Celebrating Ascension Sunday

In earlier posts I've commented about Ascension Thursday not celebrated on Thursday at all; at least in most of the United States.  Specifically, we celebrate the Ascension today, which would be the 7th Sunday of Easter if not transferred from a Thursday to Sunday.  Confused?  Yep, I know!

But with a large normal Sunday crowd in the pews, the Church has a chance to share much about the Ascension with the faithful.  It is a major feast of the Church!  The liturgy gives us beautiful prayers that speak of Jesus' Ascension with the reminder where he goes, we hope to follow.  Then we hear that beautiful reading from Acts, written to that most excellent Theophilus.  As Jesus tells his followers about the coming power of the Holy Spirit the reading tells us that Jesus was lifted up and a cloud took Him from their sight.  And these followers are asked a question from two dressed in white: "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."  And there it is; detailed in Scripture, in time and place, Jesus ascends to heaven returning to the Father.

The Gospel today really does not mention the Ascension.  Truthfully, only St. Mark has another account of the Ascension in his Gospel.  Today we hear from Matthew, the conclusion of his Gospel with those powerful words of farewell: "I am with you always, until the end of the age."  This comes after Jesus commanded the Apostles to make disciples of all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

The ministry of Jesus, on this day of His Ascension, marks a huge shift; a shift from the ministry He carries out in the flesh and his physical appearances and now in Heaven, carried out through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate sent by Jesus as He takes His place at the right hand of His Father.

It is a powerful and beautiful day in the liturgical cycle of the Church; even if it is transferred to the 7th Sunday of Easter. 

We give thanks for the Ascension of Jesus to Heaven; where we confidently proclaim that He sits at the right hand of the Father to make intercession for us.  And by reigning at the Father's right hand, He has sent us the power of the Holy Spirit that makes us His evangelists; here at home and even to the end of the earth!