THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD
16 MAY 2021
Saint
Luke describes the Ascension of the risen Lord in his second volume, the Acts
of the Apostles. As he is lifted up into
heaven, a cloud takes him from their sight.
Then two men dressed in white garments stand beside him and address
them. “Men of Galilee,” they say, “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.”
In his
first volume, the Gospel of Saint Luke, he describes the resurrection on Easter
Sunday. The women come to the tomb at
dawn to anoint the dead body of Jesus with spices. They meet two men dressed in dazzling
garments. These two men say: “Why do you search for the Living One among
the dead? He is not here; he has been
raised up. Remember what he said to you
while he was still in Galilee – that the Son of Man must be delivered into the
hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”
The two men
dressed in white garments signal that both of these events are central
Mysteries of our faith. At the tomb on
Easter Sunday, the two men remind the women of the many times Jesus had spoken
of his passion and death during his public ministry. His execution had shattered their hopes. They now need the words of the two men
dressed in white garments to recall his promise that he would be raised from
the dead.
Saint Luke
tells us that Jesus was taken up to heaven forty days after the resurrection. The number forty is symbolic. Those forty days indicate the length of time
it took the disciples to encounter the risen Lord and deepen their belief in
this central Mystery of our faith.
Today, they encounter another Mystery in the Ascension. Saint Paul reminds the Ephesians that the
Lord had descended from heaven into our midst in the Mystery of the
Incarnation. Now, he returns to the
right hand of the Father. The two men
dressed in white garments tell his disciples to begin the mission of
proclaiming the Gospel to the entire world.
The disciples follow their instructions and wait in Jerusalem for the
promised sending of the Holy Spirit.
The two men
dressed in white give us the same message. We have spent this Easter Season deepening our
faith in the resurrection and recognizing his real presence in the Breaking of
Bread. With the Ascension, he promises to
return again at the end of time. But,
for now, he commissions us to continue our mission as his Body to proclaim the
Gospel to every creature.
In today’s
Gospel, Jesus gives his disciples authority to perform signs to accompany their
proclamation of the Gospel. If we look
back in this past year, we can see those same signs. We have used the name of the Lord Jesus to
drive out the demons of fear in the midst of the worst pandemic in 100
years. We have countered the language of
hatred and revenge with love and forgiveness.
We have picked up the serpents of division with our hands. We have even drunk the poison of
subjectivity, insisting that there is objective truth in the midst of the many claims
that whatever opinion we embrace is factual.
We have reached out to minister to the sick, even when we have been in
danger of catching the virus ourselves.
Like those
original disciples, we await a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit when we
celebrate Pentecost next Sunday. We
trust the power of the Holy Spirit to strengthen us to continue our
mission. That is why renewing our
stewardship of service is so crucial.
Please consider giving a portion of your time in humble service. Strengthened by the Holy Spirit, we can
proclaim the Gospel by being active participants in reopening our parish as we
emerge from this pandemic. In this
humble service, we clearly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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