THE ASCENSION AS END AND BEGINNING

Being Christlike isn’t only a matter of being prayerful and holy, but living the mission of Jesus with the same passion, devotion and love

May 16—Seventh Sunday of Easter & Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

Readings: Acts 1:1-11; Psalm 47, R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.; Eph 1:17-23; GospelMark 16: 15-20

Today we commemorate the Ascension of the Lord, which in the Lucan community tradition completes the Paschal Mystery together with the Pentecost.

From the perspective of mission, we can consider the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus as Him fulfilling His mission. We can reflect on the Ascension and Pentecost as Jesus handing over His mission to us, His Church, and empowering us to live out the mission.

Three points to reflect on: one, the Ascension as the “kickoff” of our “taking on” the mission entrusted to us; two, the mission entrusted to us is a continuing of Jesus’ mission, thus all mission is a sharing in His mission; and three, the lines from the opening prayer or collect of the Mass for the Feast.

The Ascension is both an ending and a beginning. But one of the points I wish us to reflect on is the process of getting to this point.

We always think of the Ascension as the 40th day from the Resurrection. This period is when Jesus “mentored” His disciples, reflecting on their three-year experience with him from the perspective of the Resurrection.

The 40s

All 40s in scripture somehow represent this. To name a couple, the chosen people wandered 40 years in the desert before entering the promised land, and Jesus spent 40 days of prayer and fasting before beginning His ministry.

Forty is the period of formation and transformation that allows us to take on the mission. At the end of the period, we begin a new phase, one that is very much taking on and living out a mission.

So we ask ourselves, how have we transformed during the period of Easter? If Lent and Holy Week represent a period of preparation, of taking stock of things, Easter can be viewed as a period of reintegration.

We renew our sense of mission from the perspective of “victory,” the victory of the Cross and Resurrection. These two events are the game-changing events in our life.

This is the grace they offer. Our lives can be radically different if we allow the grace of the Cross and Resurrection to enter and touch our life. But together with it is our entering the core of this mystery and living its pattern in our life.

The Ascension, the end of this period of transformation and the beginning of a life-changing period of mission, is an exciting moment of meaning, work and mission.

This mission, as our second point for reflection, is a continuing of and a sharing in the mission Jesus came for. It cannot be otherwise.

This is what being Christian is all about. When everything is said and done, the question is, have we become Christlike?

And it not simply being a matter of being prayerful and holy, kind and helpful, caring and compassionate, but at the very heart of it, it is living the mission of Jesus with the same passion, devotion and love.

Following the example of Jesus in Mark 1: 29-39—Jesus serving the needs of others and Jesus at prayer—He, in the end, showed what pulled all these together. “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.”

It was fidelity to and the constancy of doing what He came for, as well as focusing on His mission, that gave Jesus clarity.

Shared mission

This is the mission we share in. We see the works associated with this mission in today’s Gospel. We even see some of the “tools” or “powers” that come with the mission.

But above all, we live the mission when we know we are sent and we are obedient to what and how the one who sent us wants us to accomplish our mission.

The third and final point: “... make us rejoice with devout thanksgiving, for the Ascension of Christ your Son is our exaltation, and where the Head has gone before in glory, the Body is called to follow in hope.”

This is the quality of our life and mission. We “rejoice with devout thanksgiving.” We called to follow our “Head [who] has gone before [us] in glory” and we “follow in hope.”

Today, the Feast of the Ascension, we remember the end of Jesus’ stay here on earth as the Word made flesh, the fruit of the Incarnation.

We celebrate, too, the start of our living and sharing in the mission He entrusted to us.

This we do with devout thanksgiving, and we follow Jesus in hope. What a wonderful life lies ahead.