The Ascension of Our Lord (C)
(Acts of
the Apostles 1:1-11; Ephesians 1:17-23; Luke 24:46-53)
In the Gospel reading, Our Lord, appearing to the eleven gathered together in Jerusalem, summarized
His own life’s mission and work with these few words:
Thus, it
is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third
day.
And shortly before that meeting in Jerusalem, He had appeared
to two disciples walking to Emmaus and – although a that moment unbeknown to
them -- joining in their conversation had said:
Oh, how foolish you are! How
slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Messiah
should suffer these things and enter into His glory? (Luke 24:25-26)
These two statements give us, without any doubt, the
essential elements of Jesus’ mission and work: to suffer and to rise from the
dead to glory. Making mention neither of
His miracles nor of His preaching, He speaks exclusively of His suffering and death on the Cross
followed by His rising on the third day.
Why is this so?
Because His mission, and the work it necessarily involved, was to be accepted,
embraced, and carried out, for love … love of His Father and love for us; and,
as He Himself was to say (John 15:13):
No one
has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
And this He made manifest to all when, immediately
before His Passion and Death He first of all prayed to His Father saying:
I
glorified You on earth by accomplishing the work that You gave Me to
do. Now glorify Me, Father, with You, with the
glory that I had with You before the world began. (John 17: 4-5)
Jesus is now in glory at the right hand of His Father,
with the marks of suffering on His Body because they are signs of His love,
memorials in His human flesh of how divine life and love triumphed over sin and
death.
With God, with Jesus, to live means to love, for God
is Love; and all who aspire to eternal life most therefore learn how to
live here on earth as true disciples of Jesus: loving God with all one’s heart,
and one’s neighbour as one’s self, by the inspiration and in the power of His
most Holy Spirit. And that is how, St.
Paul showed himself to be a truly sublime disciple of Christ when he expressed
his own spiritual aspirations and aims in this passage from his letter to the
Philippians:
I count
all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord,
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish,
that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness,
which is from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ,
the righteousness which is from God by faith;
that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the
fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the
resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:8-11)
Constant preaching; unceasing organizational care and personal
solicitude for those he was trying to serve and save for Jesus; deep learning
and epistolary ability; miracles, personal mystical gifts …. all these were Paul’s duties and obligations, his
ever-present and ever-pressing needs; and yet, his one personal aim in life,
his deepest desire, was to be:
Conformed to His (Jesus’) death; if, by any means, I
may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
As Doctor of the Nations he would encourage his
beloved Philippians to walk in this same way:
For to
you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but
also to suffer for His sake. (Philippians 1:29)
Likewise, his doctrinal letter to the Romans (8:16-17)
-- where he sets out his divinely authorized proclamation of the Christian Gospel
-- also emphasizes the same teaching:
The
Spirit Himself bears testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and
if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we
suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
When speaking to the Eleven in Jerusalem after His
Resurrection, Jesus, had -- before He
was taken up into heaven -- promised them the special Gift of the Holy Spirit Who
would enable them to carry out the commission He was about to give them:
Thus, it
is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third
day and that repentance and remission of sins would be preached in His name to
all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
Stay in the city until you are clothed with Power from on high.
Let us, therefore, who also aspire to become true
disciples of Jesus, despite constant awareness and repeated evidence of our
weakness and self-love, learn from St. Paul, and indeed all the Apostles, how
to appreciate, respond to, and appropriate, the glorious mystery of Our Blessed
Lord’s Ascension now being joyfully preached to all nations in and through
Mother Church.
First, and most fundamental of all we must learn to
make our own the Christian ethos of joy as we respond to the Good News
of Jesus:
They did
Him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually
in the Temple praising God.
For us, that means we should be ever joyful in Jesus
(our Temple) as we continually praise God … joyful in Jesus, praising God.
St. Paul, as the apostle specially chosen for us
former Gentiles, has more detailed help to offer us in today’s second reading:
May the
eyes of (your) hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that
belongs to His call; what are the riches of glory in His inheritance among the
holy ones; and what is the surpassing greatness of His power for us who
believe, in accord with the exercise of His great might, which He worked in
Christ, raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the
heavens.
That is how Paul himself gradually learned how to die
to himself in order to grow in the love and service of his Lord and Master; let
us therefore, try to follow in his steps:
‘Know
what is the hope that belongs to His call’ … each
of you has been called, drawn, to Jesus by the Father. Think what that means … why did the Father
call you? why does He still draw you? … surely because He loves you; what did
He call you for? what has He in mind for you? … surely something wonderfully
fulfilling and good!
St. Paul thought about ‘the hope belonging to his own
call’ and he tells us (Romans 5:2) that he himself:
Rejoiced
in hope of (seeing and sharing in) the glory of God!
Advising us to know ‘What are the riches of glory in His inheritance among the saints’…
Paul, subsequently prayed on our behalf that we might:
Be
strengthened with might through the (Holy) Spirit in the inner man!
Give
thanks to the Father Who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. (Ephesians 3:16; Colossians 1:12)
And finally, urging us to ‘Know What is the surpassing greatness of His power for us who believe’
… St. Paul was led him to write these astounding words (2:4-7):
God, Who
is rich in mercy, because of the great love He had for us, even when we were
dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ, raised us up with Him, and
seated us with Him in the heavens; that,
in the ages to come He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in His
kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, St. Paul
practiced what he still preaches to us; his persevering prayer and constant meditation
on the message and ministry of Christ has won Mother Church wonderful letters
of instruction and guidance to help all of us to know, love, and serve Jesus
with all our heart. What he, Paul, did
under the special apostolic Gift of the Holy Spirit from Jesus, we too are able,
and are encouraged, to imitate, thanks to Jesus’ gift of His Eucharist
Sacrifice and Presence to all who love and obey His Church as their own spiritual
Mother.
Jesus’ Ascension into heaven inaugurated a paean of
praise, thanksgiving, and joy, first kindled, as you heard, among the Apostles
in Jerusalem, and still nurtured by faithful souls all over the world, ever
ascending with the saints and resounding among the blessed in heaven. Rejoice, therefore, dear People of God in
Jesus the Lord of eternal glory; exult in all His mighty works, and meditate on
His saving words, for He is your Lord, your Saviour, and your Brother; and He is preparing a place for you
in your Father’s house!
