Deacon Bill G. 6th Sun. Easter/Ascension

Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

Lectionary: 58

Reading I

Acts 1:1-11

In the first book, Theophilus,

I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught

until the day he was taken up,

after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit

to the apostles whom he had chosen.

He presented himself alive to them

by many proofs after he had suffered,

appearing to them during forty days

and speaking about the kingdom of God.

While meeting with them,

he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem,

but to wait for “the promise of the Father

about which you have heard me speak;

for John baptized with water,

but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

When they had gathered together they asked him,

“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons

that the Father has established by his own authority.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,

and you will be my witnesses 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.

While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going,

suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.

They said, “Men of Galilee,

why are you standing there looking at the sky?

This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven

will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9 

R. (6) God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.

or:

R. Alleluia.

All you peoples, clap your hands,

Deacon Bill G. 6th Sun. Easter/Ascension Page 2 of 1

  shout to God with cries of gladness,

For the LORD, the Most High, the awesome,

  is the great king over all the earth.

R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.

or:

R. Alleluia.

God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy;

  the LORD, amid trumpet blasts.

Sing praise to God, sing praise;

  sing praise to our king, sing praise.

R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.

or:

R. Alleluia.

For king of all the earth is God;

  sing hymns of praise.

God reigns over the nations,

  God sits upon his holy throne.

R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.

or:

R. Alleluia.

Reading II

Eph 4:1-13 or 4:1-7, 11-13

Brothers and sisters,

I, a prisoner for the Lord,

urge you to live in a manner worthy of the calling

you have received,

with all humility and gentleness, with patience,

bearing with one another through love,

striving to preserve the unity of the Spirit

through the bond of peace:

one body and one Spirit,

as you were also called to the one hope of your calling;

one Lord, one faith, one baptism;

one God and Father of all,

who is over all and through all and in all.

But grace was given to each of us

according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 

And he gave some as apostles, others as prophets,

others as evangelists, others as pastors and teachers,

to equip the holy ones for the work of ministry,

for building up the body of Christ,

until we all attain to the unity of faith

and knowledge of the Son of God, to mature to manhood,

to the extent of the full stature of Christ. 

Alleluia

Mt 28:19a, 20b

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Go and teach all nations, says the Lord;

I am with you always, until the end of the world.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

Mk 16:15-20

Jesus said to his disciples:

“Go into the whole world

and proclaim the gospel to every creature.

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved;

whoever does not believe will be condemned.

These signs will accompany those who believe:

in my name they will drive out demons,

they will speak new languages.

They will pick up serpents with their hands,

and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them.

They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them,

was taken up into heaven

and took his seat at the right hand of God.

But they went forth and preached everywhere,

while the Lord worked with them

and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.

What is the meaning of Christ’s Ascension into Heaven? How do we know

it really happened? Where is God and where is Heaven? I think there are

a lot of people who have these questions but don’t ask because, after all,

it’s Church, and you’re not supposed to ask those questions about church,

right? I think the Church needs to answer them, so I will attempt to answer

these questions about this feast of the Ascension the best I can in the next

few minutes.

It’s clear there exists an apparent tension between what we know of as

science in the 21’st century and what the Bible says. For instance, how

can Jesus ascend into Heaven with a glorified body that allowed Him to

enter locked rooms or appear - and disappear - at will? During Jesus’ life,

He performed many miracles, including bringing the dead back to life (in

the case of Lazarus). How can this be? Is Jesus’ Ascension and all the

miracles Jesus performed just biblical metaphors, hallucinations or “happy

talk” accepted by people who are scientifically illiterate? Let me point out

that these exact questions and this thinking at the very heart of many of

our national conversations today.

So, let’s start:

Miracles such as Christ’s Ascension into Heaven are by

definition supernatural events; and science only examines natural

phenomena. To make a definitive claim about whether miracles can occur,

one must look beyond, for example, microscopes and rulers and ask if

such events are possible on philosophical grounds. You can think of a

miracle, if it helps, as a violation of the laws of nature. And God can

certainly do that; after all, He is the One who created our rules of nature

that we call “science”. In philosophy, this is translated as God is the First

Cause of all physical reality. He is under no moral nor logical obligation

to limit Himself to the laws of physics and biology as we currently

understand them. Most of us are old enough to know that many

established theories of science end up being inadequate and replaced by

new theories, so it’s clear our knowledge of God’s laws are always

changing. Let’s not assume our current scientific knowledge of something

is good or even adequate. There’s LOTS more science in store for us!

Let’s discuss for a moment the subject of the accuracy of the Bible and

biblical history. Remember, Luke was a doctor, a man of science in his

time. When Luke describes the Ascension there is no hint of

embellishment, which would be strange if he did not intend it literally. In the

gospel account he simply tells us that Jesus “parted from them and was

carried up into heaven” (Luke 24:52). In Acts, he writes that Jesus “was

lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9). Cold and

clinical, like a serious historian interested only in the facts, Luke just tells us

what happened—and that’s it. It is also notable that because the Gospel

accounts were written only a few decades after Jesus’ crucifixion, there

would have been eyewitnesses of Jesus still alive to correct or object to

Luke’s account. But there is simply no record of such an objection.

Indeed, Luke’s Gospel and his Acts of the Apostles (which are “companion

volumes”) have been touted by scholars of ancient history and archaeology

as impressively accurate. Old as well as recent studies of Luke’s historical

accuracy, such as that by classical scholar Colin Hemer , have further

confirmed the accuracy of Luke’s writings. Thus, when Luke describes

Jesus’ bodily ascension into the heavens, we have many good reasons to

believe that St. Luke was reporting real history, as Luke says at the very

beginning of today’s epistle. . . I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught

until the day he was taken up just as they were delivered by those who

from the beginning were eyewitnesses.

So why is this feast of the Ascension important? It is because it is rather

like the removing of the training wheels from the human race. Jesus

completed His the revelation of Himself to us, ascended to Heaven, and is

no longer here to lead us. Soon, at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit will come to

guide us on our way, but we have to understand how to steer ourselves in

the right direction. Pope Benedict XVI puts it this way:

The ascension expresses our belief that in Christ man has found an

everlasting place in God.

Heaven is not a place beyond the stars, but something much greater,

something that requires far more audacity to assert: Heaven means that

man now has a place in God. 

Thus Jesus himself is what we call "heaven"; heaven is not a place

but a person, the person of him in whom God and man are forever

and inseparably one. And we go to heaven and enter into heaven to

the extent that we go to Jesus Christ and enter into him. In this

sense, "ascension into heaven"; can be something that takes place in

our everyday lives…

Pope Benedict continues: For the disciples, the "ascension"; was not what

we usually misinterpret it as being: the temporary absence of Christ from

the world. [Rather, for the disciples,] it meant rather his new, definitive, and

irrevocable presence by participation in Gods royal power... God has a

place for man!… In God there is a place for us!…”

Let us pray:

God our Father, we give you thanks for Jesus coming into our lives and

showing us the path to Heaven which is Jesus Himself. We thank you for

Heaven being all around us, accessible in our everyday lives. Help us to

grow and reconcile our understanding of the world today so we can, as

Mother Teresa said “See … the presence of Jesus, especially in the lowly

appearance of bread, and in the distressing disguise of the poor.”

In your name we pray. Amen