OUR HOPE OF HEAVEN
Christ’s ascension to the glory of heaven is our great hope that someday we will also share eternality in God’s glory. It is a promise of God’s living and abiding Presence with us at all times through the Holy Spirit. It is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as he has promised, “I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.”
The Feast of Ascension is one of Christian hope, faith, and love.
- First, Jesus prepared his followers to live in, for, and on the Word of God and the Eucharist.
- Second, he commissioned them to be his witnesses from familiar to unknown places.
- Finally, he promised an Eternal Presence through the Holy Spirit—the Advocate, Comforter, and Sanctifier of our Christian life and faith.
ASCENSION OF A GLORIFIED BODY
The Solemnity of Ascension of the Lord is the feast of the Risen Christ with a glorified body taken up to heaven and now seated at the right hand of God forever. It is plain from Scripture that Jesus’ ascension was a literal, bodily return to heaven. He rose from the ground gradually and visibly, observed by many intent onlookers.
As the disciples strained to catch a last glimpse of Jesus, a cloud hid Him from their view, and two angels appeared and promised Christ’s return “in just the same way that you have watched Him go” (Acts 1:11).
FEAST OF HOPE
The Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ’s ascension into heaven is one of the Christian feasts that offers us hope, assurance, and promise of the finality of our Christian life as Heaven-bound people. It is a mystery deeply shrouded in the mystery of the resurrection. At the resurrection, Christ’s body became a glorified body that is no longer limited by the universe’s laws of space and time.
That is, the Ascension of the Lord is a feast of hope on a threefold level. First, the hope of the resurrection for all Christians as only a glorified body by the resurrection could ascend to heaven. That is a glorified body that transcends all limitations of time and space law.
Second, the hope of heaven to be with God in eternal bliss, and Christians have no permanent home on earth. It implies we are not earth-bound people but something precious and beyond. Third, the hope of the coming of the Holy Spirit, the second Advocate who will help live the Christian life to the full. That is, we are not alone in life and amidst the circumstances of life.
OUR THEME OF TODAY: OUR HOPE OF HEAVEN
The major theme of the Feast of Ascension is Christian hope. Forty days after the resurrection, Jesus and His disciples went to Mount Olivet, near Jerusalem. There, Jesus promised His followers that they would soon receive the Holy Spirit, and he instructed them to remain in Jerusalem until the Spirit had come. Then, Jesus blessed them, and as He gave the blessing, He began to ascend into heaven.
After our earthly life, there is hope of an eternal homecoming to unite with the resurrected and glorified Christ. We are assured of the resurrection of the body. Our bodies must be glorified in the Christian’s homecoming toward God.
FIRST READING: ACTS 1:1-11
The first reading vividly describes for us the account of Jesus’ ascension to glory forty (40) days after his resurrection. The number 40 in the biblical context is significant; purification for a sense of impurities, preparation for an encounter with God and transition into something better.
The period between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension was 40 days (Acts 1:3). Jesus’ apostles and disciples were purified of their erroneous views of him, his message of the kingdom and the confusion of the resurrection. He also prepared them for his departure, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and a smooth transition from him to the apostolic witnesses.
WITNESS OF HOPE IN CHRIST
In other words, the Ascension concludes Jesus’ ministry on earth and prepares for the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost. The keyword here for us is not preoccupations or worries of when the end time will come, but continuing to bear witness to Christ and his Kingdom.
The Cenacle of Prayer is the strength of the Church. It brings alive the living faith of Pentecost with courage and activeness in communion with Mary. This is one of the most beautiful images of the Church: The Body of Christ in prayer with Mary, his Mother.
The psalmist reminds us that in Psalm 47, though the Ascension of the Lord was in the context of sadness, fear and despair. For him, there is great joy, hope and anticipation of the Holy Spirit. Hence, he claims to us, “God goes up with shouts of joy, the Lord goes up with trumpet blast. “
SECOND READING: EPHESIANS 1:17-23
For St Paul, Christ’s victory is also our victory. Hence, God has raised Jesus from the dead in a glorified body and exalted him above every created or existing being. It is a privilege to belong to his Body: the Church.
St Paul emphasised God’s work in Christ Jesus through the action of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the revealer of God´s wisdom and the fullness of God´s revelation. The giver of Christian hope and the riches of a glorious inheritance. It is also the power of the God of gods to transform all things in Christ Jesus.
THE CHURCH OF EPHESUS
In this biblical passage of St Paul´s letter to the Church of Ephesus, we see him inviting the Church to love Christ as well as their Christian brothers and sisters. However, he also prays for the Church:
He prays for the Spirit of Wisdom. That is for the Church to be led deeper and deeper into the knowledge of the eternal truths. It means that Christians should be thinking people and should have a teaching ministry. They should also be willing to have a readjusted sense of proportion, where the word of God is used or applied to solve worldly problems.
Paul prays for a fuller revelation and a fuller knowledge of God. Christian growth in awareness and grace is essential. The Christian faith, the life of witnessing and service, is built on further discoveries and creativity to meet new, growing challenges of Christendom.
HOPE IN CHRISTIANITY AND CHRISTIAN
It is never a static or fixed life. Christianity and Christians should never shun facing the fullest of God´s revelation and its implications for each age and time.
He prays for a new realisation of the Christian hope. Despair or despondency is a characteristic of our age. On every side there is a voice of pessimism, which challenges us to resound with a trumpet a call for the Christian hope.
GOD’S POWER IN CHRIST JESUS
He prays for a new realisation of God’s power. For Paul, the resurrection is the supreme proof of God´s power above all things visible and invisible. He also knows that God’s purpose cannot be stopped by any action of men. In a world that is full of chaos, it is well to realise that God is still in control.
Paul finishes by speaking of Christ’s conquest in a sphere that makes no sense today. For him, God has raised Jesus Christ “far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion and every name that is named,” there is no being in heaven or on earth to whom Jesus Christ is not superior.
In essence, Paul’s prayer is that all Christians should realise the greatness of the Saviour God has given to them. Christ’s victory by the resurrection and ascension of his glorified body became our hope. It is also our victory attained and sustained through Christ forever.
THE GOSPEL: LUKE 24:46-53
Jesus promises his followers the Holy Spirit and sends them out to witness. Luke emphasises that they will be “clothed with power from on high”, that is, with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
- Clarity of the Messiah before his disciples, his suffering, death, and rising from the dead.
- His glorification at the right hand of the Father in glory.
- Preaching repentance and forgiveness of sins in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
- Be his witnesses.
- The Father’s promise; the Holy Spirit: power from on high.
- He blessed them, and while he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.
- They worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God.
THE ASCENSION OF JESUS CHRIST IS MEANINGFUL FOR SEVERAL REASONS:
1. It set the pattern for His return. When Jesus comes to set up the Kingdom, He will return just as his glorified body was left literally, bodily, and visibly in the clouds (Acts 1:11; Daniel 7:13-14; Matthew 24:30; Revelation 1:7), a glorified body that returns to glory.
2. It signified success in His earthly work. All that He had come to do, and He had accomplished.
3. It set the pattern for His return. When Jesus comes to set up the Kingdom, He will return just as his glorified body was left literally, bodily, and visibly in the clouds (Acts 1:11; Daniel 7:13-14; Matthew 24:30; Revelation 1:7).
4. It symbolised His exaltation by the Father (Ephesians 1:20-23). The one with whom the Father is well pleased (Matthew 17:5) was received up in honour and given a name above all names (Philippians 2:9).
5. It allowed Him to prepare a place for us (John 14:2).
6. It indicated the beginning of His new work as High Priest (Hebrews 4:14-16) and Mediator of the New Covenant (Hebrews 9:15).
7. It set the pattern for His return. When Jesus comes to set up the Kingdom, He will return just as his glorified body was left literally, bodily, and visibly in the clouds (Acts 1:11; Daniel 7:13-14; Matthew 24:30; Revelation 1:7).
THE MYSTERY OF THE ASCENSION FROM SCIENTIFIC AND MYSTIC STANDPOINTS
Newton´s law of gravitational force states that any two masses attract each other with a force equal to a constant (the constant of gravitation) multiplied by the product of the two masses and divided by the square of the distance between them. In other words, anything lifted or thrown from the ground certainly returns to the ground.
It is difficult to explain the mystery of the Lord´s Ascension to heaven, body and soul. However, there is a plausible and probably faultless scientific and a mystical explanation of this mystery.
From the scientific perspective, the only thing that defies the law of gravitational force is the ray of light, which is the lightest thing on earth, which travels up and, if without obstruction or deflection, does not come back.
Mystically, too, a transformed celestial or glorified body like that of the Resurrected Christ, freed from sins and the corruption of the body, is as light as the ray of light to ascend without deflection or falling off from the sky.
THE IMPLICATION FOR THE CHRISTIAN FAITH AND LIFE
It set the pattern for His return. When Jesus comes to set up the Kingdom, He will return just as his glorified body was left literally, bodily, and visibly in the clouds (Acts 1:11; Daniel 7:13-14; Matthew 24:30; Revelation 1:7).
It is pulling everything towards itself, and the only thing that can escape its pull must be lighter, like the ray of light. That is a glorified body free of sin and death through the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Conclusion: A life without sin is the only life with the hope of the resurrection of the body and ascension to heaven in Christ Jesus.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ASCENSION
- The celebration of today borders on the triple mystery of the Resurrection, the Ascension and Pentecost.
- The resurrection makes the Ascension possible, as only a glorified body can ascend to heaven.
- The ascension of Christ returning to his glory ushers in the Holy Spirit to establish an abiding presence with us.
- While the Holy Spirit transforms us into authentic witnesses of Christ to all.
THE CELEBRATION OF TODAY IS A GREAT SOURCE OF
Faith in Christ Jesus, the fullest manifestation of God, is one faith through all the ages as Christians and the Christian community.
Hope, to us all that our lives are not earthly-bound, but that there is an eternal home for us in heaven where Christ ascended today.
Love the perfect form of bearing witness to the crucified, resurrected and ascended Christ. For Jesus not only left an immortal name and influence; this immortality of his presence and his power is still alive and still active in the Christian life and community through love.
It calls for a moment of prayer, stillness and waiting for the power from above, the Holy Spirit
OUR PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ, you were crucified and by your resurrection, you live forever and also by your ascension, you are in your glory, seated at the right hand of God and reign forever. Give us the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit: faith, hope, love, joy, peace, assurance and courage and by the mysteries we celebrate, may our lives be transformed so that we may not only fulfil your last testament but also complete the mission you entrusted to us. May your resurrection and ascension be everlasting proof that the devil, evil, sin, and death cannot hold you or us bound to hell. Amen
