The Ascension Teaches Us How To Deal With Failure

The Ascension – It is only when we confront our short-comings that we experience healing….

Often in life we make horrible mistakes which affect the lives of others. Our reaction very often is to want to get as far away from the scene of our failure. At times also someone who is involved with us in an enterprise may make a terrible mistake which may jeopardize the person her/himself and /or the enterprise. Our reaction often is to get the person as far away as possible, leaving them with a terrible sense of failure.

Today the Gospel shows us how Jesus deals with situations like that.  The Story is Luke’s account of the Ascension. The disciples have betrayed Jesus. They are no doubt ashamed, but more than that they recognize that humanly speaking they have put the mission in grave jeopardy. Jesus deals with this by telling them to remain in Jerusalem. It is only by confronting their history of betrayal that they will be healed from the psychological wounds that betrayal brings to the betrayer. It is only then that they can be witnesses to the mission and message of Jesus.

The message of repentance for the forgiveness of sin can only begin from Jerusalem, the place where they had their greatest failure and received forgiveness. They will be able to speak with a wisdom born of the experience of failure and sin. The same thing applies to us. We too must not run away from our sin and failure. We have to face it. We have to recognize the mistakes that we have made. We have to recognize the consequence of our mistakes and from that recognition will come healing and a wisdom that will allow us, or others who may have failed to return to the enterprise, whatever it may be and help the enterprise along the road to fulfilment.

That is the story of today’s Gospel, the disciples could carry on the enterprise of Jesus because they had come to terms with their failure. They had integrated it and now had drawn wisdom and strength from it.

The gospel today then invites us to remember and to thank God for people who show us how it is possible to draw strength from failure, not by running from it by facing up to it and by letting it help us to greater wisdom and strength. We can think of Peter and the apostles who betrayed Jesus or St. Augustine or President Kennedy who took full responsibility for the Bay of Pigs disaster.

All these men faced their failures, learnt from them and became stronger as a result. Judas who refused to face his betrayal and tried to escape from it killed himself. We also know people around us who have faced their failure and found wisdom, strength and redemption. We all know recovering alcoholics and drug abusers who have remained sober and who now are great witnesses for sobriety. All these witness to us by their example the power, and wisdom that comes from facing our failures. So today we pray for the strength of character to face our failures. In them we find wisdom and strength to bring our enterprises to successful conclusions.

Prayer

All powerful and ever-loving God you always wished harmony for your earthly children. Unfortunately the love of self has so often blinded us to the reality that we are made for relationship. Self-centredness however destroys relationships and with their destruction the harmony which is your wish for us disappears. Help us to accept our failures and from them draw the wisdom and strength to remove every sin and sinful structure from our lives so that harmony may be restored and the confidence which you have placed in us will not have been placed in vain. We ask this through the intercession of Mary our Mother and Jesus our brother and your Son. Amen

Gospel Luke 24:46-53

Jesus said to his disciples: “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold I am sending the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” Then he led them out as far as Bethany, raised his hands, and blessed them. As he blessed them he parted from them and was taken up to heaven. They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God.