June 5. 2011
Solemnity of the Ascension - A
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, S.J.
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." Acts 1:6-8
[D]o not cease giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may 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. Ephesians 1:16-18
Then Jesus approached and said to them, "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." Matthew 28:18-20
Piety
Our lives have many goodbyes. We live out our goodbyes with mixed emotions. They go from gratitude that an unwanted visitor is leaving to sadness that we are going to be without a good friend. All too often we do not know what we will be feeling until it is too late to do something about it. Grieving is all the unexpressed love we did not have the chance to express with those we love who were taken away from us suddenly by death or moving away. Love goes toward oneness with the beloved. Separation from a loved one is a terrible gap to live with when our whole lives are built around the one who has left. Presents are often given to bridge the gap of separation. They allow us to think about the one we care about. Some presents are special in their utility. A watch tells time and it is a useful object that can make the giver of the gift frequently present to our thoughts each time we check the time.
Study
We study the going of Christ for many different reasons. We learn that the disciples are a lot like us. They were locked in place until the angels told them to get going. The “why stand you here idle” is a question always asked. When a friend leaves, how do we remember the friend? The best way is doing the work left behind. What does Christ’s going ask of us. We study the good news of Christ to appreciate what we have to offer to our people. Christ has prayed for us. He sees us as given to him by the Father. He gives us back to the Father. We are protected in what we do by our belonging to Christ. If we are given the chance to suffer like Christ who was not guilty of any sin we can rejoice rather than feel sorry for ourselves because we will be like Christ. Christ is the ultimate meaning of our life. Created in his image we have fulfillment of our destiny in all the ways we are more and more like him.
Action
Every going in our lives can be a reliving of the going of Christ. His going initiates the beginning of our work to spread the good news that Christ lives on in each of us. We give a special meaning to the Ascension of Christ in the ways we make our lives into an expression of what he has given us of himself. We can make each moment a reliving of his going as we give all of ourselves to what we are doing. Christ lives in the love we share. He is the recipient of whatever need of another we meet because Christ identifies with the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick and the imprisoned. Christ goes so that he might be present in each of us in what we do for one another. Together we are the mystical body of Christ. The suffering of Christ we minister to in the good we do for one another. The Ascension is not a goodbye. It is the hello to the Nativity of everlasting life. It is a passing of the baton for us to finish his race. Christ in his humanness had to go so that we could be his humanness to our world.
