What Does the Ascension Mean for Us?

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This year, the feast of the Ascension occurs for Christians on May 29^th but is celebrated by Catholics on the following Sunday, June 1. 

The Ascension has always been a type of mystical feast, like the Transfiguration which occurs before Passion Week. Both events occur in the presence of a few or more apostles and not among the crowds that Jesus had typically drawn for teaching. In this way, the message seems to be selective but not exclusive. It is selective in that apostles are encouraged to prepare for what we now know is the coming Pentecost, and to share this message with the world. “In his name (God’s), penance for the remission of sins is to be preached to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses to this. See, I send down upon you, the promise of my Father. Remain here in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” This means the Holy Spirit will soon come and complete your commissioning to the life of the Gospel. 

After Jesus says this to the apostles, he leads them out “…near Bethany and with hands upraised blest them.” He was then taken into heaven, and the apostles fell down worshipping him and then they “…returned to Jerusalem filled with joy.” From then on, they were found in the temple praising God constantly!

The Ascension is best known as a ‘commissioning.’ Picture your parents lecturing you as you went off to college or to a career, or to the military service. Neither you nor they knew what awaited you over the next few years. Their tender, yet affirmative firmness, included warnings against aberrant behavior and poor life or study habits. They asked you to call them for more than money and to let them know of your needs. Poof!! Off you went. You were now commissioned to get an education or a career with their blessing. Or picture your religious superior handing you the annual appointment card during a prayer service, a card that would tell you where the community thought you would be of best service for the mission. Or, in more recent years, the signing of a contract to give your gifts to a place of mission where you could provide a service for the people of God where most needed.

We’ve all been there.

Outside Bethany where we experience a Jesus who says, “See you are witnesses to this. Go serve my people,” he implores. And we go.

We are told the apostles go “joyfully” and “and were to be found in the temple constantly, speaking the praises of God.” So ends Luke’s Gospel. 

Reflection

Luke also reports the story of the Ascension in his ‘Acts of the Apostles’ which follows the Gospels in the Bible. The Ascension has been a source of meditation and inspiration to many but especially persons who take seriously the dedication of one’s life to the Gospel. Saint Ignatius Loyola is one such leader. During his pilgrimage to Rome, prior to the founding of the Jesuits—his narrative is a valiant and gripping tale of the journey from Spain to Italy on foot and in leaky boats and on recalcitrant donkeys; sleeping in abandoned churches, climbing hills and mountains with his lame, wounded leg—Ignatius makes it to a monastery whose monks care for the Ascension Chapel. They promptly throw him out thinking he is an imposter. He manages to get into the Chapel by bartering his cherished pen knife with a guard. He must see the rock where allegedly Jesus had left his footprints before ascending into heaven. Of course, the rock is a legend, the stuff of hagiography, but Ignatius’s faith is real. 

I believe St. Ignatius was then infused with the Spirit of Mission—he will now give his life to commissioning others to do the same. Today, the shrine of the Ascension is “a modest, stone building,” says Father James Martin, SJ, “shaped like an igloo, with an opening in the domed ceiling.”  It is administered and cared for by Muslims who also believe in the Ascension. 

The meaning of the Ascension for us is very clear: Jesus left us the mission to go out and preach the good news. The first chapter of Luke’s ‘Acts of the Apostles,’ repeats this story with a few more details and the story ends with a beautiful description of the apostles looking up to the heavens as Jesus disappears before them. They are aghast. He is disappearing again. But this time they will never see him again. He has left them—and us— with a mandate. They are trembling as two angels appear asking them: “Why do you stand looking up to the skies? This Jesus, who has been taken up to heaven will return just as you saw him leave…” In other words, get to work! Start proclaiming the good news. You have been commissioned!  

Reflect this week on your personal mission—which changes throughout life—but which requires Jesus as the center of your focus for the mission. There is so much to be done. When you close your office door at the end of the day, can you say a prayer of gratitude for the day or your work? On the way home can you stop at a little store that needs business, and you need an item? Can you sign up for a parish or church activity that needs volunteers with your expertise?

Read and carefully reflect on Luke 24:50-53 and Acts 1:6-11. Do not just “stand looking up” for Jesus. Wherever you get involved, you will find him there.