Cycle C - Year II:  

29 May 2022: Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord 

(Liturgical Color: White)

Readings:

First Reading:        Acts 1:1-11

Second Reading:  Ephesians 1:17-23

Gospel:  Please Read  Luke 24:46-53 

To witness the risen Lord in our lives.....!

 We celebrate this Sunday the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. After 40 days upon His resurrection and after many appearances to His disciples, it is now mission accomplished for our Lord Jesus. He will leave the apostles to ascend into heaven.

The Lord's Ascension means Christ's physical presence with the apostles comes to an end. Jesus will no longer accompany His apostles, no longer travel with them from one village to the next. But Jesus, the Lord of life and history, will be behind every event in salvation history and within every heart that belongs to Him. He will make His presence felt in every community that worships Him and within every innermost room that holds Him. Jesus will no longer have to travel to meet us. He will be with us, in us, and live through us.

We profess the Ascension of the Lord into heaven to the right hand of the Father among the articles of faith 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. Now, the mystery of Jesus' Ascension is intimately tied with the mystery of the coming of the Advocate. Because the Ascension makes way for the Holy Spirit to come down to earth and inspires the Apostles to preach the Gospel to every land. 

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 eyewitness 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 has become the great hope for the Apostles. It was their encounter with the Resurrected Christ that inspired them to preach the Gospel without fear, even shedding their blood as martyrs  to testify to this truth.

The Lord's departure and ascension were the end and the beginning for the Apostles as well as 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 account of the Lord's Ascension narrates His final instructions to the Apostles, traditionally called the "Great Commissioning". Although our Lord goes back to the Father, His saving work continues in our world through the Apostles and their followers. They are commissioned to labor on Jesus' behalf until the Lord comes again to bring all things to completion at the end of time. This is the essence of Christ's mission, and therefore of the Gospel.  Everything else -- Jesus' teaching, healing, preaching, and miracles Jesus performed -- is to prepare for this mission.  This signifies that the responsibility to spread the Gospel lies now in the Apostles.  In their hands lies the great responsibility of propagating the faith.

Today we ask ourselves: "What do we do after the Lord's Ascension?"  Well, we do not only wait on the Lord's return the second time for final judgment. Jesus want us to continue His mission through us, so "that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. (Lk 24:47) By His death and resurrection Christ has already won for us heaven and all the graces necessary to get there.  

The Lord's Ascension reminds us about our sacred responsibilities to spread the faith because we are now the modern-day disciples.  In our broad shoulders now rest this great responsibility.

Sometimes we are afraid to embrace this responsibility because of our limitations.  But remember that evangelization is not solely limited through speaking, talent and resources.  We can also evangelize through simple acts of love, humility and kindness.  Our actions speak louder than words.  We can now even evangelize using the internet by writing our thoughts about Jesus and the Gospel. Or by just sharing the word of God is also a good form of evangelization.

The Church also plays a very important role in the work to be done by us as new disciples.  Through the Church the Lord extends Himself to all nations, making present and effective the graces He won for us.  The Lord said to the Apostles: "You are witnesses of these things." (Lk 24:48)  So then the Apostles are to testify to His truth, and they did so as they witnessed the truth by the sacrifice of their very lives.  

But as the Lord has given the "great commissioning" He also promises the means to accomplish it through the Holy Spirit.  For no one can bear witness to our Lord unless the Holy Spirit enables him or her. (And next Sunday we celebrate Pentecost Sunday.)

Today is also Catholic Communication Sunday. Let us use the technology of communication to spread God's word and an effective tool for our mission to evangelize the world. 

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

Ad Jesum per Mariam!