The Ascension - A Farewell Turned Into Joy

The Ascension – a Farewell Turned Into Joy

Ascension - May 16, 2010
Acts 1:1-11 Eph 1:17-23 Luke 24:50-53

First reading from Acts

Dear Theophilus in my first letter I told you about Jesus’ life and teaching, and about how He returned to heaven after giving His chosen Apostles further instructions from the Holy Spirit. During the 40 days after His crucifixion He appeared to the Apostles from time to time in human form and proved to them in many ways that it was actually He Himself they were seeing. And on these occasions He talked to them about the Kingdom of God. In one of these meetings He told them not to leave Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came upon them in fulfillment of the Father’s promise -- a matter He had previously discussed with them.

He reminded them, “John baptized you with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit in just a few days.” And another time when He appeared to them, they asked, “Lord, are you going to free Israel [from Rome] now and restore us as a free nation? ”He replied, “The Father sets those dates, and they are not for you to know. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be witnesses of my death and resurrection in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

When He had said this, as they were looking on, He was lifted up, and a cloud took Him from their sight. As the Apostles were looking intently at the sky, suddenly two men dressed in white garments appeared and asked them, "Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? Jesus has gone up into heaven, and some day, just as He went, He will return!”"

The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke
Glory to you, Lord.

Jesus said to His disciples: “Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold I am sending the promise of my Father upon you; so stay there in this city until you are armed with power from on above.”

Then he led them out as far as Bethany, raised his hands, and blessed them with uplifted hands. After blessing them, He was taken up into heaven. And His disciples returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and spent all their time in the Temple giving thanks to God.

The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

.----------------
Introduction
Ascension Thursday on a Sunday

Acts says that “For 40 days after His death Jesus showed Himself to the Apostles many times.”(Acts 1:3) 40 days after Easter Sunday gives us a Thursday for the Ascension. However, the feast (`a holyday of obligation’) in some places has been moved to a Sunday for the convenience of the faithful.

The farewells of life

Ascension is the feast of Jesus’ farewell to His Apostles as He ascends into heaven. Life is filled with farewells. We say farewell to prized friendships which reluctantly end, simply because people must go their separate ways. We say farewell to friendships which turn bitter on us and can’t be repaired. We say farewell to a pet dog who thought we were God, but whom we had put down because we loved him so much. Topping the list of all life’s farewells is the death of a loved one. That’s the supreme and ultimate farewell in which all our other farewells mystically participate. Orthodox theologian Nicholas Baerdeyev wrote that, “All farewells have the taste of death about them.”

The Ascension: a continuation of the Incarnation

In his book Jesus Ascended: The Meaning of Christ's Continuing Incarnation, Gerrit Scott Dawson writes the bodily ascension of Jesus into heaven seems too fantastic to believe. He asks: Did Jesus really rise up bodily into the sky and then disappear? After thirty-three years of life in human flesh (which ended up with His head crowned with thorns and body crucified on a cross) why would He want to `hang around’ any longer in human flesh? Why wouldn’t He want to drop His body like `a hot potato,’ and then get back to being the Son of God without the drag of our human flesh?

It boggles our minds, he writes, to think that Jesus is in heaven “still in our skin suit,” still wearing our humanity, still flesh of our flesh. For Dawson the bodily ascension of Jesus is nothing less than a continuation of the Incarnation – a continuation of God’s bodily presence in our midst. He who took on our flesh has never let go of it. He who “did not cling to His divinity but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant” (Phil 2:6-7) did, indeed, cling to His humanity as He ascended into heaven.

A liturgical correction

Because the bodily ascension of Jesus is a continuation of the Incarnation, pedantic Roman liturgists made a little liturgical correction: In times past, after the reading of the Ascension gospel, a server would dramatically snuff out the Paschal candle positioned in a prominent spot during the Easter season, as a symbol of the risen Lord’s bodily presence and appearances for 40 days. (Acts 1:3) Then the server would whisk the smoldering candle off to some dark closet in the sacristy where it remained out of sight until the next Easter Vigil of Holy Saturday. That liturgical gesture wordlessly proclaimed, "He's left us! He’s gone!”

But since Jesus does not leave us in the Ascension but is ever-present through His Holy Spirit of Pentecost, liturgists decided that the Paschal candle should not be snuffed out and whisked away on Ascension Day. Rather, it should remain in its prominent spot in the sanctuary until Pentecost Sunday. Then it should not be relegated to some dark sacristy closet, but should be moved to a visible spot near the baptismal font. There it should stand as a visible reminder to us at Sunday Mass through the year that Jesus has not left us, but is always in our midst, especially as we baptize the little ones into Christ. (Gal 3:27)

It is interesting to note that until the 4th century, the feasts of Ascension and Pentecost were but one feast. That communicated the sense of one single divine transaction in which the human visible body of Jesus ascending into heaven was immediately exchanged for the descending of the Holy Spirit of God. An old Latin antiphon comes to mind: O Admirabile Commercium! Oh Happy Exchange!

Farewells & the taste of death

My father, an Italian immigrant, came to Milwaukee in the early 1900s. Leaving behind a brother and a whole Italian community in Milwaukee, he migrated north to Manitowoc where he got a job in the shipyards. Not long after, sorrow hit our home: our mother was taken from us, and our home became a house without a soul. Sorely missing the Italian community he left behind, my father with my sister and me would make an annual pilgrimage back to that far-off metropolis of Milwaukee which was `Little Italy’ for my father. That was back in the old days when there were no SUV’s but only Model T’s, which you actually cranked to get started. That was back in the old days when a trip from Manitowoc to Milwaukee was more like a trek or safari.

When our visit to `Little Italy’ came to an end and we were bidding farewell, my father always wept, and I always wept with him. At the time, I didn’t know why we were weeping, but I do know now. We were weeping because we were reluctantly leaving behind a poor but very rich Italian community, and we were going back to a home which had become an empty house. We were weeping also because down deep we intuitively knew what Baerdeyev meant when he wrote that, “All farewells have the taste of death about them.”

If, indeed, Baerdeyev is right, then how strange was Jesus’ farewell at the Ascension. It didn’t have the taste of death about it. It didn’t make the Apostles weep, as we wept when we bade farewell to `Little Italy.’ Instead, Jesus’ farewell to the Apostles in the Ascension turned into great joy! Luke writes, “After Jesus was taken up into heaven, the Apostles returned from Bethany to Jerusalem filled with great joy, and they spent all their time in the Temple giving thanks to God.“ (Lk 24:25)

A farewell waiting to turn into great joy

A friend writes about her husband’s final illness and death -- that supreme farewell in which all other farewells mystically participate.

My husband couldn’t talk the last 6 months of his life. He would try to tell me what he needed, but couldn’t. Though he couldn’t tell me what he needed I knew his needs. I got him an erase board on which he could write, whenever he needed something. But it got to the point when he couldn’t even use his arms or hands. It was truly heart-wrenching. Though he fully knew what was going on, he was trapped in his

body.

I am looking forward to the moment when I will be with my husband again. Every day I wake up one day closer to seeing him again. I miss him every moment of the day. With obvious deep faith she believes that her sad farewell of her husband will be turned into joy one day. Every day she trusts in Jesus’ promise that, “You will be sad, but your sadness will turn into joy.” (Jn 16:20)

Conclusion

Waiting for a farewell to be turned into joy

When we come to Mass next Sunday, May 23, 2010, it will be the Solemnity of Pentecost. The Easter candle will no longer be lit, as it was for all the Sundays of Easter. It will no longer occupy the prominent place in the sanctuary which it did during Easter season. But neither will it be whisked out of sight. It will, instead, be moved to a spot near the baptismal font. There we will see the candle every Sunday at Mass, and it will remind us that Jesus who ascended into heaven has kept His promise not to leave us orphans. (Jn 14:18) He has gone to prepare a place for us in His Father’s house which has many rooms, so that where He is now we may also be. (Jn 14: 1-3)
It is that promise which consoles the woman who wakes up every day with the consoling thought that she is one day closer to seeing her deceased husband again. On the feast of the Ascension she is waiting for her farewell to her husband, like the Apostles’ farewell to Jesus, to be turned into joy.