Sunday of the Ascension

Sunday of Ascension

First Reading

Acts 1,1-11

In my earlier work, Theophilus, I dealt with everything Jesus had done and taught from the beginning until the day he gave his instructions to the apostles he had chosen through the Holy Spirit, and was taken up to heaven. He had shown himself alive to them after his Passion by many demonstrations: for forty days he had continued to appear to them and tell them about the kingdom of God. While at table with them, he had told them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for what the Father had promised. 'It is', he had said, 'what you have heard me speak about: John baptised with water but, not many days from now, you are going to be baptised with the Holy Spirit.' Now having met together, they asked him, 'Lord, has the time come for you to restore the kingdom to Israel?' He replied, 'It is not for you to know times or dates that the Father has decided by his own authority, but you will receive the power of the Holy Spirit which will come on you, and then you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to earth's remotest end.' As he said this he was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud took him from their sight. They were still staring into the sky as he went, when suddenly two men in white were standing beside them, and they said, 'Why are you Galileans standing here looking into the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come back in the same way as you have seen him go to heaven.'

Psalmody

Psalm 47

Antiphon

O Lord you will be our guide.

The Lord is great and worthy to be praised
in the city of our God.

His holy mountain rises in beauty,
the joy of all the earth.

Mount Zion, true pole of the earth,
the Great King's city!

God, in the midst of its citadels,
has shown himself its stronghold.

For the kings assembled together,
together they advanced.

They say; at once they were astounded;
dismayed, they fled in fear.

A trembling seized them there,
like the pangs of birth,

By the east wind you have destroyed
the ships of Tarshish.

As we have heard, so we have seen
in the city of our God,

in the city of the Lord of hosts
which God upholds for ever.

O God, we ponder your love
within your temple.

Your praise, O God, like your name
reaches the ends of the earth.

With justice your right hand is filled.
Mount Zion rejoices;

the people of Judah rejoice
at the sight of your judgements.

Walk through Zion, walk all round it;
count the number of its towers.

Review all its ramparts,
examine its castles,

that you may tell the next generation
that such is our God,

our God for ever and always.
It is he who leads us.

Second Reading

Hebrews 9,24-28; 10,19-23

It is not as though Christ had entered a man-made sanctuary which was merely a model of the real one; he entered heaven itself, so that he now appears in the presence of God on our behalf. And he does not have to offer himself again and again, as the high priest goes into the sanctuary year after year with the blood that is not his own, or else he would have had to suffer over and over again since the world began. As it is, he has made his appearance once and for all, at the end of the last age, to do away with sin by sacrificing himself. Since human beings die only once, after which comes judgement, so Christ too, having offered himself only once to bear the sin of many, will manifest himself a second time, sin being no more, to those who are waiting for him, to bring them salvation. We have then, brothers, complete confidence through the blood of Jesus in entering the sanctuary, by a new way which he has opened for us, a living opening through the curtain, that is to say, his flesh. And we have the high priest over all the sanctuary of God. So as we go in, let us be sincere in heart and filled with faith, our hearts sprinkled and free from any trace of bad conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us keep firm in the hope we profess, because the one who made the promise is trustworthy.

Reading of the Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Luke 24,46-53

and he said to them, 'So it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that, in his name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses to this. 'And now I am sending upon you what the Father has promised. Stay in the city, then, until you are clothed with the power from on high.' Then he took them out as far as the outskirts of Bethany, and raising his hands he blessed them. Now as he blessed them, he withdrew from them and was carried up to heaven. They worshipped him and then went back to Jerusalem full of joy; and they were continually in the Temple praising God.

 

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Homily

Today we celebrate Jesus' ascension into heaven. In Acts we heard that Jesus, after appearing to the disciples 'over the course of forty days ... he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight" (Acts 1:3-9). For us too, forty days have passed after Easter, and the Holy Liturgy makes us relive this mystery as we await Pentecost. We make our own the disciples' anxious question: 'Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?" It was an important and also legitimate question: "Has the kingdom come at last? Is evil finally defeated?" That is, we could ask when the time will come when there will be no more wars, conflicts, violence, hatred, abuse. In recent years, we have witnessed the outbreak of a pandemic, then the multiplication of small and large armed conflicts that cannot be ended, while poverty grows globally. The disciples' question is therefore also ours: "Until when, Lord?" Jesus does not seem to want to answer: "It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority," he says.
But he does not leave us in uncertainty: "You will receive the power of the Holy Spirit who will come upon you." Only after providing this assurance is Jesus 'lifted up'. In symbolic language this means that Jesus is installed on the throne of heaven. His 'ascension into heaven' is the fulfilment of Easter. But it does not mean distancing. On the contrary: just as heaven surrounds the earth, so the Risen One will accompany his disciples everywhere so that they may communicate the Gospel of love to all the peoples of the earth. The Byzantine liturgy sings this mystery thus: 'From heaven, he who loves to give, has distributed gifts to his apostles, consoling them like a father, confirming them, guiding them like children and saying to them: I am with you and no one is against you.' The disciples will find obstacles and opposition, as happened to Jesus himself. But He is risen, and will sustain them in their mission. Finally, the disciples understand the promise, and for 'after they had worshipped him, they returned to Jerusalem with great joy'. The time of the Church was beginning.
The Risen One needs us to make his love visible; he needs our arms so that the weak can feel supported, he needs our preaching of peace to counter the habit of war, he needs our meekness to dismantle conflicts. In the face of the force of evil that shows such ferocity at this time, we are aware of our own meagreness, as well as our sin. But Jesus - and the image of the ascension narrated by Luke in the Gospel is beautiful -, detaches himself from the disciples and raising his hands he blesses them. It is Jesus' last gesture. Today too, the Lord blesses the Christian communities gathered around the altar, so that they may be a blessing for the world.