SOLEMNITY OF THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD (2024)
Readings:
Acts of thee Apostles 1:1-11
Psalms 47
Ephesians 1:17-23
Mark 16:15-20
Today’s Solemnity is less about departures, and more about arrivals. It should have been seen as inevitable that God’s only Son, would and should go back to that place from which He came. Encumbered even by a glorifiedbody was not meant to be a permanent condition, and could induce an unnatural dependence which would hamper or prevent the maturing in the Holy Spirit. Jesus spent 30+ years sharing with His disciples everything they needed to know, and the densest among them had to understand that the continuation of Jesus’ mission was now up to them. Yet in addition to His time fully on earth, Jesus spent another forty days appearing to them “and speaking about the kingdom of God.” Those appearances were intimate and personal, even if a little bit frightening, and they gave Jesus an opportunity to assure His disciples that what He was asking them to do, they wouldn’t need to do it alone, for the Holy Spirit, who He shared with them, would empower and assist them.
I started by saying today’s liturgy is less about departures, namely that of Jesus, and more about arrivals, the Holy Spirit, and boy was that Spirit really needed. To show how needed that Spirit was, Luke, at the very beginning of his second volume, has an unnamed disciple ask the question: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” Several times in Luke’s gospel, and in all the gospels, Jesus attempts to divest His disciples of the improper understanding of what is the precise role of the Messiah. In spite of Jesus’ literally superhuman efforts to alter the disciples’ understanding of a more militant Messiah, here at the very beginning of the Acts of the Apostles is evidence that Jesus was not completely successful.
The Ascension of Jesus into heaven has to have been completely stunning, but the departure of a glorified Jesus was only meant to pave the way for the Holy Spirit. We would say that with the gift of the Holy Spirit the disciples will receive “power” to be Jesus’ “witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria (pagan territory), and to the ends of the earth.” It is all about “mission” now, about preaching the gospel far and wide to all peoples, about spreading the good news of Jesus, the Christ. I often think this Ascension in Acts is described like the launch of a space rocket, where people keep watching until, and beyond, there is nothing left to see. What keeps things moving in the right direction in Acts is the presence of two angels, who, with almost tongue in cheek humor say: “Duh! (Omitted from Scripture)… why are you standing there looking at the sky?” Also omitted from Scripture: ‘don’t worry, He’s coming back, but not any time soon.’
Our Easter season will come to an end in a week when we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit, the great Solemnity of Pentecost. Like this weekend’s prelude, our focus will be on our dependence on the Holy Spirit, who empowers and enables us, just as the Spirit enables the disciples to get over Jesus’ departure and start doing the work that He has entrusted to all of us. That mission is to broadly spread the love of God’s Son by loving as He loved. We may not be asked to spread Jesus’ message peripatetically, walking from town to town, and we may never be asked to vocally preach Jesus’ gospel from a pulpit. Nevertheless, we are to be so united with Jesus and His Word, that it is a very part of who we are, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, we bring Jesus’ message to the check-out line at the supermarket, to the pumps where we pump gas, to the lines at Costco or Aldis, to the restaurants we favor, to our grandson’s football game, or are granddaughter’s dance recital – everywhere! Until Jesus returns to earth on the clouds of heaven we, like the disciples, are meant to hasten the establishment of God’s kingdom, not so much with our lips, as much as with our lives.
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