Year B

Jan 30 2025

Scripture Study for

After the Ascension, Peter assumes leadership. With the betrayal of Judas, the circle of twelve apostles had been broken and must be restored. The choice of a successor was necessary. It had to be one who was among the company of disciples from the time of Jesus’ baptism to his ascension. He also had to be a witness to the Resurrection. The prayer preceding the casting of lots illustrates the faith of the assembly. Since only God can read the human heart, only God knew which of the two should be selected. They were confident that God would determine the outcome. The lot fell to Matthias.

According to the author of the second reading, just as God’s love was manifested in the unselfish and redeeming, saving sacrifice of Jesus, so Christians must love others with an unselfish and forgiving love. Such love manifests itself as visible works of love. The reading develops the idea of the mutual abiding of God in believers and believers in God that manifests itself in two ways. First, the Spirit of God that inspires unselfish love is evidence of the abiding presence and love of God. Believers’ acknowledgment of Jesus as the Son of God sent to be the savior of the world is further evidence of God’s abiding presence.

Jesus’ concern for his disciples is plainly stated in his prayer. Prayed shortly before his death, it takes on profound significance. He wishes to share with his followers the union he enjoys with God. Accepting God’s word through Jesus, the disciples share in God’s holiness. Having sketched the contours of union with God, Jesus acknowledges the resistance that God’s word encounters from the world. He is not speaking of the natural world, but of that dimension of society that is antagonistic toward God. Jesus himself was hated by that world and now, because of God’s word, his followers will suffer the same fate. It is for this reason that Jesus prays for them.

Jan 30 2025

A Return, Not a Retirement

In Bill Davis’ play Mass Appeal, the young deacon complains about the parish where he grew up, where the “hippy dippy hymn committee” selected “Leaving on a Jet Plane” for the feast of the Ascension. The young deacon did not find it appropriate for the dignity of the event being celebrated. To say the least, it rendered insipid what should be a feast of profound relevance.

Today’s feast continues the celebration of the paschal mystery of Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection, and return to the Father. It is not just an “after thought” feast, a bringing down of the curtain on Jesus’ life and ministry on earth. We celebrate Jesus’ return to the Father to intercede for us and to make possible the sending of the Spirit for the continuation of God’s plan of salvation for all people, now taken up by the church under the direction of this same Spirit.

Luke’s account of the Ascension places emphasis on the work yet to be done— witnessing to Jesus “to the ends of the earth.” This is further highlighted when the two men in white garments suddenly appear after Jesus is taken up and removed from their sight. “Why are you standing there looking up at the sky?” they ask. Time to get moving.

Mark’s account has Jesus sending them out to “proclaim the gospel to every creature,” and promises that great signs will accompany them. Mark’s final word affirms that “the Lord worked with them.”

Consider/Discuss

Do you understand the feast of the Ascension only as Jesus’ returning to the Father or do you see its connection with the ongoing life and ministry of the Church?
How does Christ continue to work with us? Are we meant to take literally Jesus’ words about being able to pick up serpents and drink deadly poison and heal the sick?

Responding to the Word

Jesus, you ascended to the right hand of the Father to intercede for us and to work with us until we are united with you in heaven. Help us to make good use of the gifts you have given for building up your body, the Church, and for making you known throughout the world.

Jan 30 2025

Scripture Study for

The ascension of Jesus brought closure to his earthly activity, while at the same time launching the ministry of the apostles. Thus the Ascension is a turning point in the history of the church. The actual account of the Ascension is brief. Jesus is lifted up and concealed by a cloud. Attention shifts to the men (angels?) who now appear. They rebuke the disciples and assure them that Jesus will return on the clouds just as he left. The church is now in a liminal state. Jesus has left, but the Spirit has not yet come.

The reading from Ephesians is a prayer for spiritual enlightenment. God’s power raised Christ from the dead and seated Christ in the place of honor in heaven; God’s power made all things subject to Christ and exalted Christ as head of the church. It is this same power that is now called upon. The church is characterized as a body. As members of this exalted body, believers share in the wisdom and insight to grasp these mysteries and to live lives informed by them.

Marks’ account of Jesus’ ascension ties together many themes found elsewhere in the gospel. It begins with a Resurrection experience in which Jesus commissions the apostles to preach the gospel to all. Jesus is then taken from their sight. The reading clearly states that just as he was raised from the dead by the power of God, so he is taken up today. This reflects the early church’s concern to show that it is the power of God that is active in Jesus, not some kind of miraculous force. As exalted Lord, Jesus takes his rightful place of privilege next to God. The concluding verse succinctly summarizes the entire apostolic age: the apostles went into the entire world and preached the gospel; the Lord was with them, confirming their ministry through wondrous signs.

Jan 30 2025

The Falling Spirit

If we were going to give a name to this Sunday in the Easter season, we might call it “Love Sunday.” No matter which year of readings we hear—A, B, or C—the theme today is love: God’s love for Jesus, Jesus’ love for God, and God and Jesus’ love for us and their desire that we love them in return.

This dynamic picture of divine love is captured powerfully in the first reading when the Holy Spirit “falls upon” Cornelius and his family while Peter is still preaching. The most frequent images for the Holy Spirit in stained glass and paintings are those of a white dove gently hovering, or a flickering flame of fire suspended in mid-air. But here there is a sense of something weightier “falling upon” the listeners, the weight of divine love, intensified by divine impatience. St. Alphonsus spoke of a God “crazy in love” with us. Might we find evidence of such a divine passion at play here?

It is one of the clearest expressions of God’s desire for us, of God’s great love that yearns for intimate communion. Jesus puts it into words for us: “As the Father loves me, so I love you.” Take time and repeat these words of Jesus throughout the week. Then, hear his next words: “Remain in my love.” How? “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love.” And what are those commandments? Just one really: “This I command you: love one another.”

Consider/Discuss

How does this command to love relate to the feast of Easter?
Jesus says that he told us this command to love “so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete.” Have you known this joy?

Responding to the Word

God of love, you call us to know you as love and to live in your love so that your joy may fill us. Draw us into the mystery of the love that binds you, Father, Son, and Spirit, in such intimate communion. Send your Spirit upon us and break down any resistance to knowing and doing your will.

Jan 30 2025

Scripture Study for

Cornelius, the newly converted Roman centurion, recognizes Peter as a messenger of God. The real power of the narrative is seen not in the disposition of Peter but in the action of the Holy Spirit. The event is a kind of Gentile Pentecost. While Peter’s companions are surprised that the Spirit is given to the uncircumcised he intervenes on their behalf, insisting that God shows no partiality. Those who received the Spirit at the first Pentecost and those who have received it at this second Pentecost are now joined by a special bond, the shared outpouring of the Spirit. The ritual of baptism is a sign of the church’s acceptance of God’s action.

The teaching about love is the heart of the message of the second reading. Several dimensions of this reality are examined: Love is of God; love begets others of God; it is revealed in the salvation realized through the sacrifice of the Son of God. The most startling statement about love is: God is love! This divine love is the fundamental reality of our faith. The love described here is neither exemplary piety nor altruistic concern for others. Actually, there is nothing merely human about it. It is divine in its origin and only those who have been begotten of God can have a share in it.

The passage from John’s Gospel is one of the best-known discourses on love. The source of this love is divine love itself: “As the Father loves me, so I love you;” “love one another as I love you” (15:9, 12). Jesus promises the disciples that if they abide in his love and obey his commandments, they will abide in his joy as well. Although the passage does not describe the character of this joy, we can presume that it flows from union with God. The love that is described here is active love, reaching out to others—God to Jesus, Jesus to his disciples, the disciples to one another.