"HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN."

May 12, 2024.
Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord – B.

Readings: Acts 1:1-11; Ps 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9; Eph 1:17-23 orEph 4:1-13 or 4:1-7, 11-13; Mk 16:15-20.

“Go and teach all nations, says the Lord; I am with you always, until the end of the world.” Mt 28:20

A Hebrew proverb says: “The world's like a ladder: one ascends, and one descends.” A Maori proverb adds: “Many make the descent to eternal darkness but few ascend to heaven.”

When we profess our faith, in the Credo, here is what we say: "He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end."

The Ascension of the Lord is a mystery that flows from his resurrection. But above all, it is a mystery that is deeply rooted in his Incarnation. It is because he once descended to be one of us that now he is ascending to be one with God. The one who as Christmas shared into our humanity, bore that humanity, and died in that humanity for man's sake, is the one who is now returning into his divinity to occupy the seat of glory that was his own before the creation of the world.

About the Ascension of the Lord, that is what we read in the Catechism: "So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God." Christ's body was glorified at the moment of his Resurrection, as proved by the new and supernatural properties it subsequently and permanently enjoys. But during the forty days when he eats and drinks familiarly with his disciples and teaches them about the kingdom, his glory remains veiled under the appearance of ordinary humanity. Jesus' final apparition ends with the irreversible entry of his humanity into divine glory, symbolized by the cloud and by heaven, where he is seated from that time forward at God's right hand. Only in a wholly exceptional and unique way would Jesus show himself to Paul "as to one untimely born", in a last apparition that established him as an apostle." CCC 659

If our first definition of the Ascension is the Lord's glorification, that event took place at his very resurrection. Jesus rose from the dead in all his glory. No earthly thing had power over him after his resurrection. He was beyond the limits and contingency of time and place. The Risen Lord could be anywhere, everywhere, at any moment. The different apparitions and encounters with the disciples prove it.

Today, forty days after his resurrection, he returns, not definitely as to desert his followers, but in fulfillment of his promises, into the glory of his Father.

The readings are all about this great event. The disciples who have witnessed it give their account of the event. Each of them puts some details more than others but they all talk about the same happening.

In the first reading, Luke begins his historical narrative, the Acts of the Apostles with that event, to tell us that the true Apostolic mission began after Jesus was taken away from the sights of his Apostles. Luke says, "As the Apostles were looking on, Jesus was lifted up." And from there, two Angels came to remind them of their mission: “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.” Meanwhile, the task entrusted to them is what we read in the Gospel, to go and make disciples.

The Lord Jesus, ascending into Heaven, does not want his disciples to be disconnected from earth. They are not called to gaze only on the skies, but to go, preach the Good News, and lead people to faith in Jesus and salvation, that was the last magistral mandate of Jesus to them: “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."

The Ascension of the Lord opened the disciples to a new era. Not so much that of the absence of the Lord, but that of the mission. It was time to go out. The summit of this going out will be at the Pentecost when the promised Paraclete will invade them with his strength and presence. The Evangelist Mark mentioned that the disciples "went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs." A beautiful image that the Ascension is not a forsaking or a departure without connection or concern. The ascended Lord continues to be in the community of the believers, and the Holy Spirit is the fulfillment of this continued presence.

Paul beautifully questions: "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." Jesus, after his Ascension is with us in a quite particular and meaningful way. He gives us strength to share in his life and mission. We are now to be missionaries of God's love and presence.

Jesus ascends into heaven today, giving us the earth as the ground of our mission and life. It is by living rightly and transforming this earth that we will make our way to heaven. Heaven is possible, it is wide-opened for us today. Nevertheless, the stairs to it are planted on earth. As to say, earth is the laboratory of heaven. To enter into heaven, all that is required is about preaching the Gospel of Christ, living the Gospel, and being missionaries of Christ's love.