SUNDAY, ASCENSION OF THE LORD
Acts 1: 1-11 Ps 47: 2-3, 6-9 Eph 1: 17-23 Mt 28: 16-20
ASCENDING WITH THE LORD
We celebrate today the ascension of the Lord. The long spiritual journey of forty days with the Risen Lord has brought us to this great and final event where Christ ascends to heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father. The presence and the appearance of the Risen Lord have helped us to believe in His Resurrection and our own participation in the resurrection of the Lord. The ascension marks the importance to the Church to prepare herself to receive the Holy Spirit and allow herself to be led by His sanctifying mission. The feast we celebrate today invites us to look up to the heavens where the Lord has ascended and to ascend with Him in faith.
Taken up into Heaven: Luke writes in the Acts of the Apostles that the ‘Lord was taken up’. Jesus after the death on the Cross was raised to life on the third day. After the resurrection, He appeared to many people; He taught them many things about the Kingdom of heaven; He proved Himself in many ways for forty days. Death of Jesus was certain for He was crucified. Similarly, His resurrection was certain for He appeared to many people. He commanded His disciples to stay in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit would come upon them. All His promises came true as He had promised. The disciples were still not convinced of many things. They asked about the restoration of the Kingdom. Jesus answered that it belongs to the Father to decide about restoration. Then He promised them the Holy Spirit and that they would become His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. It was then the Lord was taken up to the heavens as the disciples looked on. He was lifted up; a cloud took Him out of their sight. Then, two angels appeared and confirmed that the Lord was taken up into heaven and that He will come again in glory.
Look to Him: St Paul writing to the Ephesians confirms the ascension of the Lord and tells us that God the Father gives His wisdom and reveals Himself to His children. The eyes of our hearts are to be enlightened by Him so that we may realize the hope to which we are called by Him. He will also help us understand the riches of God’s glorious inheritance in the saints. He will give the knowledge of the immeasurable greatness of God’s power in those who believe in Him. He has worked His mighty deeds through Christ by raising Him from the dead. He has made Him to sit at His right hand in heaven. The Lord who is seated at His right hand has received all authority above every other rule, power and authority. His name is above every other name for all eternity. All things are put under His feet; He is the head of all things. He is the head of the Church which is His body. The ascension of the Lord invites us to look to Him so that we are filled with divine wisdom.
Go and Baptize: At the end of Mathew’s Gospel from which we have read today, is an account of the Lord commissioning his disciples for a new mission. The disciples were told by the Lord after His resurrection to go to a mountain at Galilee. When the disciples were there, the Lord appeared to them and they started to worship Him. Some of the disciples doubted. Then the Lord came to them and revealed how all authority is given to Him on earth and in heaven. He commanded them to go to all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. He commanded them to teach people what He had taught them. He promised His presence with them all the time, to the close of the age.
The ascension of the Lord invites us to look up to the one who was taken up into heaven. When we are down with something, when we go through tough times of suffering, humiliation and pain, the ascended Lord invites us to look up to Him and ascend with Him. Thus, the ascended Lord inspires us to experience the power of the Good News which will help us to proclaim Him.
Response: God goes up with shouts of joy.
The Lord goes up with trumpet blast.
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