Posts

Ascension Sunday Q and A

DP280379Q. What are some things we can learn from this Sunday’s Feast of the Ascension of the Lord?

A. The Ascension affirms in the minds of Jesus’ followers many truths that Jesus had attempted to teach them prior to his Passion. Now, following Jesus’ glorious Resurrection and victory over death, the disciples can finally appropriate these realities.

1. Jesus is Divine. In today’s Gospel reading from Matthew 28, we read that, before Jesus Ascends into heaven, the disciples “worshipped him”. Jesus accepts worship, which is due to God alone. The implication is obvious: Jesus is God.

2. Christ will be waiting for us in Heaven. It was fitting that those who had witnessed the humiliation and suffering of the Christ at the hands of sinful humanity would now see Jesus exalted. Prior to his Passion, Jesus had told them: “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (John 20:17). That process is now complete. In today’s First reading, we read that, as the disciples watched in awe, Jesus “was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9). The cloud, Scripture tells us, is an image of heaven, the abode of the Almighty (cf. Exodus 13:22; Luke 9:34ff).

Jesus had said previously, “‘Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.’” (John 14:1-6).

Saint Leo the Great, preaching on the Ascension of Christ, said, “Today, we are not only made possessors of Paradise, but with Christ we have ascended, mystically but also really, to the highest Heavens and have won through Christ a grace more wonderful than the one we had lost.”

3. The Ascension spurs us on in sharing our Catholic Faith. Jesus tells his disciples that it is now time for them to begin spreading the Gospel everywhere they go: “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” (Matthew 28:18-20).
The disciples returned with Mary to Jerusalem to prepare for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Empowered with God’s gifts, let us also seek to reach the people we know with the Good News of the Gospel. Our Lady will help us, too, just as she did those first believers in her Son.

You may also like: Q and A on the Ascension

/by

Q and A on the Ascension

The Ascension of Jesus Christ was celebrated today in many dioceses around the world, although some still celebrate the feast on Ascension Thursday. Here’s a brief Q and A that explains a few key points about the doctrine.

Why is the Ascension important?

The Ascension of the resurrected body of Jesus into heaven is important for many reasons. First, it answers the question, “Where is Jesus’ body now?” Second, many objectors to the Gospel would have wondered why Jesus had to return to the Father. In other words, what difference has this alleged triumph of the Messiah made for the world?

Peter preached that heaven must keep Jesus “until the time for establishing all that God spoke by the mouths of his holy prophets from of old” (Acts 3:21). Paul similarly teaches that Christ must reign “until he has put all his enemies under his feet” (1 Cor. 15:25; cf. Ps. 110:1). Both of these things will be accomplished in the present age, the age of the Church.

Presently, Christ is exercising his reign on earth through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church. The early Catholics pointed to charismatic phenomena (such as healings, the gift of prophecy, etc.) as proof of this reality. Peter’s quotation of Joel 3:1-5 in his Pentecost sermon (Acts 2:16-21) alludes to this effect. Essentially, the fledgling Church was accomplishing everything that Jesus did when he was on earth in his human body. But the effect, in a sense, was greater: Jesus’ physical body could only be in one place at a time; Jesus in his mystical body (the Church) could now cover the earth with his presence.

What is the difference between the Ascension of Jesus and the Assumption of Mary?

The essential difference is that Jesus, as God, could ascend to heaven by his own power. Mary, as a creature, albeit the greatest creature in the universe, had to be drawn (assumed) into heaven, by God. Both Jesus and Mary are presently experiencing the life of heaven in their physical, glorified bodies – an experience we hope to share, if we remain faithful, which we affirm each Sunday in the Creed: “I believe in the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”

/7 Comments/by