I am happy to report that we have reached our goal for the Catholic Ministry Appeal this year.  Thanks very much to all who pledged and donated!  If you missed the opportunity to participate this year, you’ll have another opportunity in 2025.  Although it’s truly satisfying that we have completed successfully this year’s Catholic Ministry Appeal campaign, there is good reason not to grow complacent. 

Today’s first reading is the account in the Acts of the Apostles of Jesus’ Ascension to the Father. Before leaving them, Jesus promised his followers that they would receive divine power to proclaim the message of his resurrection.  As the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon them, they failed again to understand him.  He was trying to instruct them about their vocation as disciples, but they could only ask, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6) 

One cannot blame the disciples for hoping to see the kingdom of God established on earth.  This had been the content of Jesus’ preaching during his life as well as in his post-resurrection appearances.  At the time, it was the hope of all faithful Jews, as well.  All the faithful wanted to see God’s peace and justice established fully for all people.  This hope remains alive in the hearts of the faithful today.   

The disciples can’t be blamed for their hopefulness, but they were guilty of complacency and overreaching. Jesus had appeared risen to new life after his crucifixion.  The disciples remembered his many sermons on the proximity of God’s kingdom.  They assumed that, as he had experienced victory over death, he would now grant them victory over sin and imperfection.  They were hoping for an easy path to redemption, but Jesus’ sacrificial death is sufficient proof that redemption is never easy. 

Jesus’ response to the disciples’ lack of understanding was the very detailed instruction that “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:7-8) 

Two elements of this instruction are worthy of our attention. 

First, Jesus said that it is not within his followers’ capability to learn the time or timeliness of the completion of God’s plan for human history.  Curiously, throughout the history of Christianity, many have avoided assiduously this injunction.  The historical details of the end of the universe have always been a source of curiosity for both the pious and the impious.  Jesus instructed his disciples not to engage in such curiosity for the simple reason that God’s completion of God’s will is God’s work alone and, therefore, not the work of human persons. 

Second, Jesus said that instead of wondering about things that are beyond their capacities, that is, the appropriate time of the coming of the kingdom in its fullness, his disciples were to attend to what is fully within their capacity to do for the sake of the kingdom, namely, to proclaim resurrection and new life to all people. (Acts 1:8) 

Complacency and overreaching are well-intentioned but misguided; these are to be avoided by Jesus’ disciples because either can lead to faithlessness. The path of faithfulness to Jesus amounts to doing all in one’s capacity to spread the good news of the kingdom of God while avoiding what is not in one’s capacity. 

Projects like our parish ministries and activities, and the Catholic Ministry Appeal, inspire hope and are expressions of hope but, obviously, they will not alleviate all suffering and evil. Our best, but limited, efforts are well worth doing because they announce the coming of God’s kingdom. These limited efforts are precisely what Jesus commands us to do. 

It is the vocation of each disciple to give witness to Jesus’ resurrection by word and action; the world around us is always in need of a credible witness of faith and we are always in need of giving appropriate expression to our faith. Therefore, we do what we are able to do and avoid overreaching, and we do so trusting that God will perfect our limited efforts.