Why Are You Looking Up?

From Acts of the Apostles we read: “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?”

Not many of you may remember or maybe weren’t even born when Yuri Gagarin (a member of the Russian Orthodox Church) was the 1^st human in space (4/12/61)

Trying to describe the experience of going to space had been difficult from the very beginning. When Yuri Gagarin returned to Earth, there was a huge reception in his honor. As his close friend and cosmonaut colleague Alexei Leonov tells it, then-premier Nikita Khrushchev cornered Gagarin "So tell me, Yuri," he asked, "did you see God up there?" After a moment's pause Gagarin answered, "Yes sir, I did." Khrushchev frowned. "Don't tell any one," he said. A few minutes later the head of the Russian Orthodox Church took Gagarin aside. "So tell me, my child," he asked Gagarin, "did you see God up there?'" Gagarin hesitated and replied "No sir, I did not." "Don't tell anyone."

After Jesus’ departure, an angel appeared to the disciples and said, "why do you stand looking into heaven ...", it’s as if he’s saying do not live in nostalgia, do not look at the past, Jesus will return, but you now look to the future. You have a great mission to accomplish. Stand up and put out to announce what you have seen and heard, it's up to you, this is your time. You are called to become the new leaders of the good news, proclaiming God's love for man. Beware the temptation to look at the sky, to the spiritualists, the builders of abstract religions, false promises and consolations. Jesus walked in this world by helping people and actually trying to build fraternity loving, forgiving, welcoming everyone and talking.

Now it's up to us and to anyone who professes to be Christian to "make His kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.."

St. Francis of Assisi taught his followers to; “Preach the Gospel always, and if necessary use words.”