Reflection on Today's Readings and The Ascension of The Lord, Year B, Thursday 13th, May, 2021
Texts: 1:1-11; Ps. 47:2-3.6-9; Eph. 4:1-13; Mark 16:15-20
Today we celebrate the Ascension of our Lord into heaven. Ascension is not a disappearance of Jesus Christ or His departure from us; He has not abandoned us and He will not do that. God says, "Can a woman forget her baby at the breast, feel no pity for the child she has borne? Even if these were to forget, I shall not forget you (Is. 49:15). By the virtue of our faith in Jesus, we are borne of God (John1:12) and, so He will not abandon or depart from us; He will not separate Himself from us. In today's gospel reading, it is said, "So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the sign that attended it. Amen." This means the apostles and other disciples neither saw nor experienced the Ascension of the Lord as a departure, separation or abandonment; for the Lord continued to work with them and confirmed their message.
Ascension ushers in a new means of encounter, a new means of relationship. Though He still live with us as man with flesh and bone, we will no longer see Him with the eye of flesh but the eye of faith. The change, here, is the means of encounter, the means of relationship. With the eye of the flesh we know Jesus Christ as man, a man who is endowed with God's power and might, but the eye of faith tells us that He is God who has become man without the loss of His Divinity. "He is God among us" the faith tells us. Hence, He said to Thomas, you believe because you can see me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe" (John 20:29). The means of establishing relationship with Him becomes faith, no longer by sight.
Jesus Christ continues to live with us in different forms through faith. He lives with us in His Church. Where two or three persons gather in His name, He is there (Mtt. 18:20). He lives in our hearts; we are also His mage, another christs. As we grow into Him, we reveal Him to the world and, He continues to live through us.
In His ministers, He continues to attend to our needs. By His grace and gifts He bestowed on the ministers, He continues to act through them; He continues to meet His people through them. In today's second reading, Paul says, "And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipment of the saints, for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." His gifts are the fruits of His Ascension to heaven. Paul puts it thus: "Therefore, it is said, 'When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.'"
The action of Jesus Christ in the Church continues in the Church's administration of sacraments. At baptism Jesus Christ cleanses us of our sins and makes us the children of God and members of the Church; by Holy Eucharist, He feeds us with His body and blood; at confirmation, He pours out His Spirit on us and makes us strong; at confessional, he forgives us our sins and bestows the grace to stay away from sin; with anointing of the sick, He restores health or strengthens us for spiritual journey to heaven; by matrimony, He makes a man and a woman one and bestows the grace to bear the challenge of their marital state; and by Holy Orders, He configures His ministers to Himself. Jesus Christ also continues to live with us in the blessed sacrament. At Holy Mass, He continues to offer Himself to His Father on our behalf through the Church and, so continues to intercede for us and obtains pardon for us.
Moreover, with His Ascension, Jesus has directed our attention to heaven. We are now pilgrims of heaven, following our leader, our Lord Jesus Christ. St. Paul admonishes us thus: You have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts, then, on the things that are in heaven, where Christ sits on his throne at the right side of God. Keep your minds fixed on things there, not on things here on earth" (Col. 3:1-2). We are now to seek the things of heaven. With Ascension of our Lord, we now recognise that earth is not our home but heaven is. Hence, Ascension opens up new horizons in Divine revelation. Our Lord has gone before us to prepare a place for us (John14:1-3). The Ascension teaches us to live for heaven, to always incline towards heaven; we are to look up to heaven as we sojourn here below. Where our leader and Lord is, our hearts must be.
Gladden us with holy joys, almighty God, and make us rejoice with devout thanksgiving, for the Ascension of Christ your Son is our exaltation, and, where the Head has gone before in glory, the Body is called to follow in hope. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(Colect for the Ascension)
Fr. Andrew Olowomuke
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