Ascension Year !
Acts 1:1–11
Psalm 47:2–3, 6–7, 8–9
Ephesians 1:17–23
Matthew 28:16–20
The Great Commission is the heart of the message of the Ascension. Jesus proclaims, “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.”
This is the action entrusted to all who believe in the Gospel.
Jesus at the closing of His earthly journey tells us that He, in the fulness of His Human Nature, possesses all authority. As St. Matthew declares, He has a plan for His disciples to continue the mission He started.
To baptize, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, is to initiate into the very Life of Christ the Word, the commandment He has left us.
To teach all nations is to be open to encounter all that is human and to show by teaching and example all that we have learned as disciples.
The promise of His Presence, “I am with you always” to the end of the age, is offered as an encouragement to persevere. We have been given all we need in our human nature, and the Lord Himself is with us to assist us to accomplish His purpose.
All through Easter we have been hearing the Word proclaimed from the Acts of the Apostles. Luke tells us under his address to “Theophilus,” meaning “lover of God,” that in his Gospel, that is his “first account,” he has told us the events of Jesus’ life. Now, he points out how the Lord’s Spirit is at work in the disciples of Jesus.
The invitation of this Ascension weekend is “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.”
Waiting after Easter is no longer about awaiting the accomplishment of salvation. It is about allowing the transformation that happens when we choose to live in the fullness of life that is offered to us.
At times we tend to keep our eyes fixed on heaven without reference to the responsibility left to us on earth. The angels remind the disciples to focus on Jerusalem and then to be ready to respond to the coming of the Spirit by carrying the message to the ends of the earth.
“They said, ‘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.’”
The account also reminds us that sometimes we still have doubts and that we focus on an earthly idea for the kingdom. The risen Lord Jesus has revealed to us that our mission includes heaven, but that it also establishes a new kind of kingdom.
The Letter to the Ephesians offers us a beautiful prayer that can be part of our waiting for Pentecost. We are now in the time of the First Novena, which began on the Friday after the traditional day for the Ascension, 40 days after Easter.
Here is the prayer: “Brothers and sisters: May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, 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, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe, in accord with the exercise of his great might, which he worked in Christ, raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens, far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come.
“And he put all things beneath his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.”
Let us pray together: “Come, Holy Spirit.”