The Ascension of Christ: a Labyrinth of social justice

Lectionary Readings:

• Acts 1:1-11. Between Easter and Ascension Jesus instructs the apostles and advised them to “wait… [for] you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Eventually Jesus will return gloriously, the same way by which he ascended from their midst.
• Ephesians 1:17-23. Christ’s “fullness fills the universe” and so the Lord distributes “the wealth of his glorious heritage” and “the immeasurable scope of his power in us who believe.”
• Luke 24:46-53. This passage highlights the necessity of Jesus to suffer and the praise of God by the apostles in the Jerusalem temple.

Thoughts for your consideration: by John Gonzalez

In the Christian tradition the labyrinth is a meditative prayer ritual that was used since the middle ages. It was and continues to be used as a form of personal pilgrimage that symbolized our own spiritual journey in this world. As you walked the labyrinth towards the center you slowly detach yourself from the social and personal baggage of this world. You approach God (the center) free from your secular and material attachments and allow God to penetrate you with His own enlightened wisdom. Once you have attained this enlightenment you slowly journey back into this world in order to now share this pearl of wisdom within society.

As I reflect over the Gospel readings for the feast of the Ascension I am at the Passionist Retreat House in West Hartford, CT where they have constructed an amazing Labyrinth within the property. Jesus’ Ascension is a journey towards enlightenment for the disciples with a promise from Jesus that they will be baptized by the Holy Spirit with great wisdom and spiritual clarity. In the letter to the Ephesians Paul calls them to awareness of this great wisdom “May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call.” The enlightenment from the Holy Spirit will clarify for them all that has happened and they will be able to be witnesses to the divine revelation that they experienced and the social message of good news to the poor, sick and oppressed.

In Acts 1:10 the apostles stare in bewilderment into the sky. They are moving towards the center of the labyrinth and there they want to stay. They may not have received the Holy Spirit yet but they know something amazing has taken place. Yet the men dressed in white remind them that they cannot stay at the center of the labyrinth forever. The purpose of enlightenment is not to hoard the wisdom for oneself. Enlightened wisdom is a gift that must be shared “in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

The labyrinth and the Ascension narrative share with us the mystical formula of prayer and action. The wisdom of God is beyond our common secular patterns. The social issues that we face cannot be solved by playing the political game of having self-interest groups’ fight amongst each other to control the political agenda. Social issues will only be correctly addressed by offering the issue up to God within a community of prayer and action. True justice will transcend common politics. Instead of fighting each other in endless smear campaigns we will be prompted to adopt a methodology of love, collaboration and genuine respect. For this to happen we must place our social concerns before God in an atmosphere of prayer and contemplation.

The Pastoral Circle is a methodology of prayer and action. It calls us to begin by identifying the issue in the real lived experience of the people who suffer. Once we have inserted ourselves into an experience of social injustice we then move into a phase of social analysis and theological reflection whereby we identify the social root causes behind the issue and reflect on these causes from our own theological framework. Prayer and reflection will give us guidance towards how to respond to social injustice in a way that builds up the suffering human community.

As I reflect on this methodology it kind of reminds me of the labyrinth, a labyrinth of social justice.