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Feast of Ascension of Our Lord - Year B ~ MAY 12, 2024

Feast of Ascension of Our Lord – Year B ~ MAY 12, 2024

SIGN OF OUR ULTIMATE DESTINY

St. Augustine says “Today our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven; let our hearts ascend with him. Listen to the words of the Apostle: If you have risen with Christ, set your hearts on the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God; seek the things that are above, not the things that are on earth. For just as he remained with us even after his ascension, so we too are already in heaven with him, even though what is promised us has not yet been fulfilled in our bodies”. Christ is now exalted above the heavens, but he still suffers on earth all the pain that we, the members of his body, must bear. He showed this when he cried out from above: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? and when he said: I was hungry, and you gave me food.

St. Faustina tells her own account of the Ascension? Believe it or not, the Lord gave her a spiritual grace in which she was able to experience what it would have been like to ascend into Heaven alongside the Lord. Her account gives us insight into what the Ascension means for us. She wrote:

Today I accompanied the Lord Jesus as He ascended into heaven. It was about noon. I was overcome by a great longing for God. It is a strange thing, the more I felt God’s presence, the more ardently I desired Him. Then I saw myself in the midst of a huge crowd of disciples and apostles, together with the Mother of God. Jesus was telling them to… “Go out into the whole world and teach in My name.” He stretched out His hands and blessed them and disappeared in a cloud. I saw the longing of Our Lady. Her soul yearned for Jesus with the whole force of Her love. But She was so peaceful and so united to the will of God that there was not a stir in Her heart but for what God wanted.

Saint Faustina records the great longing for God she felt during these moments. She says here something counterintuitive, which speaks to the mystery of the Ascension: “The more I felt God’s presence, the more ardently I desired Him.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that Jesus “precedes us into the Father’s glorious kingdom so that we, the members of his Body, may live in the hope of one day being with him for ever”.

The Ascension reminds us that one day, like Christ, we will finally find our place before the Trinity for all eternality, where we’ll reach our ultimate fulfillment. Before we reach our ultimate end with the Trinity, it only makes sense that our longing for God, as St. Faustina experienced, will increase, until it culminates in that ecstasy that will last for all eternity.  

Why do we on earth not strive to find rest with him in heaven even now, through the faith, hope and love that unites us to him? While in heaven he is also with us; and we while on earth are with him. He is here with us by his divinity, his power and his love. We cannot be in heaven, as he is on earth, by divinity, but in him, we can be there by love. He did not leave heaven when he came down to us; nor did he withdraw from us when he went up again into heaven. The fact that he was in heaven even while he was on earth is borne out by his own statement: No one has ever ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. These words are explained by our oneness with Christ, for he is our head, and we are his body. No one ascended into heaven except Christ because we also are Christ: he is the Son of Man by his union with us, and we by our union with him are the sons of God. So the Apostle says: Just as the human body, which has many members, is a unity, because all the different members make one body, so is it also with Christ. He too has many members, but one body.

Out of compassion for us he descended from heaven, and although he ascended alone, we also ascend, because we are in him by grace. Thus, no one but Christ descended and no one but Christ ascended; not because there is no distinction between the head and the body, but because the body as a unity cannot be separated from the head.

In the Creed we say that Jesus “ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father”. Jesus’ earthly life culminated with the Ascension, when he passed from this world to the Father and was raised to sit on his right. What does this event mean? How does it affect our life?  The mystery of the Apostles’ “unbelief” is partly disclosed in the narrative of the Gospel: “But we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel,” with disillusionment and complaint said the two disciples to their mysterious Companion on the way to Emmaus (Luke 24:21). They meant: He was betrayed, condemned to death and crucified. The news of the Resurrection brought by the women only “astonished” them. They still wait for an earthly triumph, for an external victory. The same temptation possesses their hearts, which first prevented them from accepting “the preaching of the Cross” and made them argue every time the Saviour tried to reveal His mystery to them. “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” (Luke 24:26). It was still difficult to understand this.

In the Ascension resides the meaning and the fullness of Christ’s Resurrection. The Lord did not rise to return again to the fleshly order of life, so as to live again and commune with the disciples and the multitudes by means of preaching and miracles. Now he does not even stay with them, but only “appears” to them during the forty days, from time to time, and always in a miraculous and mysterious manner. “He was not always with them now, as He was before the Resurrection,” comments Saint John Chrysostom. “He came and again disappeared, thus leading them on to higher conceptions. He no longer permitted them to continue in their former relationship toward Him but took effectual measures to secure these two objects: That the fact of His Resurrection should be believed, and that He Himself should be ever after apprehended to be greater than man.” There was something new and unusual in His person (cf. John 21:1-14). As Saint John Chrysostom says, “It was not an open presence, but a certain testimony of the fact that He was present.” That is why the disciples were confused and frightened. Christ arose not in the same way as those who were restored to life before Him. 

By His Resurrection He abolished and destroyed death, abolished the law of corruption, “and raised with Himself the whole race of Adam.” Christ has risen, and now “no dead are left in the grave”. And now He ascends to the Father, yet He does not “go away,” but abides with the faithful for ever.  For He raises the very earth with Him to heaven, and even higher than any heaven. God’s power, in the phrase of Saint John Chrysostom, “manifests itself not only in the Resurrection, but in something much stronger.” For “He was received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God” (Mark 16:19).

Pope Francis said, “it is a day in which we direct our gaze to heaven, then back to our mission on earth”. In fact, that is the place where our hearts ascend to him. Though this day must be very sad day for the disciples to see their brother, friend, teacher, master, and Rabbi is leaving them physically for good which we feel the same on the passing of our dear and near ones. However, on the other hand their hearts are ascending with the Lord to be joyful that they are not alone, but the Lord is with them to end of the age.

In the scripture today we come to know about the instructions given by Jesus before he departed from earth to his Father to be seated on the right hand of him. In the words of Holy Father “This feast contains two elements,’ the Holy Father explains, “On one hand, it directs our look to Heaven, where Jesus, glorified, is seated at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19). On the other, it recalls the beginning of the Church’s mission: why? Because Jesus risen and ascended into Heaven sends His disciples to spread the Gospel throughout the world; therefore, the Ascension exhorts us to raise our gaze to Heaven, to then turn it back immediately to earth, carrying out the tasks that the Risen Lord has entrusted to us.” The legacy we have is not human but divine because Jesus has given us a mission which has twofold action orientated: First to baptize everyone in the name of Holy Trinity and secondly to be witnesses to the end of the world. Holy Father continues to explain “The mission entrusted by Jesus to the Apostles has been carried out through the centuries, and it continues still today: it requires the collaboration of us all, each one, in fact, by dint of the Baptism he/she received, is qualified on his/her part to proclaim the Gospel. It’s in fact Baptism that qualifies us and also drives us to be missionaries, to proclaim the Gospel. As at the beginning the Risen Christ sent His Apostles with the strength of the Holy Spirit, so today He sends all of us, with the same strength, to put concrete and visible signs of hope; because Jesus gives us hope; He has gone to Heaven and has opened the doors of Heaven and the hope that we will arrive there.”

He saves our lives while in heaven, he is also with us; and we while on earth are with him. He is here with us by his divinity, his power, and his love. We cannot be in heaven, as he is on earth, by divinity, but in him, we can be there by love. He did not leave heaven when he came down to us; nor did he withdraw from us when he went up again into heaven. The fact that he was in heaven even while he was on earth is borne out by his own statement: No one has ever ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. These words are explained by our oneness with Christ, for he is our head, and we are his body. No one ascended into heaven except Christ because we also are Christ: he is the Son of Man by his union with us, and we by our union with him are the sons of God. So, the Apostle says: Just as the human body, which has many members, is a unity, because all the different members make one body, so is it also with Christ. He too has many members, but one body”.

Holy Father reflecting on the Feast of the Ascension said “Out of compassion for us he descended from heaven, and although he ascended alone, we also ascend, because we are in him by grace. Thus, no one but Christ descended and no one but Christ ascended; not because there is no distinction between the head and the body, but because the body as a unity cannot be separated from the head”. St. Paul reminds us with these words “who can separate us from the Love of Jesus”. 

A story by an unknown author to help to understand how we can become part of Jesus’ body.

As I faced my Maker at the last Judgment, I knelt before the Lord along with the other souls. Before each of us laid our lives, like the squares of a quilt, in many piles.

An Angel sat before each of us sewing our quilt squares together into a tapestry that was our life.

But as my Angel took each piece of cloth off the pile, I noticed how ragged and empty each of my squares were. They were filled with giant holes! Each square was labeled with a part of my life that had been difficult, the challenges and temptations I was faced with in everyday life. I saw hardships that I had endured, (which were the largest holes of all).

I glanced around me. Nobody else had such squares. Others had a tiny hole here and there; other tapestries were filled with rich color and the bright hues of worldly fortune.

I gazed upon my own life and was disheartened. My Angel was sewing the ragged pieces of cloth together, threadbare, and empty, like binding air. Finally, the time came when each life was to be displayed, held up to the light and the scrutiny of truth. The others rose each in turn, holding up their tapestries. So filled their lives had been.

My Angel looked upon me and nodded for me to rise. My gaze dropped to the ground in shame. I hadn’t had all the earthly fortunes. I had love in my life and laughter. But there had also been trials of illness, death, and false accusations that took from me my world as I knew it. I had to start over many times. I often struggled with the temptation to quit, only to somehow muster the strength to pick up and begin again. I had spent many nights on my knees in prayer, asking for help and guidance in my life. I had often been held up to ridicule, which I endured painfully; each time offering it up to the Father, in hopes that I would not melt within my skin beneath the judgmental gaze of those who unfairly judged me. And now, I had to face the truth. My life was what it was, and I had to accept it for what it had been.

I rose and slowly lifted the combined squares of my life to the light. An awe-filled gasp filled the air. I gazed around at the others who stared at me with eyes wide. Then, I looked upon the tapestry before me. Light flooded through the many holes, creating an image.

The face of Christ.

Then our Lord stood before me, with warmth and love in His eyes. He said, “Every time you gave over your life to Me, it became My life, My hardships, and My struggles. Each point of light in your life is when you stepped aside and let Me shine through, until there was more of Me than there was of you…Welcome Home My Child.”

 

How do we see Ascension of the Lord as our destiny?

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