The Solemnity of the Ascension of our Lord to heaven is one of the great solemnities in the Christian liturgical calendar and commemorates the bodily ascension of Jesus into heaven. Ascension Day is traditionally celebrated on a Thursday, the fortieth day of Easter. The Latin term used for the feast, ascensio, signifies that Christ was raised up by his own powers, and it is from these terms that this holy day gets its name.
The observance of this feast is of great antiquity. Although no documentary evidence of it exists prior to the beginning of the 5th century, Saint Augustine, says that it is of apostolic origin, and he speaks of it in a way that shows it was the universal observance of the Church long before his time.
It is observed as a public holiday in some countries, notably Austria, Belgium, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany and Cameroon.
In the Eastern Church, this feast is known in Greek as Analepsis, that is, the "taking up", the "salvation from on high", denoting that by ascending into his glory Christ completed the work of our redemption. Ascension is one of the Twelve Great Feasts of the Orthodox liturgical year.
In the entrance antiphon we pray: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking in the sky? The Lord will return, just as you have seen him ascend. Amen. Alleluia.”
In the first reading from Acts of the Apostles, Saint Luke, the author, begins by giving his plan and purpose for writing the Acts of the Apostles. He emphasizes two main theological themes: the role of the Holy Spirit in the spread of the Gospel and the central place of Jerusalem from where Christ’s message leaves before spreading throughout Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. The Holy Spirit is to guide the Church on her world-wide expansion program as he empowers the disciples to take Christ’s word to the ends of the earth. Christ’s ascension to his Father’s glory is therefore not the end but rather a new beginning for humanity.
In the second reading, from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle thanks God for the faith of his converts of Ephesus and prays fervently that God will give them spiritual insight into the mystery of his divine purpose. God is to bring all men and women into a single unity – the Church – of which Christ is the head. In Matthew’s Gospel, as well as in that of Mark and Luke (the Synoptics), the final appearance of Jesus to his disciples is when he empowers them with the mission to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, a message that has come down to us all. For those who believe, this message becomes a source of their salvation; for those who reject Christ’s word, it brings them God’s condemnation.
As we share in the joy of Christ’s ascension into his glory, let us ask for the grace and the courage to also carry his word of salvation to others, especially those of our brothers and sisters whose faith in the risen Lord has become weak. Christ’s injunction to bear witness was not only addressed to his disciples of old, it is also addressed to us, his disciples living in the city of Douala today, especially during these trying moments of the coronavirus that is causing so much anguish everywhere in the world.
First Reading: Acts 1:1-11.
In the first book, Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught until the day he was taken up, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While meeting with them, he asks them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for “the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak; for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” When they had gathered together they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight. While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”
Comment
Brothers and sisters, throughout the Easter season we have been reading from Acts of the Apostles, the 5th book of the New Testament attributed to the evangelist Luke. Both the Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles are addressed to one man called Theophilus. The name comes from Greek and means “one who loves God”. It is to him that Luke writes this letter to explain all that Jesus taught until the day he was taken up to heaven.
Already in this passage, Saint Luke highlights two important themes: the role of the Holy Spirit and the central place of Jerusalem in the spread of the Gospel. Jerusalem is the birthplace of the Church. It is there that the first Christian community is born and will remain for a long time the point of reference before persecution drove Christians to other parts of the Roman Empire. It was as a result of that persecution that other cities, such as Antioch, Corinth, Ephesus and finally Rome also became great centers of Christianity. The Gospel had to spread from Jerusalem throughout Judea and Samaria to the ends of the world.
In this day’s passage, we hear Christ asking his disciples to remain in Jerusalem until he sends them his Advocate, the Holy Spirit to strengthen their faith for the mission. The Holy Spirit is to guide the Church in her expansion throughout the world. That is why it is necessary that the disciples remain in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit comes down on them and fortify them for their mission. They are thus in an interim period between the resurrection of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit.
The disciples have still not clearly understood Christ’s mission on earth. They still believe Christ has come to chase away the Roman occupier and restore Israel’s independence. Some of them – like the sons of Zebedee, James and John – are still dreaming of occupying ministerial posts in Jesus’ future government. Christ therefore has to remind them, as he did Pilate, that his kingdom is not of this world. His disciples will have to be fortified in their faith before they can understand him. That is what the Holy Spirit is to do to them. He will make missionaries of them and send them preaching Christ’s message with boldness and authority, not only in Jerusalem, the birthplace of the Church, but throughout Judea Samaria and to the ends of the earth.
The lesson to take home from this reading, brothers and sisters, is that Christ’s ascension to his Father is not the end of his being with us on earth; it is, in fact, a new beginning, a promise, and a hope for all of us because the Holy Spirit that Christ sent on his disciples is the same Holy Spirit that is present in his Church today and that empowers us for our own individual missions as well.
Let us say this prayer to the Holy Spirit from the Byzantine liturgy: “Holy Spirit of truth, Sovereign Lord of the universe, guide and guardian of your people, present everywhere, overflowing all that exists. Come and dwell in us, cleanse us from all sin, pour out your blessings on us, give us fresh life, and in your gracious love bring us to salvation. We make our supplication through Christ, our Lord. Amen. Alleluia.”
Second Reading: Ephesians, 1:17-23.
Brothers and sisters:
May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him. 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, 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.
Comment
Four of Saint Paul’s letters have always been distinguished as the “Captivity Epistles”. These are his letters to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon. They were written when Paul was in one prison or another. Since he had suffered imprisonment in Ephesus, Caesarea, and Rome where he was finally executed, it is not always easy to say for sure from which prison each of these letters was written.
In Saint Paul’s days, Ephesus was the leading city in Asia Minor. It had been conquered by Alexander the Great in 334 BC and later came under the dominion of Rome in 133 BC. It became the administrative and religious center of the Roman province known as Asia.
Ephesus, like Douala, was famous for magic and occult practices and its inhabitants were rigorously superstitious, with many marabouts and ngambe men growing rich on the backs of credulous men and women; just what we see happening in Douala today, even among Christians. How often do we see Christians in church in the morning and the same Christians crawling before fortune-tellers and ngambe men and women and marabouts in the evening!
Saint Paul stayed in Ephesus towards the end of his second apostolic journey, around the year 52 AD (Acts 18: 19ff), and went back there at the start of his third apostolic journey from 54-57 AD. He spent more than two years there and preached so successfully that the prominent Jews and Gentiles of the city became jealous and incited the people against him and he had to flee in order not to be stoned to death.
Shortly before the passage selected for our meditation, Saint Paul has been reflecting on the magnificence of God’s saving plan even for the Gentiles. It is through the preaching of the Gospel that the Gentiles come to form part of the Church. God has acquired his new people at the cost of his Son’s blood. This God whom Paul addresses is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God to whom Jesus Christ himself, as man, prays for help. He is God who listens to all his children and fulfills their desires
What do we learn from this reading? Saint Paul tells us that God works wonders through his Son Jesus Christ, whose authority is supreme on earth as well as in heaven. We can only find salvation in his Church of which he is the head. No name surpasses the name of Jesus Christ and so we have to turn to him for assistance in whatever we do. Let us therefore turn to him whenever and wherever we may be because he alone holds the key to eternal life. Resort to our Lord’s comfort is all the more pressing these days as we face this pandemic that is causing so much havoc in the whole world. We must remain each other’s keeper. Holy Spirit, come to our salvation. Amen.
Gospel acclamation: “Alleluia, alleluia. Christ has risen and shone upon us whom he redeemed with his blood. Alleluia.”
Gospel: Mark 16: 15-20
Jesus said to his disciples: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name, they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God. But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.
Comment
As mentioned earlier, forty days after Easter, the Church celebrates the Ascension of Jesus into heaven. Saint Mark narrates that, before going to heaven, Jesus ratified the apostolic mission of his disciples: Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation (Mk 16:15). It is an ambitious commission: not simply evangelising the people of Israel, or the Roman empire, but the whole world, the whole of creation. After all they have experienced during the forty days after Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples respond with ardent faith and zeal to the missionary command they had received. And they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it (Mk 16:20). The apostolic mission is not a task exclusive to those first disciples, but a divine task that we too receive.
Saint Mark tells us that the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God (Mk 16:19). Jesus ascends into heaven but he does not abandon us. Jesus remains with us. The Holy Spirit dwells in our souls in grace and our Lord accompanies us also physically in the Blessed Eucharist. “We can come very near Jesus too, in body and soul. Christ has pointed the way to us clearly. We can be with him in the bread and in the word, receiving the nourishment of the Eucharist and knowing and fulfilling all that he came to teach us, as we talk with him in our prayer.”
The Solemnity of the Ascension gives us the ardent hope of sharing in the glory Jesus enjoys and to which we are called as members of his body. “He ascended, not to distance himself from our lowly state but that we, his members, might be confident of following where he, our Head and Founder, has gone before.”
Our Lord is waiting for us in heaven and he sends us the Holy Spirit with his gifts and fruits so that we reach our goal. “After the Lord ascended to Heaven, the disciples gathered in prayer in the Upper Room, with the Mother of Jesus (cf. Acts 1:14), invoking together the Holy Spirit who would invest them with the power to witness to the Risen Christ (cf. Lk 24:49; Acts 1:8). United to the Most Blessed Virgin, every Christian community relives in these days this unique experience in preparation for the Solemnity of Pentecost.”
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