Ascension Year C
Acts 1:1–11
Psalm 47:2–3, 6–7, 8–9
Ephesians 1:17–23 or Hebrews 9:24–28; 10:19–23
Luke 24:46–53
Many often ask: “Why do we celebrate Ascension Thursday on Sunday?” Some see this move as a mere accommodation to secular culture. There is a more positive way to see it.
Even before the Second Vatican Council that developed the new approach to the liturgical calendar, it was evident that many did not understand the unity of the Mysteries of Christ. Feasts and holy days were celebrated as if they were distinct realities rather than a “flow” of divine life.
Celebrating the Ascension on a Sunday gives many who have not come to Mass on a Thursday (by choice, impossibility due to work obligations or, more often, by simple forgetfulness) the opportunity to hear a homily on this mystery.
The Glorious Mysteries of the rosary are one way to gather the Mysteries of Christ into one “glance” that helps us to understand their richness. The Paschal Mystery includes Christ’s suffering, death, Resurrection and Ascension into glory.
The fruit of this mystery flows into us in a powerful way through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and our destiny as people plunged into the Paschal Mystery is made clear in the Assumption and Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The author of the Acts of the Apostles writes to his friend Theophilus, whose name means “Lover of God,” that in his first book (the Gospel of Luke) he “dealt with all that Jesus did and taught until the day he was taken up, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.”
The Gospel of Luke concludes with a simple description of the moment, with the risen Lord first offering a summary of the Gospel and a charge to make ready to proclaim it:
“Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold I am sending the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
The Ascension is the “transition moment” between the Resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Just as the Incarnation brought divinity into human nature in the person of Jesus, taking flesh, becoming incarnate of the Virgin Mary through the overshadowing power of the Holy Spirit, so now, the risen, glorified humanity that has been given back to Jesus, the Crucified One, is “taken” into the very reality of divine life in its fullness.
This glorification of the human nature of Jesus renders humanity capable of receiving the Holy Spirit.
“Wait for it” is the final commandment of the Lord to His disciples: “He enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for ‘the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak; for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’”
Thus the time between Ascension and Pentecost is a time of intense prayer, with the witnesses to the Resurrection awaiting the coming of the Spirit to free them to make their proclamation.
Through the Ascension, Jesus reenters heavenly glory. He is revealed as the True Son of God, Who is God, as the antiphon of the Responsorial Psalm expresses it: “God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.”
We wait with joyful expectation for the outpouring of the Spirit of the living God to enable us to continue the work of proclamation. God wills for us to share the very life of the Trinity. The Ascension lifts our own minds to an understanding of this awesome reality.
The risen Lord speaks to us, just as He spoke to the “men of Galilee” who saw Him ascend to His glory: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses … to the ends of the earth.”
Veni, Sancte Spiritus! “Come, Holy Spirit!”