Ascension Feast: God's desire for union

Like many events in our Scripture and Gospels, there are different takes on how and what happened. Today’s feast day, the Ascension of the Lord is a perfect example. The first reading, from Acts which was written by Luke, has Jesus with his disciples for 40 days after the resurrection, then ascending to heaven. The Gospel of Mark, once read fully, has Jesus ascend the same day as his resurrection. And ironically Luke’s gospel also has Jesus ascend the same day as his resurrection, so he gives two different stories. Matthew and John will also have their views.

So what are we to make of this? I knew a man once that when I pointed out these contradictions he would get upset at me, telling me I was saying Scripture was not true.  The timing really does not matter, it is the core of the event and the action of the disciples. It speaks really to a need in our own lives as well, some 2000 years later.

The Core event, the Son of God came down from heaven and was incarnated, became a human person wholly and completely. The incarnated Son of God, Jesus the Christ, after his death and resurrection then ascended into Heaven, wholly and completely; Body and Soul.

The message in this, God desires our union, our completeness. Our humanity is meant to be one with God. So desirous of this union, this completeness, the Son becomes one with us to reveal it, and to reveal the extent of the Father’s capacity to love and forgive us. This is our redemption. We have been contemplating this reality throughout the Easter Season.

This union is pure gift of God; we do not need to purchase it, earn it, appease God for it. God gives it freely.  This also means that humanity has an inherent dignity, an inherent value. Not just a select group of humans, not just a particular gender of human; not a particular sect of humans; rather all humans have an inherent value and dignity.

These are part of the Kerygma, the core of the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This was the message that the disciples began to spread, proclaim and more importantly live within themselves and create communities.

This is to be our message too, that we spread, proclaim and more importantly live within ourselves and within our community. This is what it means to be Christian as we truly are, this is what it means to be Catholic as we truly are.

This Feast provides us an opportunity to reflect on our understanding of the faith.  This feast provides us an opportunity to consider how we have experienced this Good news for ourselves. Ascension provides us the opportunity to consider how we will live it out more and more, so that others may also experience the Good News of Jesus Christ.

To grasp that God desires us, our union, means that God is truly for us. God is not out to get us, to punish us, to cast us away. God works for that union, for that completeness. That also means all that we do is not a way to earn that, but an expression of our gratitude to God, including this worship and including our prayer life. All the good that we do becomes a reflection of our belief in that goodness that God places within us. It expresses love.

It also means that the bad we experience is not God’s punishment or retribution, but that as Jesus showed, bad things will happen because people choose to not believe in love, believe in the goodness of others, or themselves. We sin. And also accidents do happen.

Our choice in the midst of this, to remain hopeful; to choose to love as Jesus did even as he hung on the cross. And to grasp that God desires us is to grasp that we have value, dignity. God loves us, despite what we do or choose to do. Not simply we as Catholics who have chosen to be at Mass today, but all human persons.

This becomes the core of our Catholic Moral teaching, our Social Teachings of human persons. This is why we strive to protect all persons, from conception to natural birth; to those on death row, to those living in poverty and those struggling to support families. This is why we support the rights of workers to just and fair wages, to time for family; and so much more. As we live this out, we fulfill the message and mission that Christ has given to us. 

When we forget this; When we grow weary of this; When we become complacent in this; When we face conflict in ourselves; We come to this amazing Sacrament, extend our hands in love and receive love back.  
And our only response can be “Amen” and to choose to live this love.


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