The Ascension: Up, Up and Away?

We tend to think of the Ascension of the Lord Jesus in a cinematic way, akin to Cecil B. DeMille’s depiction of the Exodus of God’s Chosen People through the Red Sea “with the water like a wall to their right and to their left”. The idea of Jesus being lifted up into the clouds is consistent with the images Luke used when writing the Acts of the Apostles, which we heard at this past Thursday’s solemnity of the Ascension. Yet each of the descriptions of the Resurrected Jesus’ ascension to the Father in the Bible are different, with the gospel versions implying the ascension happened closer to the Resurrection. In the Gospels of Luke and Mark, it simply says Jesus “was taken up to heaven” (Lk 24:51; Mark 16:19). John’s Gospel suggests Jesus ascended right after rising from the dead and appearing to Mary of Magdala (Jn.20:17).

Taken together, these Scripture passages and the Tradition of the Church show a strong connection between the Resurrection and the Ascension of the Lord, seeing them as a cohesive whole. The Ascension, therefore, does not have to mark the end of Jesus’ appearances to his disciples, as if he flew away somewhere in “my beautiful balloon” (for our younger readers, this and the title of this column are a 70’s pop song reference). After all, he later appeared to St. Paul on the way to Demascus, more recently to St. Faustina with His message of Divine Mercy, etc. More importantly, the Ascension marks the return of God’s Son to his rightful place with the Father – free from the limitations of time and space that he was willingly subjected to before his death and resurrection. In John’s Gospel, Jesus goes to great lengths to reassure his disciples that it is better for us that he “goes to the Father” so that he can send us the Advocate, the Holy Spirit. Together with the Word of God and the Sacraments, the Holy Spirit is one of the most powerful ways God himself fulfills the promise of Jesus: “I will remain with you always, even to the end of the age” (Mt.28:20). The Spirit makes Christ present and reminds us of all that he taught us, revealing gradually the great grace and blessings we are not able to absorb all at once.

The liturgical tradition of celebrating Jesus’ ascension forty days after the Resurrection (based on Acts 1:3) is a symbolic number, signifying “the fullness of time.” Out of the fifty days of the Easter Season, that leaves us these nine days to prepare for Pentecost – an ancient “novena,” if you will, to pray for the renewed outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and in our Church. May we use this time to pray that the gifts of the Holy Spirit be awakened and active in our daily lives, and that the Church will be constantly renewed and grow stronger as the Body of Christ in the world today!