Step out, move forward and look outward

Today we celebrate the ascension of Jesus. According to Scripture, this departure of Jesus took place forty days after his resurrection (Acts 1:3), which means it falls on Thursday, often referred to as Ascension Thursday. In 1998, however, many of the U.S. bishops determined that this important event, culminating Jesus’ earthly life, deserved the attention of a Sunday liturgy for Catholics. Still, in some parts of the U.S. and around the world, Ascension Thursday is observed and in those places, the designated Scripture for liturgy in those communities are the readings for the Seventh Sunday of Easter. The following reflection, however, focuses on the Sunday readings for the Ascension liturgy but will also make brief reference to the Gospel passage (Jn 17:1-11) designated for this Seventh Sunday of Easter. 

Since the feast of Easter, we have heard many accounts that witness to Jesus alive following his Resurrection. His disciples encountered the risen Jesus walking on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. He joined two of them on the road to Emmaus, interpreting the Scriptures and breaking bread at table with them. He showed Thomas his hands and side. He appeared to Mary Magdalene as a gardener. He taught about his and our relationship to the Father in his farewell discourse to his followers. While these accounts attest to his resurrected bodily human presence, they also remind us that Jesus’ humanity was an incarnation, whereby the divine took on human form. 

The Solemnity of the Ascension’s first reading, from Acts, narrates the literal ascension of Christ, an event that completes that Incarnation. Jesus’ resurrected humanity now joins with the Father, but does not leave us. Jesus, the one manifested in our humanity, not only disclosed our God, but also established a holy and divine kinship with us forever. 

This kinship suggests an awesome solidarity between the divine and the human. What form does this take? Paul’s letter to the Ephesians instructs the new Christians of that community, along with Christians down through the centuries, that we have become the very “Body of Christ.” As that body, we manifest Christ’s divine presence here and now. We who imitate him, as he told his disciples in his farewell address last Sunday, become one with him and one with the Father (Jn 17:11).

When the disciples experienced Jesus ascending, they “were looking intently at the sky as he was going” (Acts 1:10). Two men appeared questioning this upward fixation and asked the disciples why they were looking upward, toward the heavens?  By contrast, today, people visiting the Mount of Olives often stop at what is known as the Ascension Chapel, a site that dates from the reign of Constantine and honors a fourth-century tradition identifying it as the place from which Jesus ascended. Inside the current small octagonal building exists a deep cavity in the floor with an imprint revered to be the footprint of Jesus. Modern pilgrims usually fix their gaze downward, toward the ground. Whether they are looking at his footprint or not, one might imagine the two men who challenged the disciples’ looking upward now questioning modern visitors’ gazing downward. Called to be the Body of Christ, our orientation cannot be upward or downward.  Instead, the Gospel reading for the Ascension challenges us, as the Body of Christ, to step out, move forward and look outward — toward those multitudes to whom we are sent to be Christ’s presence. Today, Matthew’s Gospel reminds us that Jesus actually entrusted his disciples and us with his very own mission. He commissions us to “make disciples of all nations,” baptizing them in the name of the Trinity, and he promises that as we do this he is present with us (Mt 28:19-20).  

John’s Gospel for the Seventh Sunday of Easter enhances our commission. Here we eavesdrop on Jesus praying the night before he was betrayed. Though aware of his fate, Jesus does not request help or rescue from the Father for himself. Instead, he prays for his followers, for us, so that we will be able to continue his mission. He prays that we be united with the Father and Spirit. In addition, he asks the Father to fill us with joy as we carry out this task. Jesus pleads that unity should define the believing community and that his disciples remain steadfast in resistance to evil. Finally, he prays that we be consecrated for all he has called us to do. 

The closing of the Ascension’s Gospel passage from Matthew crafts a fitting capstone for this invitation. Jesus offers us his abiding assurance for the work to which he has called us and makes this promise: “‘And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age’” (Mt 28:20).