Today is the seventh Sunday of Easter. In both the Springfield diocese and Mobile archdiocese, it is also Ascension Sunday.
There is nothing more important in Christianity than the Resurrection. In fact, there would have been no Christianity without it. Having stipulated that, the Ascension of Jesus helps to make God’s plan of salvation, which features the death of Jesus and then His resurrection, complete. Next week’s Pentecost celebration will bring all this to completion.
In the Ascension, we see Jesus going back from whence He came, to heaven. Many commentaries I’ve read this week make the point that Jesus didn’t actually leave us so much as to change where He worked from. In a way that’s hard for us to wrap our minds around He both left us and remains with us. As I mentioned above, next week’s feast will make that more clear as He and the Father send back the Holy Spirit. Through the concept of coinherence I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Jesus is present in Him and they dwell in their people. In a lesser, but similar, way the Bishop who consecrates the Holy Chrism is present wherever that Chrism is used because that bishop breathed on that Chrism during the consecration.
That theology can be a lot for most of us. I think today’s celebration can best be understood as making way for the Church. While Jesus lived among us He was limited by His humanity, especially by His body. He was only able to be in one place at one time but we, being fully human, needed more. In order to carry out the Great Commission, which forms today’s Gospel reading, and I think is the mission statement of the Church, we needed help in lots of different places at the same time. That is the job of the Holy Spirit, and through a mystery we can’t fully understand, that Holy Spirit could only come to us once Jesus had returned to heaven.
Ascending back to heaven started the process we will hear about next week that formed, and continues to form, the Church. Jesus’ mission was to announce the Kingdom of God and inspire those first disciples to carry on His kingdom building work through the formation of the Church.
That was, and is, our job too, but as He said, He did not leave us alone. He is with us always, even unto the end of the age.
Amen, Alleluia!
That’s it for now. Thanks for reading.
I hope you have a great week.
Peace, Bob
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