杏MAP导航

By Fr Edmund Power, OSB

In many countries of the world, the Ascension of the Lord is not celebrated on its traditional day, the Thursday of the Sixth week of Easter, but on the following Sunday. As we approach the end of the Easter Season, we remember liturgically this enigmatic moment in the earthly life of Jesus. Luke, this year’s evangelist, tells us that he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven. He tells us again in the first reading from the Acts: he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

Let us consider the verb “lifted up” and how it might give hope to our lives. While the first three Gospels all describe the Ascension, this event does not appear in John. In fact, the fourth evangelist offers us a radically different way of describing the moment. There are three references in John to Jesus being “lifted up from the earth”: all refer to the crucifixion which is somehow identified with the exaltation. Lifted up on the cross is at the same time lifted up in glory.

The Mass prayers of the Ascension remind us of a central fact: “the Ascension of Christ … is our exaltation” (Collect); “we pray … that we too may rise up to the heavenly realms” (Prayer over the Offerings); “that Christian hope may draw us onward to … you” (Prayer after Communion). This is our hope, our desire, our destiny. Meanwhile, however, we are left behind to shoulder our responsibility, but not before we have received the power of the Holy Spirit. The Ascension may be seen as the celebration of our coming of age, when, no longer accompanied by Jesus in the same way, we must dedicate ourselves with maturity and courage to the spreading of the Gospel.

People are sometimes discouraged by the fact that God does not magically intervene to put right the problems of the world. But has he not left us with the challenge to grow up and exercise the gifts he has given us, and supremely, that of the Holy Spirit whom we shall celebrate next Sunday at the culmination of the Easter season? For those who do not observe the Ascension this Sunday, the gospel of the seventh Sunday of Easter is taken from the priestly prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper. He implores the Father for those who believe in me through their (the apostles’) word. He expresses the profound and constant union between the Father, the Son and those who believe. He prays for the unity of believers among themselves, so that his message may touch the world. It is a message pertinent to every level of human life. As we await the Spirit of truth, we can remember the words of 杏MAP导航 Leo addressed to the diplomatic corps on May 16 this year: “truly peaceful relationships cannot be built, also within the international community, apart from truth”.