Theme of the Readings

FROM THE ARCHIVES (2005)

The ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven marks the end of his historical presence in the world, but even more, it emphasizes the power and sovereignty he exercises from heaven as Lord of history and of the universe. When the risen Jesus takes his leave, he addresses his disciples with these words: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Gospel).

At the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, the disciples ask Jesus if he is going to restore the kingdom to Israel. Jesus replies: “It is not for you to know times or dates that the Father has decided by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you…” (first reading).

In the Letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul asks God to grant us a revelation that will bring us to full knowledge of him, that will enable us to know the risen Christ who “sits at his right hand, in heaven, far above every Sovereignty, Authority, Power, or Domination … and that [God] has put all things under his feet” (second reading).

Doctrinal Messages

The ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven is a mystery of our faith, utterly foreign to our physical and earthly experience. But for God nothing is impossible. This is why the readings of the liturgy, on various occasions, mention the power, force, and authority of God. Anyone contemplating the history of salvation, as it is narrated in the Old and New Testaments, can see God’s powerful action deployed in the people of Israel and the disciples of Jesus. He will keep his mind and heart more open to this mystery in which, together with the resurrection, God’s power reaches the most sublime peaks. When he had ascended into heaven, the Father seated Jesus at his right hand, that is, he inaugurated the messianic kingdom, fulfilling the Prophet Daniel’s vision: “On him was conferred sovereignty, glory and kingship, and men of all peoples, nations and languages became his servants. His sovereignty is an eternal sovereignty which shall never pass away, nor will his empire ever be destroyed” (Dan 7:13) and thus showing his power and strength.

In this way the Father communicates his power to the Son, to Jesus Christ in glory. Christ’s power is a universal power that embraces all the realities and beings of heaven and earth. It is a power of salvation, never condemnation. His name, by antonomasia, is redeemer, savior. Thus he says to his disciples: “Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Gospel). It is a power that he exercises in history, not directly but through the power of the Spirit, which the disciples receive in order to be “[his] witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends of the earth” (first reading).

Jesus Christ’s redemptive and salvific power is expressed above all in the Church, “his body, the fullness of him who fills the whole creation” (second reading). In the Church and for the Church, Jesus Christ in glory continues to exercise it among men in order to save them. For this reason Christ’s kingdom is already active in the Church and possesses the dynamism of hope for the definitive and eternal kingdom, at the end of time.

Pastoral Suggestions

In Christian life one must be wary of two possible deviations. One, which I will call Pelagian, is to think and act as if man had the “power” to conquer heaven for himself; the other, Lutheran, consists in being convinced that “deeds do not count,” and that everything depends totally on abandonment to God’s power. We Christians must keep the difficult balance between the two tendencies that we perhaps find in our own hearts. If this balance is upset, Christian life itself is also upset. Either we will place our trust in our own “strength,” considering holiness as a titanic undertaking – and therefore for the very few privileged – and seeing heaven as a deserved reward for our gigantic effort; or, on the contrary, we will totally mistrust our own strengths and efforts because of our congenital powerlessness, and will consequently “oblige” God to manifest his power in us, imagining heaven as a “gift” of God, unrelated to our will and moral conduct.

The priest is teacher, educator, and witness. As a teacher he must teach the faithful the ways of faith and morals, the ways of holiness, the ways that lead to the Father of heaven. As educator, with patience and respect, he should speak to men and women of heaven as their destiny. He should enlighten their consciences in order not to deflect them. He should accompany them in their daily difficulties and struggles on their way toward the Father’s house. He should always be available for those who need God’s mercy and spiritual guidance. As a witness, he should make others feel, by his life and conduct, that “his true homeland is heaven.” He should proclaim and confess with his actions what he really feels in his heart. He should live detached from earthly ambitions, over materialistic compensations and notably worldly behavior, which do not help the faithful to raise their gaze to heaven and to God.

Today, in Italy and in other countries, the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord is being celebrated. The Gospel reading (cf. Mt 28:16-20) shows us the Apostles who gather in Galilee, at “the mountain to which Jesus had directed them” (v. 16). The Lord’s final encounter with his followers takes place here, on the mountain. The “mountain” has a strong symbolic and evocative charge. Jesus proclaimed the Beatitudes on the Mount (cf. Mt 5:1-12); He withdrew to the mountains to pray (cf. Mt 14:23). He welcomed the crowds there and healed the sick (cf. Mt 15:29). However this time on the mountain, he is no longer the Master who acts and teaches, but rather the Risen One who asks the disciples to take action and to proclaim, entrusting to them the mandate to continue his work.

He assigns to them the mission to all the peoples. He says: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the 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” (vv. 19-20). The contents of the mission entrusted to the Apostles are the following: to proclaim, baptize, teach and walk the path traced by the Master, that is, the living Gospel. This message of salvation first of all implies the duty of witness — one cannot proclaim without witness — to which we too, today’s disciples, are called to explain our faith. Faced with such a demanding task, and thinking of our weaknesses, we feel inadequate, as the Apostles themselves surely felt. But we must not be discouraged, remembering the words Jesus addressed to them before ascending to Heaven: “I am with you always, to the close of the age” (v. 20).

This promise ensures the constant and consoling presence of Jesus among us. But how is this presence realised? Through His Spirit, who leads the Church to walk through history as the companion of every person. That Spirit sent by Christ and the Father, who works the remission of sins and sanctifies all those who are repentant and open themselves with confidence to his gift.

With the promise to remain with us until the end of time, Jesus inaugurates the style of his presence in the world as the Risen One. Jesus is present in the world but with another style, the style of the Risen One, that is a presence that is revealed in the Word, in the Sacraments and in the constant and interior action of the Holy Spirit. The Feast of the Ascension tells us that although Jesus ascended to Heaven to dwell gloriously at the right hand of the Father, he is still and always among us: this is the source of our strength, our perseverance and our joy, from the very presence of Jesus among us with the strength of the Holy Spirit.

Today the Solemnity of the Ascension of Christ into heaven is being celebrated in various countries, including Italy, a mystery of faith which the Acts of the Apostles places 40 days after the Resurrection (cf. Acts 1: 3-11) and for this reason it was celebrated last Thursday in the Vatican and in several other Nations of the world.

After the Ascension, the first disciples remained together in the Upper Room gathered around the Mother of Jesus, fervently awaiting the gift of the Holy Spirit, promised by Jesus (cf. Acts 1: 14). [In May], the month of Mary, we too relive this experience, feeling Mary’s spiritual presence more intensely.

And St Peter’s Square looks almost like an “Upper Room” under the open sky, packed with the faithful, most of whom belong to the Italian Catholic Action to whom I shall speak after the Marian prayer of the Regina Caeli.

In his farewell discourses to the disciples, Jesus stressed the importance of his “return to the Father”, the culmination of his whole mission: indeed, he came into the world to bring man back to God, not on the ideal level – like a philosopher or a master of wisdom – but really, like a shepherd who wants to lead his sheep back to the fold. This “exodus” toward the heavenly Homeland which Jesus lived in the first person, he faced solely for us. It was for our sake that he came down from Heaven and for our sake that he ascended to it, after making himself in all things like men, humbling himself even to death on a cross and after having touched the abyss of the greatest distance from God. For this very reason the Father was pleased with him and “highly exalted” him (Phil 2: 9), restoring to him the fullness of his glory, but now with our humanity. God in man – man in God: this is even now a reality, not a theoretical truth. Therefore, Christian hope, founded on Christ, is not an illusion but, as the Letter to the Hebrews says, “we have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul” (Heb 6: 19), an anchor that penetrates Heaven where Christ has gone before us.

And what does the human person in every epoch need other than this: a firm anchorage in life? Here once again is the wonderful meaning of Mary’s presence among us. Turning our gaze to her, like the first disciples, we are immediately directed to the reality of Jesus: the Mother points to the Son who is no longer physically among us but awaits us in the Father’s house. Jesus invites us not to linger looking upwards, but to be united in prayer together, to invoke the gift of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, only those who are “born from on high”, that is, from God’s Spirit, have access to the Kingdom of Heaven (cf. Jn 3: 3-5), and the first to be “born from on high” was, precisely, the Virgin Mary. To her, therefore, let us turn in the fullness of Easter joy.

ROME REPORTS (3:18) – God serves as a guiding Shepherd to people across the world, throughout history, and across various cultures.

ON THIS SOLEMNITY of the Ascension of our Lord, the Pope is happy to offer the Eucharistic Sacrifice with you and for you. I am happy to be with the students and staff of the Venerable English College in this year in which you are celebrating your fourth centenary. And today, in a special way, I feel spiritually close to you, to your parents and families, and to all the faithful of England and Wales – to all who are united in the faith of Peter and Paul, in the faith of Jesus Christ. The traditions of generosity and fidelity that have been exemplified in the life of your College for four hundred years are present in my heart this morning. You have come to give thanks and praise to God for what has been accomplished by his grace in the past, and to find strength to go forward – under the protection of our Blessed Lady – in the fervour of your forefathers, many of whom laid down their lives for the Catholic faith.

A cordial word of welcome goes also to the new priests from the Pontifical Beda College. For you too this is a moment of special challenge to keep alive the ideals manifested in your patron, Saint Bede the Venerable, whom you will commemorate tomorrow. Welcome also to the staff and to your fellow studente.

The Mystery of the Ascension

With joy then and fresh resolves for the future, let us reflect briefly on the great mystery of today’s liturgy. In the Scripture readings the whole significance of Christ’s Ascension is summarized for us. The richness of this mystery is spelled out in two statements: Jesus gave instructions, and then Jesus took his place.

Mission and Instructions of Christ

In the providence of God – in the eternal design of the Father – the hour had come for Christ to go away. He would leave his Apostles behind, with his Mother Mary, but only after he had given them his instructions. The Apostles now had a mission to perform according to the instructions that Jesus left, and these instructions were in turn the faithful expression of the Father’s will.

The Gift of the Holy Spirit

The instructions indicated, above all, that the Apostles were to wait for the Holy Spirit, who was the gift of the Father. From the beginning, it had to be crystal-clear that the source of the Apostles’ strength is the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who guides the Church in the way of truth; the Gospel is to spread through the power of God, and not by means of human wisdom or strength.

The Great Commission and
the Missionary Era

The Apostles, moreover, were instructed to teach – to proclaim the Good News to the whole world. And they were to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Like Jesus, they were to speak explicitly about the Kingdom of God and about salvation. The Apostles were to give witness to Christ to the ends of the earth. The early Church clearly understood these instructions and the missionary era began. And everybody knew that this missionary era could never end until the same Jesus, who went up to heaven, would come back again.

Fidelity to the Deposit of Faith

The words of Jesus became a treasure for the Church to guard and to proclaim, to meditate on and to rive. And at the same time, the Holy Spirit implanted in the Church an apostolic charism, in order to keep this revelation intact. Through his words Jesus was to live on in his Church: I am with you always. And so the whole ecclesial community became conscious of the need for fidelity to the instructions of Jesus, to the deposit of faith. This solicitude was to pass from generation to generation – down to our own day.

The Priority of Word and Formation

And it was because of this principle that I spoke recently to your own Rectors, stating that the first priority for seminaries today is the teaching of God’s word in all its purity and integrity, with all its exigencies and in all its power. The word of God – and the word of God alone – is the basis for all ministry, for all pastoral activity, for all priestly action. The power of God’s word constituted the dynamic basis of the Second Vatican Council, and John XXIII pointed out clearly on the day it opened: ‘The greatest concern of the Ecumenical Council is this: that the sacred deposit of Christian doctrine should be more effectively quarded and taught’. And if the seminarians of this generation are to be adequately prepared to take on the heritage and challenge of this Council they must be trained above all in God’s word: in ‘the sacred deposit of Christian doctrine’ Yes, dear sons, our greatest challenge is to be faithful to the instructions of the Lord Jesus.

Christ at the Right Hand of God

And the second reflection on the meaning of the Ascension is found in this phrase: Jesus took his place. After having undergone the humiliation of his passion and death, Jesus took his place at the right-hand of God; he took his place with his eternal Father. But he also entered heaven as our Head. Whereupon, in the expression of Leo the Great, the glory of the Head became the hope of the body. For all eternity Christ takes is place as the firstborn among many brethren: our nature is with God in Christ. And as man, the Lord Jesus lives for ever to intercede for us with Father. At the same time, from his throne of glory, Jesus sends out to the whole Church a message of hope and a call to holiness.

The Triumph of the Church in Christ

Because of Christ’s merits, because of his intercession with the Father, we are able to attain justice and holiness of life, in him. The Church may indeed experience difficulties, the Gospel may suffer setbacks, but because Jesus is at the right-hand of the Father the Church will never know defeat. Christ’s victory is ours. The power of the glorified Christ, the beloved Son of the eternal Father, is superabundant, to sustain each of us and all of us in the fidelity of our dedication to God’s Kingdom and in the generosity of our celibacy. The efficacy of Christ’s Ascension touches all us in the concrete reality of our daily lives. Because of this mystery it is the vocation of the whole Church to wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

A Call to Hope and Joy

Dear sons, be imbued with the hope that is so much a part of the mystery of the Ascension of Jesus. Be deeply conscious of Christ’s victory and triumph over sin and death. Realize that the strength of Chist is greater than our weakness, greater than the weakness of the whole world. Try to understand and share the joy that Mary experienced in knowing that her Son had taken his place with his Father, whom he loved infinitely. And renew your faith today in the promise of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has gone to prepare a place for us, so that he can come back again and take us to himself.

Conclusion

This is the mystery of the Ascension of our Head. Let us always remember: Jesus gave instructions, and then Jesus took his place. Amen.