Jesus sits at right hand of Father

Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

This Sunday the Church marks the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, thus offering a special opportunity for us to celebrate the great truths that we proclaim so often in prayer — in the Apostles’ Creed we profess that Jesus “ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty,” and in the Nicene Creed at Mass every Sunday we similarly declare our faith that Jesus “ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.” In the earliest eras of the Church, the Ascension was usually treated simply in the larger context of the Resurrection or Pentecost, but beginning in the late 3rd century in the East and shortly thereafter in the West, the important message of this particular part of the salvation history became a topic of interest in its own right.

The Ascension provides an important bridge between the Resurrection and the Holy Spirit’s descent upon the apostles; it completes a loop, if you will, in which the Eternal Son of God, fully possessed of God’s own divine nature, is sent by the Father to assume human nature, becoming incarnate of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and working to reveal God’s goodness, love, and compassion to a humanity in need of redemption. Jesus, fully divine and fully human, completes this mission by his life and teaching, death and Resurrection, and then, after offering the great commission to his chosen apostles (“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19), he returns to heaven, to his place of eternal glory. The Ascension thus marks an immense blessing for humanity in that (1) we can celebrate our God and Savior’s return to the place of worship and majesty that is rightfully his, (2) we can rejoice in the fact our human nature, fully possessed by Christ, is now ensconced eternally with the Godhead in heaven, (3) having assumed our human nature, Christ promised to be an effective Intercessor for us at the very throne of God, and (4) having returned to heaven, the Son along with the Father sent the Holy Spirit upon his disciples enabling them to remember Jesus’ teaching, to live it out and proclaim it faithfully it to all peoples, and to remain united with one another and with Christ the Lord in the Church.

The Church places before us this Sunday two readings especially important for our understanding of Christ’s Ascension: in the First Reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, we are treated to a glimpse of what those initial apostles themselves may have experienced on that day of the Lord’s Ascension, and then in the reading from St. Matthew’s Gospel, we hear the Lord’s great commission — both to those early followers and to us.

The first chapter of Acts gives a brief overview of Jesus’ post-Resurrection activity with his disciples, and then, after 40 days, tells of Jesus instructing them to remain together until the promised coming of the Holy Spirit. He tells them to “be [his] witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8 b-c) at which point, “when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud took him from their sight” (Acts 1:9).

St. Matthew’s Gospel offers a further elaboration of the commission that Jesus laid upon them and their successors. Significantly, St. Matthew introduces this vignette by telling us that when the Eleven saw Jesus, “they worshipped [him], but they doubted” (Mt 28:17); followers of Jesus, even those so committed that they would worship him are also imperfect, sometimes questioning, quite often slow to understand, maybe even sinful people. When modern day disciples recognize these characteristics in themselves, there is no cause for despair — Jesus has always chosen such people, and look at the good they have been able, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to accomplish over the past two millennia.

Next, Jesus comes to the heart of his commission; he reminds them that “all power in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” (Mt 28:18b), that is, that the task he is laying upon them is the fruit of his divine power and an extension of the mission that the Eternal Father had bestowed upon him. He then commands them to “make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19a) — (disciples being understood as those who embrace Jesus’ teaching with loving, rapt attention and then fully commit themselves to living it out) and to do this by “baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” (Mt 28:19b) and by “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:20a).

With a final promise that “I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Mt 28:20b), Jesus’ earthly time with those disciples, his words of commission, and St. Matthew’s Gospel conclude. History tells us both of the grandeur of the possibilities to which Jesus’s commission gives rise, and of the hopes for good that disciples in every age can accomplish as they set out to fulfill this commission anew in every age.

Msgr. Fell is a Scripture scholar and director, diocesan Office for Priest Personnel