20190530
JESUS
IS PRESENT WITH US IN A NEW WAY
30 MAY, 2019,
Thursday, Ascension of the Lord
JESUS IS PRESENT
WITH US IN A NEW WAY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Acts 1:1-11; Ps 47; Heb 9:24-28; 10:19-23 or Eph 1:17-23; Lk 24:46-53]
The feast of the
Ascension is often understood as the departure of Jesus from the apostles and
the Church. It
was considered a kind of farewell event. This is because Luke the
evangelist portrayed the Ascension in a spatial manner. “As he said this
he was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud took him from their
sight.” It was a visual sight of His disappearance from them. So
much so until the late 1980’s, there was a change in the liturgical action on
Ascension Thursday. Even when I was a young priest, after the gospel on
the Feast of Ascension, the altar server would take away the paschal candle and
then kept it in the sacristy to symbolize that Jesus was no longer with us.
But this is not the
primary meaning of the Ascension. What Ascension celebrates is the New
Way Jesus is now with us because of the authority Jesus is invested with at His
Ascension. That
explains why the Paschal Candle is no longer removed after the gospel on
Ascension Thursday but only after the last mass at Pentecost to underscore that
Easter is a single event with a threefold dimension, namely, His resurrection,
ascension and the sending of the Holy Spirit. In fact, all the gospels
present the glorification in this manner. They are all read within a
single day. In John’s gospel, we read that our Lord appeared to the women
in the morning and by evening, He was with the disciples, bestowing upon them
the Holy Spirit, a sign that He was now seated at the right hand of the
Father. (cf John 20:19-23)
Furthermore, earlier on He told Mary Magdalene, “Do not hold on to me,
because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to
them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'” (Jn 20:17) However, in the following week, He
invited Thomas to touch His wounds, implying that He had returned to the
Father. (cf Jn 20:24-29)
So why then did St Luke
insert the Forty days interval? It was meant to be catechesis for the
early Christians. Forty
is a significant number in the bible for it denotes completion. We read
that Moses was at Mount Sinai for forty days. The people of Israel spent
forty years in the desert in preparation for entry into the Promised
Land. Elijah fasted for forty days when he made his journey to Mount
Horeb. Jesus fasted and prayed for forty days in the wilderness. St Luke
wanted the Christians to realize that the journey of the Church has just begun
in the second part of the gospel, which he entitled “the Acts of the
Apostles.” Like the apostles in the early Church, it was necessary for
Christians to prepare themselves for their long-haul mission to proclaim the
Good News.
How were the disciples
to prepare themselves to continue after Christ? Firstly, in the
Ascension, Jesus was not leaving the Church. On the contrary, He had
always been with the Church and is part of the Church. He is the head and we are His
body. So the Church cannot ever be without Jesus. The Church is the
Sacrament of Jesus. Hence, the angel told the disciples, “Why are you men
from Galilee standing here looking into the sky? Jesus who has been taken up
from you into heaven, this same Jesus will come back in the same way as you have
seen him go there.” Jesus might have disappeared from their sight but He
comes to them in a new way, not physically or visually but in Spirit.
Indeed, Jesus, before He ascended into heaven, said to them, “remember, I am
with you always, to the end of the age.” (Mt 28:20)
Secondly, with the
Ascension, Jesus was not just resurrected but returned to His previous
authority as the Eternal Son of the Father sharing in the Father’s divine
powers. This is what it
means when we confess in the creed that Jesus was seated at the right hand of
the Father. He is now able to be with us all without being limited by time and
space. He now has the power and authority to rule the world. This
is what St Paul wrote in His letter to the Ephesians. “This you can tell
from the strength of his power at work in Christ, when he used it to raise him
from the dead and to make him sit at his right hand, in heaven, far above every
Sovereignty, Authority, Power, or Domination, or any other name that can be
named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. He has put all things
under his feet, and made him, as the ruler of everything, the head of the
Church; which is his body, the fullness of him who fills the whole creation.”
Thirdly, Jesus is with
the Church in a new way through the Holy Spirit. The Ascension marks the preparation
for the arrival of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the
Father and the Son. Jesus in His earthly life promised the disciples that
the Father would send the Holy Spirit to them in His name. This is why
after Ascension; the Church prepares for the arrival of the Holy Spirit by
having a novena to the Holy Spirit. Jesus told the disciples before He ascended
to wait for the Holy Spirit. “When he had been 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 you, not many days from now, will be baptised with the
Holy Spirit.'”
Fourthly, with the
arrival of the Holy Spirit, not only is Jesus with us but He is in us and
sharing His powers with us as well. St Paul speaks of the gifts that Jesus
bestows upon His Church in the Holy Spirit. “(When it says, “He ascended,” what
does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the
earth? He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the
heavens, so that he might fill all things.) The gifts he gave were that
some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and
teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up
the body of Christ, until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of
the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full
stature of Christ.” (Eph 4:9-13)
We are empowered by the Holy Spirit and with the same anointing that Jesus
received when He was on earth to do what Jesus did. This was what the
Lord promised His disciples, “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in
me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than
these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my
name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you
ask me for anything, I will do it.” (Jn 14:12-14)
Hence, with the
Ascension, the Lord could command us to be His witnesses in the world. “All authority in heaven and on
earth has been given to me. 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, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded
you.” (Mt 28:18-20) Indeed,
when the apostles asked, “‘Lord, has the time come? Are you going 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 power
when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will be my witnesses not only
in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends of the
earth.'” We will proclaim Christ not with our own strength and wisdom but
with the power from God. He said, “And now I am sending down to you what
the Father has promised. Stay in the city then, until you are clothed with the
power from on high.”
So with the Ascension,
we are reminded that although the Lord cannot be seen physically today with our
eyes, yet He can be seen with the eyes of faith, as the Lord told Thomas, “Have you
believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet
have come to believe.” (Jn 20:29) We are to make present the
Lord in our lives, in our words and deeds. We must continue the work of
Jesus in proclaiming the Good News to the poor, the truth about our sins, the
need for forgiveness and Jesus as our Savior. The Lord said, “You see how
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 the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses to
this.” Thus, it is not sufficient to proclaim Jesus as our Saviour but we
must be witness to His death and resurrection in our own lives. This is
what the letter of Hebrews says, “through the blood of Jesus we have the right
to enter the sanctuary, by a new way which he has opened for us, a living opening
through the curtain, that is to say, his body. And we have the supreme high
priest over all the house of God. So as we go in, let us be sincere in heart
and filled with faith, our minds 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 faithful.” (Heb 10:19-23)
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
|
First reading
|
Acts 1:1-11 ©
|
|
Jesus was lifted up while they looked on
|
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. When he had been 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 you, not many days from now, will be baptised with
the Holy Spirit.’
Now having met together, they
asked him, ‘Lord, has the time come? Are you going 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 power when the Holy
Spirit comes on you, and then you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem
but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends of the earth.’
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 when suddenly two men in white were standing near them and
they said, ‘Why are you men from Galilee standing here looking into the sky?
Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, this same Jesus will come
back in the same way as you have seen him go there.’
|
Responsorial Psalm
|
|
Psalm 46(47):2-3,6-9 ©
|
God goes up with shouts
of joy; the Lord goes up with trumpet blast.
or
Alleluia!
All peoples, clap your hands,
cry to God with shouts of joy!
For the Lord, the Most High, we must fear,
great king over all the earth.
God goes up with shouts
of joy; the Lord goes up with trumpet blast.
or
Alleluia!
God goes up with shouts of joy;
the Lord goes up with trumpet
blast.
Sing praise for God, sing praise,
sing praise to our king, sing
praise.
God goes up with shouts
of joy; the Lord goes up with trumpet blast.
or
Alleluia!
God is king of all the earth,
sing praise with all your
skill.
God is king over the nations;
God reigns on his holy throne.
God goes up with shouts
of joy; the Lord goes up with trumpet blast.
or
Alleluia!
EITHER:
|
Second reading
|
|
Ephesians 1:17-23 ©
|
|
God made him sit at his right hand in heaven
|
May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is
revealed, to bring you to full knowledge of him. May he enlighten the eyes of
your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, what rich
glories he has promised the saints will inherit and how infinitely great is the
power that he has exercised for us believers. This you can tell from the
strength of his power at work in Christ, when he used it to raise him from the
dead and to make him sit at his right hand, in heaven, far above every
Sovereignty, Authority, Power, or Domination, or any other name that can be
named not only in this age but also in the age to come. He has put all things
under his feet and made him, as the ruler of everything, the head of the
Church; which is his body, the fullness of him who fills the whole creation.
OR:
|
Alternative Second reading
|
|
Hebrews 9:24-28,10:19-23 ©
|
|
Christ entered into heaven itself
|
It is not as though Christ had entered a
man-made sanctuary which was only modelled on the real one; but it was heaven
itself, so that he could appear in the actual presence of God on our behalf.
And he does not have to offer himself again and again, like the high priest
going 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.
Instead of that, he has made his appearance once and for all, now at the end of
the last age, to do away with sin by sacrificing himself. Since men only die
once, and after that comes judgement, so Christ, too, offers himself only once
to take the faults of many on himself, and when he appears a second time, it
will not be to deal with sin but to reward with salvation those who are waiting
for him.
In
other words, brothers, through the blood of Jesus we have the right to enter
the sanctuary, by a new way which he has opened for us, a living opening
through the curtain, that is to say, his body. And we have the supreme high
priest over all the house of God. So as we go in, let us be sincere in heart
and filled with faith, our minds 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 faithful.
|
Gospel Acclamation
|
Mt28:19,20
|
Alleluia, alleluia!
Go, make disciples of all the nations.
I am with you always; yes, to the end of
time.
Alleluia!
|
Gospel
|
Luke 24:46-53 ©
|
|
He withdrew from them and was carried up
into heaven
|
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘You
see how 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 the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses to
this.
‘And
now I am sending down to 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 lifting up 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment