[AI translation] I can understand the ecstatic amazement of the disciples there on the Mount of Olives, when their eyes were almost ecstatic as they gazed up to heaven. For they had just seen Jesus standing there before them, they had heard his voice, they had seen his hands outstretched to them in blessing. Then, as if suddenly, he seemed to be detached from this earth, as if he were also visibly transcending the material world - not spatially, but powerfully. As if for a moment they had seen something of the mystery which Jesus had said to them: 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me' (Mt 28,18) - and the next moment, as if a thick mist or a bright cloud had descended between them: they could no longer see anything, but they were looking at Jesus, who was invisible in another dimension of the heavenly world. In this state of ecstatic ecstasy, two angels are described as standing beside them and addressing them, that is, a kind of sobering heavenly warning: 'Men of Galilee, why do you look up to heaven?' The Jesus who has now been lifted up in the earthly world will come in the same way as you have seen Him enter the heavenly world. Until then, time is pressing, for until His return He must preach the gospel among all nations.There is a useful warning for us in this scene. A warning to keep heavenly and earthly things in balance! This is what I want to talk about in more detail.
1) First, let us understand: the disciples are not told by the angelic message that they are looking into heaven, that they are searching the mysteries of heaven, that their souls are seeking Jesus, who is invisible in the invisible world. Indeed, it is the very certainty that their lives are very much connected with Jesus. The warning is only against constant looking up to heaven: do not stay too long on the Mount of Olives, do not forget, do not become completely lost in the invisible world. In its time, looking to heaven is a very good and necessary thing. Once you have come to know God through Jesus, you cannot live without looking up again and again, without seeking to see beyond the visible - to seek the gaze of the great One who is above all events, who has power over our problems and our troubles. The psalmist exults in the same way: "I will lift up my eyes to the mountains, from thence shall my help come" (Psalm 121:1) Yes, that is the great thing, that I can lift my eyes above the troubles, the problems, the cares, the muddy, bumpy roads of earthly life, up, up to Someone Who can help, up to Jesus, Who is not only the source of my salvation, but also of all the strength needed for the struggles here below! If we did not have such "Mount Olivet Hours" in our lives, when we could be strengthened again and again in our communion with Jesus: the spirit would wither within us, and we would be, as someone said the other day, "like a stake without a stake", sprawled on the ground, without support, without strength!
Yes, every believer needs to go regularly to that particular Mount of Olives, to rise above the noise of earthly life and look into the invisible, into the infinite, into the heavenly world! Not once and for all are we given a power that is sufficient for a lifetime to carry the crosses of life, to fight the battles of life, to fight against sins and temptations, but the Lord always gives us just what is needed at any given moment. And this strength that we receive from the Lord is oh so necessary for all of us! Whatever our daily work - teaching, kitchen, doctor's office, scientific research, grey office, or factory - the power we each have to do our work for the glory of God and the good of men, we receive it from above!
It is so good to think of Jesus as the One in heaven! It makes the whole mysterious heavenly world somehow more real to us. When my parents died, I felt something like that, that it was as if the whole invisible divine world had come closer to me, through such precious pieces of my life as my father and mother: one more thread that ties me to heaven. Well, the ascension of Jesus must be such an experience. It is not that He has gone somewhere far away, but that that mysterious and distant heavenly world has come closer in spirit, made more alive by the presence of Jesus! Yes: let's look at heaven! It is a good thing! Each of these services here in the church, where a piece of the heavenly world is revealed to us through the proclamation of the Word: such an "hour on the Mount of Olives" for us... And the daily silence before God, with Bible in hand, alone with the Lord, when we open the innermost secrets of our hearts to Him: that is also such a "Mount of Olives" heavenly contemplation, a dive into strength! It is then that the heart is lightened, the gaze is cleansed, the conscience is soothed; it is then that the face, furrowed by care, is smoothed. It is then that the soul is saturated with love and good intentions, the will with heavenly strength! These are precious moments, hours when we too can stand in spirit on the Mount of Olives, looking up to heaven, beyond the visible, to the invisible Jesus! The experience of many believers is that they could not live without this opportunity, without this gift of looking into heaven!
2) But ...! This glimpse of heaven can also be abused. And this abuse consists in dealing with the invisible things, the heavenly world, while forgetting the things of the visible, earthly world. Of course, there are also - and perhaps this is the more common - cases where man is so preoccupied with earthly things and problems that he forgets about heavenly things. But the reverse is also possible, that is, that man is so fascinated by the beauty of heaven that he despises earthly things because of it. There are men for whom this world, with its struggles, its cares, its sorrows, is but a necessary evil, which they would fain leave behind them if they could. There are many people who flee from real life and its problems wherever they can, for example, into books, or into solitude, or into the world of imagination, and the religious man into intimate communion with God. Let us not misunderstand: this intimate communion with God is a very good thing and necessary, but not in such a way and not in such a way as to seek relaxation from the tasks of earthly life, to escape from the world of realities. Communion with God, looking to heaven, is not to get away from the world, but precisely to be able to get involved in the problems and things of everyday life! It is to piety, which despises earthly life and neglects its daily tasks, that this sobering warning is addressed: 'What are you looking at in heaven? So to those believers who carefully care for their souls but leave their homes untended, or who care for their relationship with God but neglect their human relationships.
Faith in God is not meant to make one a dreamer, but to make one a more human person. God does not need praying hands that do not do their daily duty well. Prayer or worship that has no effect beyond the utterance of the word "amen" is not worth much. It is not worth much to look to heaven which does not clear our vision to notice the needs of those who live beside us. Faith that does not always, again and again, turn into good deeds is worth nothing! "Faith and good works" - we are very used to it. But if I were to say: faith in God and factory work; faith and washing up; faith and school reports; faith and office work; faith and family life... - it is more difficult and more unusual. But that is also how our faith in God and our good deeds in the world are connected, and in practice, most of the time, they are! Because what is a good deed? It is not the extra, over and above the daily work that I am obliged to do, that puts a halo around my head, but the good deed of doing what I am doing, of doing it well! Be it housework, or preaching, or making shoe uppers, or scientific research... - do it well, not hating my work! Not out of necessity, as a necessary evil - because I have to make a living - but as an opportunity to use it for others, to make a small part of the world a better place. - Not only the good deed that I do for some charitable purpose with someone, that is specially thanked as an extraordinary achievement, or that can touch people, but also any impersonal service that has sacrifice in it, that has loyalty in it, that has love in it - that has power asked and received from above, that has the spirituality of Christ in it. We will one day be held as responsible for the performance of our daily tasks as we are for the care of the needs of our souls.
"What are you looking up to heaven for?" the angels ask in our Word. It is good and necessary to look to heaven. Do not miss it by any means! But it is good precisely in order that by it you may the more powerfully lay hold of it, and the more blessedly carry on your earthly work. For the blessedness of the solemn minutes and hours spent on the spiritual Mount of Olives is precisely that you may become a more faithful servant of Him who will come again through the clouds of heaven to judge the living and the dead, to call to account the seen and the unseen. With the intention of preparing and empowering ourselves for our earthly tasks, let us now look to heaven with the same intention, and let us pray together: 'Teach us to believe, Lord, teach us to ask! Jesus, you are coming again: teach us to wait"... (Canticle 479, verse 4).
Amen
Date: 7 May 1964, Holy Thursday.
Lesson
Ef 1,17-23