Ascension of The Lord

Jan 14 2025

The Work Goes On

We can get caught up in the details and miss the heart of the message today. Where did Jesus go? Is heaven “up there”? Why doesn’t Matthew’s Gospel have Jesus being taken up? Doesn’t this feast remove Jesus from us, to some place where he “sits at the right hand of the Father”? Sound a little disengaged?

In his introduction to the writings of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Jean Leclercq writes that the mystery of the Ascension fulfilled the mystery of love in which Jesus returns to the glory of the Father. The Son then sends this Spirit to unite us with the Father in love. Thus, in Bernard’s thought, the Ascension is a symbol for the passage of Christ from his life in mortal flesh to glorious life in the Spirit. This same transition from flesh to Spirit can also be accomplished in us, since it has already taken place in Christ.

But we are not simply passive recipients. There is work to be done. Luke’s angels bluntly tell the apostles to get moving. Matthew’s final scene spells out the work: “Go forth and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching others to observe all that I have commanded you.” Witness to Jesus, in word and deed.

The task of spreading the good news that is Jesus Christ, teaching others about him, can seem daunting. But we are not alone. We have the promise that the Holy Spirit will work with us; in Matthew, Jesus’ final words are reassuring: “I am with you always.” That is reason enough to work with confidence.

Consider/Discuss

Does the image of Jesus ascending to sit at the right hand of the Father comfort you? Challenge you?
When is the last time you witnessed to Christ, sharing what he means to you?

Responding to the Word

We pray: Loving Father, give us your Spirit of wisdom and revelation to enlighten the eyes of our hearts, so we may have the hope that accompanies your call and come to the glory that is our inheritance. May your great power be at work in us, raising us to new life as it did your Son Jesus. Amen.

Jan 14 2025

Scripture Study for

According to Acts of the Apostles, Jesus remained on earth for forty days after his resurrection, appearing to his apostles and speaking about the reign of God. The activity of the Spirit is a characteristic of the new age, the time between the Resurrection and the time of complete fulfillment. The apostles’ misunderstanding of this presented an opportunity for Jesus to instruct them. He tells them to concern themselves with being his witnesses, and not to worry about the limited restoration of one nation. Furthermore, it is not for them to know when the end will occur. He assures them that they will have the power of the Spirit to guide them for whatever length of time God desires.

The second reading consists of a series of prayers. The first is a prayer for a spirit of wisdom and revelation so believers might possess insight and understanding. Another is for a threefold spiritual enlightenment that includes hope in the calling they have received from God, the riches of God’s inheritance, and the surpassing greatness of God’s power. The depiction of Christ is quite exalted. Having been raised from the dead, Christ now sits at God’s right hand, high above all other heavenly creatures. His rule is universal in scope and duration. Exalted by God, Christ is made the head of the church, which is his body.

The disciples see Jesus on the mountain and they worship him, reminiscent of his earlier transfiguration. Jesus declares that all power in heaven and on earth has been given to him, a reference to the Son of Man who was exalted by God and granted eschatological authority. Employing that power, he commissions them. The great missionary commission is straightforward and all-encompassing.

The disciples are told to go out and make disciples of all nations. Jesus inaugurates the reign of God, at the heart of which is a radically different way of life. This reign is to be the essence of the teaching of the disciples.

Jan 10 2025

Going, Going . . . Not Gone

“Why are you standing there looking at the sky?” my friend asked as we traveled across campus. “Look at the clouds!” I exclaimed. The clouds in the summer at Notre Dame are glorious. The moisture from nearby Lake Michigan makes them radiant in the blue sky. I love clouds. I love flying because of the elation of soaring up through cumulus clouds. I like climbing mountains, and the resulting exhausted joy of looking down at the clouds it brings. I remember one bone-weary-beyond-weary, emotionally exhausted day when I looked up at the clouds and yelled, “Come any time now, Lord! What are you waiting for?” I smile inside when the scriptures put the sky and clouds and significant events together—Elijah’s chariot; Jesus’ baptism, transfiguration, and ascension. It fires the imagination.

The disciples lived solidly on the ground. They never flew in an airplane. Yet the heavens in Israel are also glorious. The shimmer of the moonlight during a night of fishing, the sparkle that bounces up from the Sea of Galilee in the day, the glistening of the sun over the Mediterranean—to “look up” probably fired the disciples’ hearts as well.

The Ascension marks Luke’s conclusion to Jesus’ earthly ministry. If he had stayed, the disciples could still have slapped him on the back with a joke and he would not have minded. He could have continued to heal the sick and the blind. But he would have been limited to contacting those who were geographically close to him.

Jesus is now physically gone. Yet at the same time, Jesus is here. We can taste his presence. We can feel it. We can know it. Though Jesus has gone “into the clouds,” he is closer than he would have been if he had physically stayed among us. The Lord is near to us. Always.

Consider/Discuss

It is a paradox of our faith that the God of distance is also the God of nearness. When we put “a face” to the divine, which one more freely arises in our spiritual imagination—distance or nearness? Why does it matter that we envision both?
Think of someone you love dearly who has departed in death. How have you (or have you not) felt closer to that person now that he or she dwells in the communion of saints? Describe what that experience is like.

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord, you are highly exalted, King over all the earth. You rule over nations. You keep the stars in their courses. At the same time, you are here. You are near. How can this be? You have said that you will be with us always, to the end of the age. When we take you for granted, show us the surpassing greatness of your strength. When we shy away from your power, be our divine Tenderness. Come, Lord Jesus! Come at the end of the age. Please come now. We need you. Let us be “filled with the fullness of all things” in every way.

Jan 10 2025

Scripture Study for

Luke begins his story of the gospel’s spread with the conclusion of the earthly ministry of Christ. In this account of the Ascension one notices the centrality of the Holy Spirit, whose bestowal will allow the apostles to continue Jesus’ work. This Spirit-informed proclamation will be the way that Jesus brings about Israel’s hoped

for restoration, yet go beyond Israel to restore all peoples. Although the apostles did not witness the Resurrection itself, they do witness Jesus’ ascension, confirming in their sight that Jesus is the Messiah of God, never to die. With this witness, and the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit, they will be equipped to be Jesus’ witnesses “to the ends of the earth.”

Paul begins his letter to the Ephesians with a lengthy thanksgiving for what the Father has done in Jesus Christ, culminating with the gift of the Spirit (1:3–14). He now prays that the same Spirit will allow them to know God. This knowledge encompasses three things: enlightening the “eyes of the heart,” which probably has to do with moral conduct, the heart being the seat of the will; the glorious inheritance that awaits them; and the power of God, who raised Christ from the dead and exalted him above all created powers of the cosmos (see Colossians 1:16). In and because of Christ the church experiences the life and power of God.

Told by the women who have encountered the risen Christ to go to Galilee to meet him (Matthew 28:10), the apostles see Jesus for the first time since his passion. They respond with both worship and doubt. The latter is not skepticism, but that wavering elsewhere called being of “little faith” (6:30; 14:31). The struggle to trust will remain in the church even after the Resurrection. Despite this imperfect faith, Jesus sends the Eleven to the world. Although the New Testament does not contain a fully-developed Trinitarian doctrine, the baptismal formula assumes some form of identity among Father, Son, and Spirit, all of whom share one “name.” The earthly career of Emmanuel ends as it began, with the promise of abiding presence (1:23).

Dec 16 2024

A Comfort and a Challenge

One year I missed celebrating the Ascension. I live in D.C., which celebrates it on a Sunday, but happened to be in New Jersey on that Sunday, where it had already been celebrated the previous Thursday. I really did miss celebrating it. I have come to have a deep love for this feast, finding it both comforting and challenging.

It’s not a feast that brings an end to Jesus’ work. Rather, it marks Jesus’ transition from a limited sphere of activity—preaching, teaching, healing, living, and dying within the geographical space of Israel and its environs two thousand years ago—to the exalted position of being in glory at the Father’s right hand, interceding for us all, with “all things beneath his feet,” having been given “as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way” (Ephesians 1:23). This is a most comforting vision of Jesus and his ongoing role of praying for all creation.

The challenge comes from Luke’s two versions of the Ascension, reminding us that Jesus was not signaling “mission accomplished.” Note how Jesus quickly dismisses the suggestion that now was the time for Israel to be restored to a position of power as in the good old days of King David. Instead, Jesus prepares them for the next phase of God’s plan for the world: working under the power of the Holy Spirit. A great deal of work remains to be done. So . . . don’t stand around looking up. Get moving!

Consider/Discuss

What does it mean to say that Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father?
Are angels whispering for you to “move on” and take up some work that invites your bearing witness to Christ?

Responding to the Word

We thank you, Father, for the assurance that we have One who constantly intercedes for us. We thank you for making us part of your plan as co-workers. Enlighten the eyes of our hearts so we may see where you wish us to go and what you want us to do.