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May 19, 2009
Ascension [May 24, 2009]
Well, let me start right off by telling you that this feast of the Ascension of the Lord is a very difficult feast for me to understand. I’ve struggled with it for years, but I think that this year I may have solved my problem.
First off, it starts with the word “up.” Now, that is only a two-letter word, but a very puzzling word in itself. You might think that up is up, right? But listen how it is often used. The sun comes up, we wake up, we wash up, we speak up, we work up an appetite, we lock up the house; we look up a word, we add up our accounts, someone tells us to lighten up if we have stirred up trouble. And now, in today’s gospel, Mark says that Jesus was taken up into the heavens to be seated at the right hand of God.
It was from that one word used three times in today’s scriptures, that we derive the title of this splendid feast, the feast of the Ascension. So you see how I struggle with all this?
But let me insist immediately that I do believe Jesus Christ was taken up into the heavens. How he was taken up I do not know. What does help though are some other words: Jesus returned to the Father. Jesus reigns with the Father; Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of the Father. So, that helps me not to have to imagine Jesus going up into the skies like a NASA spacecraft or an Atlas Booster. I think those analogies are much too simplistic to compare to Christ’s sacred experience.
If I had my way, I would change the title of the feast from Ascension to Homecoming, or The Last Instruction, or The Great Commissioning. That’s what I would title it, and for this reason. There are actually only three references to “going up” in the scriptures for this feast, one in the Acts of the Apostles and two in the gospel. The main body of the scripture text has to do with other things: In those last few hours Jesus was with the disciples, he consoled them, he promised the Holy Spirit, he instructed them, he gave them spiritual powers, assigned certain ministries, et cetera. So, all those seem more important than wondering what going up means
Ah, but there is one more important element in this story. Jesus gave certain tasks to the apostles before leaving. My sense is that those assignments were meant for the Church. In other words, the last thing Jesus did was to make sure that the Church would not fail. So, he empowered the apostles to teach, preach, baptize and heal after he had gone. Most importantly, however, he told them that they must be witnesses to all that he had said and done.
Now, I am assuming, of course, that this witnessing that Jesus assigned the apostles was meant for us as well. In fact, Paul, in the Ephesian letter, even says so. It was not meant to be a hierarchical gift only, but a gift of the Spirit for all the baptized, you and me, dedicated lay folks, clerics, religious, everybody. How else should the Church survive throughout history? We are a human Church with divine gifts. “Go into the whole world” Jesus says, “and preach the good news to all creation.
I’m sure I could go on, but my time is up, so I will wrap it up for now and simply shut up.
The scriptures: Acts 1: 1-11; Ephesians 1: 17-23; Mark 16: 15-20
Posted by Cindy Lentine on May 19, 2009 10:22 AM.
