Ascension of the Lord
Acts 1: 1-11 Ps 47:2-3,6-9 Eph 1:17-23 Mt 28: 16-20
The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.
Mountain here is seen as a location which is most proximate to heaven because of its physical elevation as in the Sermon on the Mount, the transfiguration, etc. The mention of doubt is candid.
“appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
St. Luke ends his Gospel with the Ascension and begins the Acts of the Apostles with the Ascension. The period of 40 days with the Apostles is an echo of Moses’ 40 days on Mount Sinai; the chosen people’s 40 years in the wilderness prior to entering the promised land; the Lord’s 40 days in the desert prior to beginning his ministry and the rabbinic use of “40” as a norm for the disciples’ learning and repetition of their masters’ teaching. The centrality of Jerusalem emphasizes the continuity between the era of Israel and that of the Church.
It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”.
Jesus essentially corrects the preoccupation of an impending parousia, not the idea of Israel’s restoration. This preoccupation with the “end times” can still be found in some Christians today. Some people see the Book of Revelation as a sort of “Spiritual Fortune Cookie”. Are these the end times? Well, the good people at Mutual of Omaha will be glad to calculate when your end will be and charge you based on actuarial tables. Yes, these are your end times and that is the point. Jesus offers the Spirit is the substitute for the parousia. The Spirit is the principle of continued Christian existence in a new era of sacred history, the era of the Church and mission. These realities must take the place of an early parousia as the focal point of Christian awareness. The movement of apostolic mission follows this pattern. It begins from Jerusalem, the geographic center of sacred history; from it “the word of God” must spread to the whole earth.
Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him.
Knowledge, the Spanish language makes a distinction between two types of knowledge. The difference between “saber (knowledge of data & conocer ( knowledge of a person).” The IRS (saber _knows you); your spouse (conocer-knows) you. The Spirit grants us to “conocer” the Father of Glory. Not merely a knowledge of God’s plan, but knowledge “of him” , an experience of God’s great love for humanity in Christ that would be visibly shown in a true union of a community of people who had been previously divided by many social and racial barriers.
Which he worked in Christ, raising him from the dead, enthroning him at his right hand in heaven…far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion
St. Paul sees the resurrection, ascension and glorification of Christ as one great continuous act of the Father. “He has worked” connotes an action begun in the past and continuing in its effect until the present. St. Paul does not see this action of God as accomplishing something only in Christ; he sees it as a continuing action experienced and shared by a people, the Church, united to Christ, its head. No present or future force can block God’s work.
“and he put all things beneath his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.
Christ is the new Adam, the head of a new humanity, who has brought to virtual completion Adam’s assignment by God to dominate the universe. “Gave” here means Christ’s headship is appointed by the Father.
St. Paul sees the universal Church as the necessary complement of Christ. He considers them an organic unity. For him, Christ is the invisible anointed leader and head of a visible world community. The opinion of St. John Chrysostom and several of the Greek fathers is that all created things are continually contributing to the fullness of Christ.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Brief as it is, it is an unusually clear presentation of what the apostolic Church understood itself to be. It’s mission statement.
The Church acts in virtue of the commission that Jesus has received, a commission that is without limit. By his authority we are to make disciples of all nations.Our work is to baptize and to teach. Baptism is a rite of initiation into a new life, a new relationship with God you were not baptized you ARE baptized, immersed in a living relationship with God. The quality of that relationship, how alive it is, is your choice.
The object of the teaching is: “all that I have commanded you”. This phrase echoes Matthew’s habitual presentation of Jesus as the new Moses of a new Israel. The word command does not affirm the establishment of a new Law, but of a new way of life, just as the Law of Moses established a way of life. We communicate not merely “data” about God or Divine revelation. We convey the truth of that new life in and through our personal response to God in our life. He lives in you and through you, He lives in and through His Church and its loving action in this world.
I am with you always
The final word is an assurance of the living presence of Jesus in the Church, a presence that looks to the eschatological fulfillment of the Church. The life and activity of the Church are a constant testimonial that Jesus lives and a movement towards the restoration of the Kingdom .
The first disciples asked if Jesus was going to restore the kingdom to Israel, You can almost see Jesus smile and ask them: Good question, when are YOU going to do that?