” Whether people acknowledge or not, completing a marathon is a personal witness to self and to God. Runners become witnesses of life and hope. It doesn’t happen every day.
The glory of God is the living person; through our race, we will be witnesses of Jesus Christ’s message in Cleveland, throughout Madagascar, and to the ends of the earth. St. Paul, he himself a runner, prays for the Living Person in the second reading, “May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope, (the hope of being witnesses)…what are the riches of glory, (the glory of God through our body)…and what is the surpassing greatness of Jesus’ power for us who believe, (God’s power for us who believe in ourselves made in the likeness of God).” Amen.