Reflection for the Feast of Ascension 2010
15 May 2010
Readings: Ephesians 2: 1 - 10; Luke 24: 45 - 53.

by Evelyn Gregory, OSB

During special celebrations we have all watched with joy and wonder as colorful balloons rise and disappear into the clouds. Such was Jesus’ Ascension for the apostles “ returned to Jerusalem with great joy.” It was a time for ending his earthly ministry among them and a time of beginning what was entrusted to them. It is the Ascension–a time of completion and a time for new beginnings.

This is Jesus’ farewell. “He led them out as far as Bethany, to Mount Olivet, and lifting up his hands he blessed them.” “While blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.” Imagine Jesus standing there with the eleven, slowly rising from the ground and while blessing them he gradually disappeared into the clouds. It is fitting that the we celebrate the Ascension in springtime–a joyful season with white cumulus clouds against lovely blue skies.

Blessing was not new for the apostles, for they had seen Jesus during his public ministry often bless the people. The apostles knew the strength and power that came from Jesus’ prayer of blessing; the word of blessing effected what it signified.

Jesus blessed the loaves and the fishes which were multiplied into an abundance;
the blessed the sick and they were healed;
the lame and paralyzed and they walked;
the blind and they could see;
the woman taken in adultery and she was forgiven;
the dead man and he came to life;
the sick child who lived;
the bent woman and she stood straight;
the children and they knew they were loved.

The apostles shared the bread at the table when Jesus blessed the bread and broke it, and the bread became his body, and he said, “Take and eat. Jesus likewise blessed the wine, and the wine became his blood.

The apostles do not mourn as Jesus leaves them. They are changed and strengthened by his blessing and they “worshiped him,” the only instance of this reverence related in the Gospel of Luke. Through this blessing the apostles came to believe; they knew that Jesus was truly the Son of God.

Jesus “opened their minds to understand Scriptures .., ‘Thus it is written that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations.'" As they celebrated the presence of Jesus in their lives, their faith and courage were strengthened, and they were transformed and healed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Here Christ inaugurated his mission, and promised the Holy Spirit, “See, I am sending upon you what the Father promised.” They were to stay in the city until they “have been clothed with power from on high.” The apostles “returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple blessing God,” forming the early liturgy as the community of believers was born. The apostles were energized and filled with the hope of the promise of the Holy Spirit’.

Thus Christ’s farewell blessing effected what it signified: the apostles matured in faith; the apostles joined together as a community blessing one another; and the apostles continued to bless God in prayer extending the “immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us.”

We too are privileged to participate in the mission of Christ, to spread the good news to all nations. Our practice of liturgical prayer, of ‘continually praising God’, is integral to this mission. It renews hope for the searching, love for those in need of healing, and hospitality to all who come to our doors.

To bless God is to praise God, to invoke God’s gracious power. The church’s call to praise God in the liturgy connects the world with what Jesus did and taught, as throughout the centuries this prayer continues. We are to share in the building of the Kingdom of God by joyfully blessing God in liturgies celebrated with beauty, art, eagerness, and joy.

Thomas Merton writes: “Christ calls us to work together in building the Kingdom. True encounter with Christ liberates something in us, a power that we did not know we had, a hope, a capacity for life, resilience, the ability to bounce back when we thought we were completely defeated, a capacity to grow and change, a power of creative transformation.”

Through liturgy we bring the mystery of Christ’s saving power to the world. “For by the grace of God you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”

Mother Evangelista would remind us, “The desire to praise God with one another is itself great joy.” This is the grace given to the apostles and to us through the power of Jesus’ final blessing.

And so we pray with the psalmist:
Praise! Give glory to God!
Nations, peoples, give glory!
Strong the love embracing us.
Faithful our God forever.

All that Jesus came to do he had accomplished, and so he entered into the fulness of glory with his Father.
Let us celebrate the Ascension with joy.

© 2010 Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica
Atchison, Kansas