Acts 1:1-11      Ephesians 1:17-23      Matthew 28:16-20

Artists have drawn their inspirational image of the Risen Jesus Christ’s Ascension into the heavens upon a cloud from today’s text in the Acts of the Apostles. Today’s Gospel passage allows one to imagine this in the style of apocalyptic literature. But our 21^st Christian Century Church is no longer an apocalyptic Church in practice, even though some of the liturgical prayers and numerous scripture texts we use still make use of apocalyptic language and notions. Only Acts actually paints such a picture. As with so many “details” this detail, too, is less important than it might first seem. The point of the solemn feast day, whether on a Thursday or a Sunday, is that the Risen Jesus Christ is permanently and fully one with God, the Father. The word “ascend” in English often implies that one actively “goes up” under one’s own power. Note the title Mary’s parallel feast is the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (August 15^th). “Assumption” implies that it was by the power of another that she was passively “taken up” (“assumed into”) Heaven by God. God’s power was the effective force not Mary’s. This is not a big distinction for some perhaps, but today’s feast is a part of the Paschal Mystery, a continuation of the supreme miracle of Jesus’ Rising from the Dead, and a assertion that the Risen Jesus is the Divine Messiah, the Christ! Mary did not rise from the dead; neither is she divine. She is not a member of the Holy Trinity of Divine Persons. Jesus’ Ascension described a “going up” to God which is best understood in the ancient cosmological understanding, i.e., a flat earth over which is a crystalline dome which holds up the stars and planets, and restrains the water for snow and rain. Above all this is God’s Heaven. The Southern Hemisphere had been neither discovered nor appreciated and so was irrelevant to the ancient imagination. Indeed, “up” is relative in physical terms. 21^st Century Christians have a radically larger and different appreciation of the created universe. Therefore, “up” must be reconsidered and re-appreciated to mean “outside the physical universe” and “a return to the mysterious God’s unimaginable Presence” (aka Heaven). We must not imagine a celestial elevator or escalator. That would indeed reduce the Divine Mystery to a simplistic and unsophisticated silliness. Let us embrace our faith in the mysterious God with the intelligence and wisdom God created in us.

The feast’s passage from Acts consists of the opening 11 verses. The formal address of the book indicates that it was the second of a two-volume work, the first having been about “all that Jesus did and taught.” This second volume begins on the occasion of Jesus being “taken up.” The work was addressed to “Theophilus,” a masculine gender name meaning in Greek “a male friend of God.” It could have been the actual name of some important man in the 70s or 80s AD, one at least interested in if not yet entirely well-disposed to the fledgling Christian Church, who was sufficiently respected to have both Luke’s Gospel account and Acts of the Apostles addressed to him. Another possibility is that “Theophilus” was a metaphorical address to any “Friend of God” who might want to listen to the recollections preserved by the early Church of the Gospel’s spread. In this sense, women can simply use the feminine Greek name “Theophila” if that slight grammatical change makes the address more effectively hearable. Modern sensitivities can read “Friend of God” into the narrative and hear it as a form of direct address to you no matter what your gender or who you are. In any event, the grammatical complexity ought not obscure that this expanded Gospel message is for everyone indeed. Here, the burden is on the hearer to pay close attention, to listen to and probe over, under, around and through any cultural obstacles though which we must filter the Gospel message. The Gospel message ought to free us, and save us, not mire us in trivia. We must work to be religiously and psychologically “big!” in heart, mind, and imagination!

These 11 verses are a summary and farewell on the occasion of Jesus’ “departure” from the spatio-temporal realm. His apostles were still in the religious and psychological grip of their Easter shock. They were as yet still unable to grasp the ramifications of his Resurrection, and of the events and further reflections that had occurred since Easter. They were still trying to operate in terms of a messianic restoration of Israel, i.e., in the terms traditionally applied to a hoped-for messiah. Jesus stated, plainly to modern ears, that there was more to come, but it makes sense to us today only because we are also privy to some of the events from Pentecost onward. This insight will come to the apostles and disciples at Pentecost and in the times which will follow. Parallel to Luke’s Gospel’s Resurrection account, there are in Acts two men in white who give direction to and provoke thought among the Easter morning witnesses. The passage concludes with an apocalyptic promise that Jesus would return in the future on the clouds, an image typical of apocalyptic writings about God’s ultimate victory and final judgment (e.g., see Mark 13). This articulates the early Church’s strong belief that the “Last Days” or the “End Times” (in Greek, the Parousia) would occur during their generation. This belief has rightly fallen into neglect and even come to be rejected among mainline Christians. We no longer expect an apocalyptic end of the cosmos. We do, however, still make use of some apocalyptic metaphors and phrases in liturgical and devotional prayer language and in some of the scripture lessons we use regularly. Fundamentalists tend to preach apocalyptic terror as a motivation to come to faith in Jesus, but that is simply silly, unhealthy, and contrary to the more profound Gospel message of love, justice, peace, and truth. It is up to us (Catholics and mainline Christian Church Traditions) to use our intellectual wisdom and modern science to make our Gospel faith consistent with and reasonable to modernity.

The Ephesians reading is part of that famous and lengthy greeting which produced an imaginative if apocalyptic painting of a glorious, ultimate victory of God’s power over evil. It is rather oratorical and elaborate in style and can be used as an eloquent, almost poetic, profession of faith. It is meant to encourage believers to hold fast in faith for God’s promise which is active and sure, in an era which was assuredly harsher and more dangerous than ours today.

The Gospel passage from Matthew’s Gospel remembrance has been sometimes labeled, “The Great Commission.” It is often seen as the Gospel constitution for the missionary and evangelistic efforts by Christians. It has sometimes been coupled with (and very wrongly, I propose!) the text from John’s Gospel (John 3:5 and the entire 3^rd chapter), wherein “... Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. ...’” Taken together, an artificial and simplistic urgency and a terribly exclusive finality are implied, i.e., without baptism, one will be excluded from God’s kingdom. I propose that the absolute necessity of Christian baptism might be an overstatement if we consider (as Catholic teaching always has) that faith in Jesus Christ and his Gospel is a “gift” from God. A gift is given somewhat selectively. We do not appreciate How?, and neither do we understand Why? God has given and still gives the gift of faith to some, but not to others. Neither do we effectively grasp why there are in reality different traditions among Gospel Christianity. The danger is, of course, to assume that we know God’s Will with certitude even if in simplistic and un-nuanced terms. By over-simplifying and by neglecting nuance, we easily become judgmental and easily judgmental and condemnatory. Remember: we are not God! Only God judges. We do still, however, have that Great Commission to announce the Good News of Jesus’ Kingdom Gospel to everyone, i.e., that God’s salvation is for everyone in the here and now, and that there is a place in God’s Kingdom for everyone! Ours must be a hope-filled and loving example of how we (!!!) engage and live the Gospel in practical terms ourselves. The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council document, The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, pointed out in it’s discussion on the problem of atheism in the mid-20th Christian Century, that it was in no small part the fault of Christians’ poor examples of Gospel life that encourages and allows atheism to thrive. Who would want to embrace this Gospel and join our fellowship if we are anything but the most loving, just, hope-filled, truthful, and joyful of believers?! Jesus’ Ascension speech in Matthew’s Gospel is indeed reminding us of Christ’s eternal and faithful presence with us as we strive to engage and live the Gospel in our modern times and places!

Christ is Risen! He is truly Risen! Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in us the fire of your divine love!