1. Ascends Gloriously, Yet Still with Us
2. An End and a New Beginning
Introduction
1. Ascends Gloriously, Yet Still with Us
When someone good and close to us dies, we feel that he or she is still with us and keeps inspiring and guiding us. I shocked a group of Brasilians when I told them I couldn’t join in their picnic because I was talking with my mum (late). Some even became afraid of me. But I meant it. When at his Ascension Jesus left his disciples and passed to the glory of heaven, he became to his disciples more than a memory of a great person who had died. First, he is still alive as the Risen Lord; second, he is gone but he stays with us by his Spirit of strength and wisdom and love and in this way he is our companion in life. He still speaks his word to us, he still gives himself to us as our food and drink, and he is alive in our communities. He ever reigns where there is love. “Ubi caritas et amor Deus ibi est.” Listen to him present among us here and let him nourish us with his word and his body.
2. An End and a New Beginning
Jesus had gone ahead of us and shown us the way in his preaching and the way he lived: this is what should inspire us, this is how we should live, like Jesus. In his death he showed us the way of faithful love. He was the first to rise from the dead and our assurance that we too will rise. In his ascension he went ahead of us to live in the joy of the Father. In all these steps he is a living invitation: Come, follow me where I go. I am waiting for you after you have continued my work. In this Eucharist we say in the Creed: “I believe in the resurrection of the dead and the life everlasting.”
First Reading: Why Are You Looking into the Sky?
At his ascension, Jesus entrusts his work to the apostles. The Holy Spirit will give them the strength to bear witness to Christ the Lord to the whole world.
1 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 enjoined 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.”
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9
R.(6) God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord. or: R. Alleluia.
All you peoples, clap your hands,
shout to God with cries of gladness,
For the LORD, the Most High, the awesome,
is the great king over all the earth. R.
God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy;
the LORD, amid trumpet blasts.
Sing praise to God, sing praise;
sing praise to our king, sing praise. R.
For king of all the earth is God;
sing hymns of praise.
God reigns over the nations,
God sits upon his holy throne. R.
Second Reading – Christ Went Ahead of Us to Heaven. Christ saved us once and for all and he leads us into the sanctuary of heaven. This is our firm hope.
2 Reading: Hebrews 9:24-28; 10:19-23
Christ did not enter into a sanctuary made by hands, a copy of the true one, but heaven itself, that he might now appear before God on our behalf. Not that he might offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters each year into the sanctuary with blood that is not his own; if that were so, he would have had to suffer repeatedly from the foundation of the world. But now once for all he has appeared at the end of the ages to take away sin by his sacrifice. Just as it is appointed that men and women die once, and after this the judgment, so also Christ, offered once to take away the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to take away sin but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him. Therefore, brothers and sisters, since through the blood of Jesus we have confidence of entrance into the sanctuary by the new and living way he opened for us through the veil, that is, his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God,” let us approach with a sincere heart and in absolute trust, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. Let us hold unwaveringly to our confession that gives us hope, for he who made the promise is trustworthy.
(Optional Second Reading See– Ephesians 1:17-23)
Alleluia: Matthew 28:19a, 20b
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Go and teach all nations, says the Lord;
I am with you always, until the end of the world.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: Go and Teach All Nations My Gospel
The apostles, and the whole Church with them, are sent to bring to the whole world the Good News of Christ, who died for us and rose from the dead.
Gospel: Luke 24:46-53
Jesus said to his disciples: “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold I am sending the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” Then he led them out as far as Bethany, raised his hands, and blessed them. As he blessed them he parted from them and was taken up to heaven. They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God.
Commentary
“Remain in the city until you are invested with power from above.” In other words, learn patience, learn how to wait; and unlearn the tendency to leap in, feet first. There is an urgency about the Gospel, but it is the part of wisdom to wait till the right time. Nowadays it’s hard to wait. There are sects in which the “Elders” are not necessarily out of their teens! The Gospel is badly served by someone who is just restless or ambitious, or merely brainless. When there is no wisdom there are only advertising techniques.
Within oneself too there is a need to learn how to wait and not jump in with ready answers. Julian of Norwich, deeply immersed in a difficult question, wrote, “I decided to stop puzzling over this, and to look to the Lord, and see what he would show me.”
There are two kinds of useless answer: to a question that has not arisen, and to a question that cannot be answered. Religious people, unfortunately, are ever ready with both kinds of answer. We pray today that the Holy Spirit, who so often drives people into very vocal prayer (as seen at the end of today’s reading), may also drive us sometimes, as Jesus was driven, into the desert—the place of silence and solitude.
Prayers over the people and Blessing
The Lord Jesus tells us,
as he told the apostles:
”Be my witnesses to the whole world.”
Let us not stare at heaven
but be his message of hope to people on earth
by the way we live his gospel.
And let us ask for God’s blessing.
May we bring the Lord’s message
to our time and to our people. R/ Amen.
May he go about doing good through us
and may we make him visible today. R/ Amen.
May he stay with us through his Spirit
now and till the end of time. R/ Amen.
And may almighty God bless you all,
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord
in the people around us. Alleluia! Alleluia!
R/ Thanks be to God. Alleluia! Alleluia!