According to Acts 1:3, the Ascension of Jesus to heaven took place at the end of 40 days of His resurrection appearances, which would normally fall on a Thursday. In the Philippines we celebrate the event on the nearest Sunday (the Seventh Sunday of Easter), to facilitate the participation of everyone. Ascension is not really an end to the saving presence of Jesus Christ among His followers; it is more the beginning for the Church to be the Lord’s sacrament in the world (Luke 24:46-53).
Of the Paschal Mystery
The ascension of Jesus is part of the Paschal Mystery.
His Passover, as the Messiah who must “suffer and rise from the dead on the
third day,” is the finale of the divine plan for our salvation. As the
fulfillment of things written in Scripture, it includes His glorification in
heaven, His being once more “seated at the right hand of the Father.” It means
the end of His earthly mission, and the last appearance of the risen Jesus. As
the conclusion of the Gospel according to Luke, the ascension is painted as a picture
of stark holiness and majesty with Jesus sending off His followers with their
mission to the world.
This final stage of Jesus’ Passover is the realization of God’s plan progressively revealed in Scripture that “repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” The beginning of a new chapter in salvation history, the era of the Church on mission, would be picked up by Saint Luke in his second book, the Acts of the Apostles. This unfolding saga is part of the ongoing victorious Passover of Jesus Christ.
As His witnesses in the Holy Spirit
The mission of the Church is to preach repentance to all nations for the forgiveness of sins. And Jesus’ expectation of His disciples is clear: “You are witnesses of these things.” They have witnessed His death and His victory; they were His companions in His teaching and ministry. They can now confidently attest to everything they have seen and heard and know, so that people may believe in Jesus and be converted.
The time of the Church as a community of faith in Jesus is a time of sacramentality. As Jesus in His death and resurrection was the primordial sacrament or sign that made real and accessible to humankind God’s saving love for us, so now after the Lord’s ascension the Church as His embodiment continues to make present and visible this redemptive love. The disciples as His witnesses are now His sacrament and visible sign as ambassadors of reconciliation. Though exalted in heaven, Jesus remains in them through the Holy Spirit, suffering what they suffer as He loves through their love. If ordinary mortals can be credible witnesses of divine phenomena, if the disciples to whom Jesus explained time and again the mystery of His death and resurrection are not to succumb to doubts, if we are to understand His teaching in the light of Scripture, it is all due to the promised “power from on high.” The Holy Spirit promised by the Father and sent by Jesus Christ is the reason we as the Church can be witnesses of Jesus and be the embodiment of His salvific love. The Spirit teaches us and strengthens us, guiding us and sanctifying us.
Alalaong baga, as the risen Lord gathered the faithful and sent them forth with the mission to share with everyone His saving Paschal Mystery, the disciples were filled with “great joy.” The ministry of the Church following the ascension of Jesus is a time of rejoicing and praising God. Like the end of the liturgy: “Go in peace,” it is to begin the “Eucharist of the world”—the transformation of the world in repentance and forgiveness. Ascended into heaven, Jesus carried up before the throne of God our saved humanity. We are already in heaven with Him, even as He remains with us now on earth in the power of the Holy Spirit, His visible presence passed on into the Church and her sacraments. In the promised Spirit we carry His name in this world and are filled with His love; in the Spirit our faith does not fail, our hope unshaken and our charity does not grow cold.
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