Cycle B - Year I:  

16 May 2021:  Solemnity of the Lord's Ascension 

(Liturgical Color: White)

Readings:

First Reading:        Acts 1:1-11

Second Reading:   Ephesians 1:17-23

Gospel:  Please Read  Mark 16:15-20

"Go forth and preach the Gospel"

Forty days after our Lord's Resurrection the Church celebrates the Solemnity of His Ascension.  This Sunday we celebrate that great event.

What does our Catechism tell us about this great event in the life of Jesus?

The Lord's Ascension into heaven to the right hand of the Father is among the articles of Faith we profess in the Apostles' Creed.  We believe by this mystery that Jesus Christ, in His resurrected body and soul, went up to heaven and took His seat at the right hand of God the Father.  The Ascension makes way for the Holy Spirit to come down to earth and inspires the Apostles to preach the Gospel to every land.

The Church further teaches that when Christ ascended into heaven He did so on His own power and He ascended as true God and true Man.  This belief is rooted in the eyewitnesses testimony of the Apostles themselves.  The first reading in the Acts of the Apostles describes this momentous event: "When he (Jesus) had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and  a cloud took him from their sight." (Acts 1:9)

 The Lord's Ascension becomes the great hope for the Apostles.  It was this encounter with the Resurrected One that compelled the Apostles to preach the Gospel without fear, even to the point of shedding their blood as martyrs.

Now, the Lord's departure and ascension were both an end and the beginning for the first disciples.  It was the end of Jesus' physical presence with them, but at the same time it is also the beginning of the Lord's presence in a new way.

The Gospel narrative from St. Mark says that the Lord gives the Apostles His final command to continue His mission on earth: "Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature." (Mk 16:15)  That is why Ascension Sunday is considered the great commissioning which the risen Christ gives to the first disciples and now also to the whole Church.  That means, for all of us who believe in the risen Christ our mission begins to be heralds of the Good News and ambassadors for our Lord Jesus Christ to the whole world in our own generation.

The mysterious nature of the Ascension event must draw us to an increase in the virtue of hope, a filial trust in God that helps us transcend all of the sufferings of this life and assures us that  we can one day join the Lord in heaven.  So that whenever we are beleaguered by the rigorous demands of authentic Christian living, the Ascension of Jesus reminds us that heaven awaits those  who are faithful to the end.  Because all of our sacrifices in this life are our merits in the life of the world to come.

The Ascension passes on to us, in our generation, the mission to continue with the Church missionary work to seek the souls who are still far from knowing Jesus.  It should move us, for example, to share our hope in Christ with the person who is near despair, or a co-worker or neighbor who needs to know that life is worth living.  The hope of the Ascension reminds us to witness to others that what we do here on earth will reap either a great reward or eternal punishment in the next life.

Thus, each one of us is called into the ministry of Jesus.  We are called to be "other Christs", to be the Easter people who wish to make known and spread this love of God and His care for His people in the world by our own Christian living.

This Sunday is also Catholic Communication Sunday.  It was established by Pope Paul VI in 1967 as an annual celebration that encourages us to reflect on the opportunities and challenges that the modern means of social communication (the press, motion pictures, radio, television, and the internet) afford the Church to communicate the Gospel message. And this is very timely as the Catholic Church in the Philippines celebrates our 500th years of Christianity with the theme: Gifted to give! So that as we are grateful for the faith of our Catholic faith, it is also our obligation to share this faith with others, especially in the Asian region as well as the whole world.

A blessed Ascension Sunday to us all. And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!