Ascension Thursday

 

I woke up this morning to the happy news that “Alternate Side of the Street Parking” is suspended in New York City today. It’s even better in Europe – in the Netherlands and Germany, for example, where this is still a legal public holiday! 

St. Bernard of Clairvaux [1090-1153] is supposed to have described the Ascension as “the consummation and fulfillment of all other festivals, and a happy ending to the whole journey of the Son of God.” But I think we can just as correctly characterize the Ascension as the continuation of that journey – now by means of his Church, through which all of us are now joined together on the same itinerary.

Belief in Jesus’ Ascension is, of course, one of the key components of our Creed, which we recite regularly - if maybe at times a bit absent-mindedly. After professing our faith in Jesus’ resurrection, we add: he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

As the words of the Creed suggest, the Ascension actually involves several things. Most obviously, it expresses the fact that the Risen Christ no longer lives among us on earth in the way that he once did. The Risen Lord lives now the new life of the future, of which his resurrection is a foretaste for us. The New Testament tells us that the Risen Christ presented himself alive to his disciples, appearing to them and speaking about the kingdom of God. After a certain period, those appearances ended. It was time to move on to the next stage in salvation history – our time, the time of the Church, the time appointed for us to Go, and make disciples of all nations.  Historically, therefore, the Ascension refers to the end of that period of the Risen Christ’s appearances to his disciples.

That being the case, one obvious question is: well, where exactly is he now? Again, the Creed contains the answer: he is seated at the right hand of the Father. Of course, as Son of God, the Divine Word, has always been with the Father. Theologically speaking, what the Ascension celebrates is that his human body (and thus our shared human nature) is now with God. 

In Jerusalem, in the Church of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives, pilgrims get to see a footprint-like depression in the rock, which purports to be the exact spot from which the Risen Lord ascended to heaven – a bit fanciful, perhaps, as if Jesus sprang upward with such force as to leave a physical impression in the rock. The footprint may well be fanciful, but it does highlight the point that it was Jesus’ human body (and thus our shared human nature) that ascended – and that is now with God.

Thus, the Ascension anticipates what the resurrection has made it possible for us all to hope for. In the words of the liturgy: where he has gone, we hope to follow.

Meanwhile, in this interim between Easter and the end, though absent, he is still with us, as the Gospel says, confirming his word through accompanying signs [Mark 16:20].

Hence, his instruction to his disciples: to wait for the Holy Spirit, the promise of the Father.

As individual disciples and as a Church community, we too are invited – in this interval time between Ascension and the end – to recognize and respond to the Holy Spirit’s action in each of our lives and in our life together as God’s People. 

Homily for Ascension Thursday, Saint Paul the Apostle Church, May 9, 2024.

Photo: The Ascension, watercolor ceiling painting, early 20th century, at Immaculate Conception Church, Knoxville, TN.