THE LORD’S ASCENSION
Absent, Yet Present
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension: the Lord Jesus returns to the glory of the Father. There is an apparent contradiction in this leaving of Jesus: while leaving, he assures us that he is staying with us. These are his last words in Matthew’s Gospel, just as Matthew had assured us in his first chapter that Jesus is our God-with-us. Jesus’ going to heaven is really no farewell: He was God-with-us in his life on earth, close to people, especially the poor and the weak. He is now with us but in another way, through his Spirit, in the Church for we are his body, in the signs of bread and wine, whenever people meet in his name as we are doing at this moment, in the poor and the weak of our day too. Our prayer today is: Stay with us, Lord.
Reading 1: Acts 1:1-11
Dear Theophilus, in the first volume of this book I wrote on everything that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he said good-bye to the apostles, the ones he had chosen through the Holy Spirit, and was taken up to heaven. After his death, he presented himself alive to them in many different settings over a period of forty days. In face-to-face meetings, he talked to them about things concerning the kingdom of God. As they met and ate meals together, he told them that they were on no account to leave Jerusalem but “must wait for what the Father promised: the promise you heard from me. John baptized in water; you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit. And soon.”
6 When they were together for the last time they asked, “Master, are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel now? Is this the time?”
7-8 He told them, “You don’t get to know the time. Timing is the Father’s business. What you’ll get is the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will be able to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all over Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the world.”
9-11 These were his last words. As they watched, he was taken up and disappeared in a cloud. They stood there, staring into the empty sky. Suddenly two men appeared—in white robes! They said, “You Galileans!—why do you just stand here looking up at an empty sky? This very Jesus who was taken up from among you to heaven will come as certainly—and mysteriously—as he left.”
Reading 2: Eph 1:17-23
That’s why, when I heard of the solid trust you have in the Master Jesus and your outpouring of love to all the followers of Jesus, I couldn’t stop thanking God for you—every time I prayed, I’d think of you and give thanks. But I do more than thank. I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!
20-23 All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.
Gospel: Mt 28:16-20
Meanwhile, the eleven disciples were on their way to Galilee, headed for the mountain Jesus had set for their reunion. The moment they saw him they worshiped him. Some, though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally.
18-20 Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge: “God authorized and commanded me to commission you: Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.”
Prayer
Let us pray
that the Spirit of the Risen Lord
may guide us
(pause)
God our Father,
our risen Lord Jesus Christ
lives now in your presence.
When we keep looking for him in the clouds,
make us turn to the task
he has given us to do here on earth
and learn to recognize his face
in our brothers and sisters.
And when we are too attached to this earth,
remind us that in your own good time
you will complete Jesus’ works in us
and take us to your joy and glory
for ever and ever. Amen.
Reflection:
21 May 2023 Ascension Sunday
Matthew 28:16-20
I am with you always
The Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord today. Ascension does not mean the Lord is leaving his people, but it means that He is always present with them. Unlike Luke and John, Matthew places the encounter with the Risen Lord and the Ascension scene not in Jerusalem but in Galilee. The evangelist intends a theological value for this setting because he wants to say that the apostles’ mission also begins in Galilee, just as Jesus had begun his mission there.
Galilee was a despised region. Isaiah described it as “the land of the Gentiles,” that is, of the pagans (Is 9:1). The Jews looked at it with suspicion and distrust. To Nicodemus, who tried to defend Jesus, the Pharisees of Jerusalem objected: “Look it up and see for yourself that no prophet is to come from Galilee” (Jn 7:52).
It is to these semi-pagans, Matthew says, that the Gospel now belongs. In the scriptures, mountains are referred to as sites of God’s manifestations; he was manifested to Moses and Elijah at the top of the mountain. Matthew often uses this image: he places Jesus on the mount every time he gives a significant teaching, for example, the sermon on the mount, or performs some particularly significant acts – such as the transfiguration and feeding the multitude.
In the same way, in today’s passage, sending the disciples into the world is a decisive event. The one who experienced the Risen Lord and assimilated his message on the mountain is empowered to fulfil this mission. The remark that “although some apostles doubted” (v. 17) gives us a point for reflection. For Matthew, the Christian community is not made up of perfect people but of people in whom good and evil, light and darkness, remain present. The first disciples indeed had faith but still had doubts and uncertainties. Though we are deeply convinced of Christ’s resurrection, it is normal to have doubts.
The Church is called to make Christ present in the world. Every vocation is always accompanied by God’s promise that assures his chosen people: “Fear not, I am with you.” The promise of the Risen Lord to his disciples cannot be any different: “Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the world” (v. 20). The Gospel of Matthew begins with the promise of Emmanuel, the God-with-us (Mt 1:22-23) and ends with the fulfilment of that promise where Jesus says “I am with you always, even to the end of the world” (Mat 28:20).