The Reason for Doubt

Gospel: Matthew 28: 16-20

Right up the to very last moments of Jesus' time on earth, the disciples are in doubt as to his identity and mission.  We also find the source of that doubt remains the fact that they continue to see him as a political ruler - when will the kingdom of Israel be restored? - and not as one leading us on pilgrimage in this desert of the world to the Promised Land of heaven.  Despite all they have seen and heard, they remain trapped in their own ideas of who Jesus is and ought to be in their minds.

So it is not surprising to find that their successors in every time and place to our own day remain trapped in these same ideas.  How many kings and kingdoms, despots and dictatorships, political parties and ideologues have been anointed by the hierarchs of the church, influenced by the wealth and political influence they offer.  This is the source of doubt people have about the Church and its identity and mission.  

People long to raise their hearts and minds to God, to ascend with the Lord into the heavens and commune with God.  When their church leaders remain shackled to the world's power and wealth, people will seek to find God and ascend with the Lord.  Today's feast is a call for us to free ourselves from ideology and to ascend with the Lord in heart and mind to heavenly things.