Ascension Thursday – Holy Day of Obligation
1. The Lord of All
2. Witnesses Needed
Introduction by the Celebrant
1. The Lord of All
We celebrate the Ascension today. Does that mean that Jesus has left us, is gone? It is true we can no longer touch and see him as could the apostles and disciples. He no longer belongs to a small group but to everyone on earth who wants to accept him. He is now the Lord of all, the Lord of glory, and yet still one of us and very near, more intimate to ourselves than we are, the heart of our own heart, through his Spirit alive in us. We, the Church, have to continue the work he began and to bear witness that he is our living Lord. Let us listen to him speaking in this Eucharist and give glory to him and to the Father.
2. Witnesses Needed
Ascension Day. A Feast of joy. For a part of us is now very close to God: our brother Jesus, who is one of us, is the first to rise from the dead and the first to live fully in God’s glory and joy. He leads us, he shows us the way. But in the meantime we have to bring him to our world and to the people of our day. Proclaim with your lives that he is alive. Make the Good News known. Jesus will work with you through the Spirit he gives you and he will confirm what you say and do.
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 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: He Ascended to Give Us Gifts
To Paul the Ascension means that the Lord Jesus began pouring out his gifts on people when he had gone to heaven.
2 Reading Ephesians 4:1-13
Brothers and sisters,
I, a prisoner for the Lord,
urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
bearing with one another through love,
striving to preserve the unity of the spirit
through the bond of peace:
one body and one Spirit,
as you were also called to the one hope of your call;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
one God and Father of all,
who is over all and through all and in all.
But grace was given to each of us
according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
Therefore, it says:
He ascended on high and took prisoners captive;
he gave gifts to men.
What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended
into the lower regions of the earth?
The one who descended is also the one who ascended
far above all the heavens,
that he might fill all things.
And he gave some as apostles, others as prophets,
others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers,
to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry,
for building up the body of Christ,
until we all attain to the unity of faith
and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature to manhood,
to the extent of the full stature of Christ.
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 Out to the Whole World
In the name of Jesus, his missionaries – and every Christian – proclaim the joyful message of his gospel.
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.
Commentary:
“When he took flesh in our world,” St Augustine wrote, “the Word did not leave the Father’s side. Likewise, when he returned to the Father he did not leave us.” We say he went ‘up’ to heaven, but we know that ‘up’ and ‘down’ have no literal meaning in that context. He has entered a dimension in which spatial adverbs mean nothing. To go up to heaven means to go to God. We mustn’t think of Jesus entering a pre-existing place called ‘heaven’. He ‘ascended’ in order to create heaven. “I go to prepare a place for you,” he said (Jn 14:2). “Heaven is formed by the resurrection and exaltation of Christ” (W. Kasper). ‘Heaven’, then, is the body of the Risen Lord: ‘body’ in the widest sense now, a sense that includes us already as his members, and will include us fully. He is the new Tent of Meeting with God (see May 16), the mysterious Temple that the Book of Revelation speaks of: “the Lamb standing, although it had been slain” (Rev 5:6); he is the Temple destroyed but raised up again (Jn 2:19). He is ascended to the Father, but he is all the more fully with us; “I will be with you always, to the end of the world” (Mt 28:20).
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!