Jesus was risen a total of 40 days before ascending back into heaven and as we know, Jesus appeared and was present with his disciples on the road to Eumaeus during these 40 days, but they did not recognize him until Jesus revealed himself through his knowledge of the old testament and revealing things only Jesus could have known. He was both absent and present with them during this time but once he ascended back into heaven, the disciples were left with this ambiguity, or the feeling of uncertainness, or being open to interpretation and no longer exact. Jesus went up into heaven and yet, he is still a part of the work they do in the world. We live ambiguity on a day-to-day basis, where things we aspire to are yet not complete, so we easily become anxious. So are the feelings nowadays where we know that this pandemic will end and we see the light at the end of the tunnel, but at the same time it’s still with us, and so it causes us this tension of living in the “in between” of life. Parents have expressed about raising their teenagers they know that someday it will work out but they struggle in the present moment and this brings about tension and ambiguity about what the future will bring. When we have a conflict with someone and we try our best to resolve it, we wish it would be healed quickly, we live so often with the tension of the in between in life but the Lord tells us not to become anxious or worrisome, rather he gives us a spirit that allows us to do extraordinary things. As we heard in the Gospel, we have have the power of new learning new languages, handling snakes (surprises in our lives), and laying hands on the sick to heal them, whether it be by your charitable actions, or help you give others. Speaking new languages is not just about learning a foreign tongue but learning the language of culture as times evolve. There is a voice in everything that needs to be listened to and every so often there is a new movement within our culture we might find strange or foreign, but there is something there people are trying to communicate. A snake is something that which sneaks up on us in life and there are many things that come up unexpectedly and catch us by surprise. The Lord tells us we can handle it, his grace is there to help deal with those shocking moments in life.
When we come across illness in the world, or we see a need for reconciliation and healing, God will give us the strength to bring about healing by our own hands, the work of our own hands. So often in life we find the world torn by so many divisions, it needs healing, and the internet traffic today where people are pitted against each other and insult each other, for us to approach all of this in a sense that we have been brought into the world, you and I, to do the extraordinary thing of bringing healing by bringing people together. This is something that the Lord tells us is the task we should be about. As we live in the “in-betweens” in life, let’s be hopeful - not anxious. Jesus is more present that he has ever been before so let’s bring healing into the world, like the healing he brought in his time, and like scripture tells us, where he had gone, is where to we will go.