Vol.5 No.35 DoM Gospel Reflection
The Ascension of the Lord—8 May 2016
Luke: 24: 46-53
By Mary Anne Ball
The Feast of the Ascension is traditionally celebrated 40 days after the Resurrection. A significant number in the Bible, the “40” gives us a head’s up that something important is happening. We immediately recall Jesus’ 40 days of planning and praying before he began his public ministry, and the 40 years God prepared the people of Israel as they wandered in the wilderness. It has been said that the number signals a “birth text”. Luke describes the Ascension in 2 places: at the end of his Gospel and at the beginning of the Book of Acts, which is fitting because it is the end of Jesus’ earthly existence and the beginning or the birth of a new age of the Spirit.
Jesus takes the Apostles to the Mount of Olives in Bethany for his Ascension, close to the place where He withdrew for intense prayer before facing the Passion, reminding us that prayer gives us the grace to remain faithful to God’s plan. Bethany is also the region where Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. In this location, we are cognizant of His human suffering, as well as his divine ability to bring life from death. At the Ascension, Jesus becomes the bridge between heaven and earth, the human and the divine. Jesus Christ, true God and true man, takes our humanity to God the Father, opening the path to heaven for us.
In the Creed, we affirm that Jesus ascended and sits at the right hand of God. St. Paul describes the right hand of God as, “… far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things beneath his feet and gave him as head over all things to the Church which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.” (Eph 1:21-23) His heavenly enthronement is the culmination of the Paschal mystery. He was not only resurrected from the dead, he was raised to be King! From this place of power, he is our advocate. Pope Francis says, “our advocate who always defends from the insidiousness of the devil, from ourselves, from our sins. We must not be afraid to ask Him for his blessing, to ask for His mercy. He always forgives us.”
After the Ascension, Jesus is no longer with the Apostles physically. There are no more meals with him, walking with him, or touching his wounds. He is with them however in a whole new way, outside of space and time. Paradoxically, though absent, through the work of the Holy Spirit, He is present as never before – to all men, all generations, all over the earth, intimate yet universal. Jesus tells us that unless I go, the Spirit cannot come. (John 16:7) You may imagine how they felt however. As humans, we experience a sense of dread when we lose someone we love, an emptiness that can only be filled by the Holy Spirit. A Franciscan theologian, Richard Rohr, calls this a necessary suffering that creates a space for the joy when it comes. Still we hunger for the physical presence of God, with a “Holy Longing”, and Jesus feeds that hunger in the Eucharist. We take his body and blood into our own body and blood. Through the sacraments, Scripture and prayer, we are now able to live through Him, with Him, and in Him.
Just as Jesus moved from first century Jerusalem to a wider stage, he urges his disciples to move beyond the confines of their upper room, the confines of Jerusalem to Rome and out to the wider world. We too are commissioned as members of his body here on earth. We are the witnesses of this generation, showing not just with words but our lives the path to Christ. But first, Jesus asks his Disciples to wait in trust and hope for the promises of the Father. In this restless age of instant satisfaction, are we able to wait? Let us, too, joyfully unite, continually praising God, and patiently open our hearts in prayer to His Real Presence- always with us, gently nudging us, to say yes.
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