SOLEMNITY OF THE LORD’S ASCENSION

 

Readings: Acts 1:1-11

                 Ephesians 1:17-23

                 Luke 24:4-23

 

 

“As he blessed them he parted from them

and was taken up to heaven.”

 

 

            As we celebrate today the solemnity of the Lord’s ascension, we take for our gospel the version according to Luke. For some exegetical purposes we are reminded that Luke seems to be the only author who takes the ascension as an apparent historical event. This is probably because no one was an eyewitness to it, and thus, he wants to dramatize it. Yet, to him, it is more transcendent and so he uses the expression “a cloud took him from their sight” to symbolize God’s glory.

 

            Anyhow, one thing is certain. To Luke, the ascension is not the end of the story. This seems evident both in the gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles whose authorship is also attributed to him. His gospel closes with the ascension account. But the Acts of the Apostles practically begins with the same narrative. Thus, among other things, Luke most likely wants to establish that the ascension is a bridge between two equally important events: one, Christ’ glorious completion of his earthly accomplishments; two, the beginning of the apostles’ mission. Let us meditate on these two aspects of the ascension.

 

            1.         Today is Christ’s rightful time to rejoice and rejoice to the full at the reign of his Father. And there is one big and just reason for it: he fulfilled the Father’s will down to its very last letter. That is why even as he is about to leave his apostles and go back to his Father’s side, he does not forget to remind them that “it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day.” This is his earthly accomplishment that makes him most worthy of his glorious ascension.

 

            This goes to say, therefore, that his ascension is a matter of justice. Meaning, it is his righteous reward. He gains it out of merit as he pays for it by his own precious blood. The ascension, therefore, is not a matter of chance or a mere fulfillment of scripture without any other face value. Even if we take it as a fulfillment, the argument still remains valid that the ascension is meritorious because Christ fulfilled what was written of him. His reward consists precisely on the fact that he never escaped, betrayed or neglected even a slightest thing of the prophecy. Everything was done just accordingly and perfectly. And this is a matter of fact. Thus, all glory and honor worthy of a victor rightly belongs to him. This is what St. Paul practically points out in today’s second reading. In his power, God raised Jesus from the dead, made him sit at his right hand, bestowed upon him the honor of being above any principality, put everything under his feet and made him head of his body the church.

 

            This alone bears practical significance to every believer. For six Sundays we meditated at large on the impact of the resurrection. If the resurrection strengthens a weakened faith, enlivens a dying hope and teaches us about an uncompromising love, or in short, if Christ’s rising gives concrete meaning to these tree theological virtues, his resurrection also convinces us of what the cardinal virtue of justice means to the life of every believer. Like Christ, no good work done by an honest man will leave forgotten and unrewarded. In fact, our concept and belief of heaven is based and enforced by the ascension of Christ. Heaven must exist not only because of God’s love, but also because of his justice. Thus, his disciples must be witnesses to this truth and we must partake of this witnessing.

 

            2.         It is in this context that we understand why with Christ’s ascension, world mission begins. For indeed, Jesus’ going back to the Father would signal the universal missionary activity of the disciples. We must remember that world mission – or any missionary activity to the Gentiles for that matter – never happens in Jesus’ lifetime. There seems to be cultural reason to this. The Jews are close people. Being the chosen race, they consider themselves superior, and they treat non-Jews a inferior. This cultural superiority is clear even during the time of Jesus. This must have been the underlying reason why the lawyer would ask Jesus: “Who is my neighbor?” (cf Lk 10:19-37). And Jesus would drive him back to the basis: anyone in need is a neighbor, even a Samaritan! With this, Jesus does not totally close his doors to non-Jews. But even then, such discrimination remains at his back being a Jew. Thus, at times we see him reluctant in his dealing with non-Jews. He even likens the giving of favor to the poor Canaanite Woman as throwing the children’s food to the dogs (cf Mt 15:21-28). So, his answer to the lawyer’s question and other few similar cases and occasions are strictly an exemption.

 

            Besides, Jesus is just so mindful that his mission is primarily for the lost sheep of the house of Israel (cf Mt 15:24). In fact, it is even for this same reason that reprimands his disciples not to enter into pagan territory (cf Mt 10:5-6). It is not surprising, then, why the apostles restricted themselves to their fellow Jews. Even Paul, who would later become the herald of the gospel to the pagan world, would first limit his activities to the Jewish communities. It was only later when the Jews themselves rejected Paul and company and when the authorities would start the sever persecutions against them that things would turn out to be providential. While they escaped such threat and danger, it also became an opportunity for them to spread the god news to anybody and at any place. But even then, this act of providence must rightfully be assessed and understood a part of the evangelic significance of the ascension. Faithful to the mission entrusted to them, the apostles reached out to the open and preached the name of Christ starting from Jerusalem. Little by little, through repentance for the forgiveness of sins, God’s reigned started to take root upon the earth. And indeed, that smallest insignificant seed has grown and in God’s own time has become a large shrub where the birds of the air find their shelter and their nests.

 

            In its totality, therefore, the ascension must be understood in the light of Christ’s all-embracing task of redemption. The work of redemption must continue so that everyone may have the opportunity to be a partaker of Christ’s salvific act. And this sense of being a partaker does not mean passive recipients of Calvary’s gains but active performers and doers in building Christ’s kingdom on earth. But unless the good news be preached to all the world, it even goes against the standard of justice to demand and give whatever pertaining to faith from and to people who never heard of the gospel in the same degree with those who have already heard of it. Thus, with Chris physical absence, the apostolic mission must begin. And even in this merest sense, the church that must be born out of it must be catholic, i.e., universal.