Ascension of the Lord A.  June 5, 2011.  Our Lady of Grace 5:15, 9:30.   Acts 1:1-11.  Ephesians 1:17-23.  Matthew 28:16-20.

Mission Impossible is one of the greatest action movie thrillers ever made. In it Tom Cruise plays an unofficial CIA agent whose mission is to prevent an American diplomat from selling a list of all US undercover agents in Eastern Europe.  The CIA mission falls apart apparently resulting in the death of every CIA agent except Tom Cruise. A wild rescue mission unfolds resulting in the top secret list of undercover agents being recovered.  As Tom Cruse is returning home he is challenged to take up another Mission Impossible.  The mission to take Osama bin Laden was also a mission impossible in real life today.

Jesus said to his disciples, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold I am with you always, until the end of the age.”  Jesus gave his disciples a mission.  They were to bring the good news of God’s love to every person, in every place and every time in history.  Jesus gave a world wide, impossible mission to twelve chosen apostles and a few other believers.  Jesus gave the Church a mission to the whole human race.  Without that mission the Church has no reason to exist.  The Church was created for a mission and we were baptized for a mission that will give purpose and meaning to our lives and demand every ounce of courage and commitment that we can come up with. 

On Wednesday of this week a young seminarian from Uganda in Africa came to live in our parish rectory for the summer.  On the next day we celebrated the feast of the martyrs of Uganda.  On 3 June 1886, thirty-two young men who lived and worked in the court of a king in Uganda were burned to death for their refusal to renounce Christianity. Charles Lwanga was the leader of the young men of the king’s court, perhaps because he was the most handsome and the king was well known for immorality with boys and young men.  Charles strongly opposed the immorality of the king. Some of the thirty-two young men who were put to death were baptized only the day before their martyrdom.  As he was being burnt, Charles said to the executioner, "It is as if you are pouring water on me. Please repent and become a Christian like me". White Catholic missionaries had been in Uganda only a short time. Yet the people of Uganda accepted faith in Jesus Christ so deeply that it was not long before the faith of the youth of Africa was even stronger than the faith of the white European priests who brought it to them.   Jesus said, “Go, make disciples of all nations… and behold, I am with you always until the end of the world.”

What is your mission?  Mission is what makes our lives powerful and exciting.  Without a mission we die on the inside long before our bodies die.  Jesus shares his mission with us to give us a reason for living and loving throughout every day and the last day of our lives. What is your mission?

A few months ago I went to visit my spiritual director at St. John’s Abby in Collegeville.  I told him that I was going to be seventy this year and that I needed to begin thinking about retirement.  The monk said to me, “Do not presume that the most important part of your life is behind you.  Your life is not over until it is over.  The most important thing you do or the most important person you touch may still lie ahead of you. You do not know what God has planned for you.  Do not cut off your life by thinking that the best part is done.”  He was saying, “Let’s not talk too much about retirement because you don’t know and probably will never know what retirement means.   Let’s talk about your God-given mission right now.”

I remembered a book that I read called True North by Bill George, the former CEO of Medtronic.  He said that many business leaders find that the best and even most influential part of their lives happened after retirement.  The best part happened when they were no longer responsible for the day to day running of a business and finally had time to mentor younger people, sit on leadership boards and share their experience.  For many people the time we call retirement becomes very good and productive time – a time for loving and listening to the young and the middle aged in the very pressured lives they lead.  I have wondered why grandchildren often do most of the crying at the funeral of a grandparent.  Could it be that grandma and grandpa are really not retired?  Their mission is listening to their grandchildren and the many franticly busying people around them and loving and supporting them.   What is your mission?   Not to have a mission is to die early. Even teenagers die without a mission.

Jesus ascended into heaven leaving a world-wide mission to us.  “As they were looking on, Jesus was lifted up, and the cloud took him from their sight…. Suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.  They said,’ Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky’”   And so they returned to Jerusalem and prayed for the coming of the Holy Spirit – and then they started out on mission impossible – the conversion of the whole world.   For our mission we give God thanks and praise.