Readings: Acts 1:1-11; Ephesians 1:17-23; Luke 24:46-53
Theme: Jesus, Lord of all Creation
By Michael McCabe, SMA
Today, the feast of the Ascension, marks an end and a beginning: the end of Jesus’ mission on earth and his return to the Father to reign as Lord of all creation; the beginning of the mission of the Church, empowered by the gift of the Spirit. Our readings today give us two accounts of the Ascension of Jesus, both written by St Luke. The gospel reading recounts the final scene of Luke’s Gospel where Jesus gives his disciples a mission – to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins – and promises to send them the Holy Spirit. Then, he tells them to remain in the city (Jerusalem) and there await the gift of the Spirit. He finally blesses them before he withdraws from them and is carried up to heaven (cf. Lk 24:51).
In our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Luke gives us a second, more detailed, account of the same event. This account includes a revealing dialogue between Jesus and the apostles. They ask Jesus if the time has come for him ‘to restore the kingdom of Israel’ (Acts 1:6). This question shows us how far they were from understanding the life and ministry of their Master or the meaning of his death and resurrection. Their concern was still about the liberation of Israel from Roman occupation. In response Jesus does not reject or belittle their concern but gently reminds them that ‘it is not for them to know times or dates that the Father has decided by his own authority’ (Acts 1:7). He then renews the promise of the Spirit and underlines the universal scope of the mission he is entrusting to them: ‘You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends of the earth’ (Acts 1:8). The reading ends with the assurance from angelic messengers (‘two men in white’) that Jesus will again return as they have seen him go.
Our second reading today from St Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians highlights the profound theological significance of the Ascension of Jesus. Jesus, ascended to the right hand of the Father, is now not only the conqueror of sin and death. He is the Lord of all creation, and all things in heaven and on earth, are subject to him: ‘every Sovereignty, Authority, Power or Domination’. God the Father ‘has put all things under his feet and made him, as the ruler of everything, the head of the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills the whole creation’ (Eph 1:21-23).
During his earthly ministry Jesus was reputed to have taught with authority, unlike the scribes and Pharisees. Mark tells us that people ‘were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes…. He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him” (Mk 1: 20, 27). Jesus words resonated with divine power and his actions manifested this power: healing the sick, casting out demons, stilling the storm, forgiving sinners. The authority of Jesus was not about imposing his will on others, but about overcoming the forces of sin and evil in the world, ushering in the reign of God, and communicating the “the fullness of life” (Jn 10:10). Now, as the Resurrected and Ascended One, Jesus authority is supreme and all-embracing. In the words of one of the earliest Christian hymns, quoted by St Paul, he is the one ‘before whom every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’ (Phil 2:10-11).
It is as Lord of the universe that the Risen Jesus is sending his disciples to be his witnesses, to be his agents in extending his life-giving mission to the peoples of all nations. During his earthly life, Jesus’ mission was limited primarily to the Jewish people. Now its boundaries are expanded to include all humanity and the mission he confides to his disciples has universal scope. To his still fearful and confused disciples, this commission must have seemed overwhelming and even impossible. But Jesus assures them that they will not be alone. As risen Lord, he will be present to them in a new and more powerful way, through the Holy Spirit, a presence unbounded by time or space. Empowered by the same Spirit, we, too, like the first disciples, continue to be witnesses of Jesus to the ends of the earth – joyful witnesses confident that, as Paul reminds us, ‘nothing can now come between us and the love of God, made known to us in Christ Jesus, our Lord’ (Rom 8:39). I conclude with a poem by Malcolm Guite that captures beautifully the significance of Ascension Day:
We saw his light break through the cloud of glory
Whilst we were rooted still in time and place
As earth became a part of Heaven’s story
And heaven opened to his human face.
We saw him go and yet we were not parted
He took us with him to the heart of things
The heart that broke for all the broken-hearted
Is whole and Heaven-centred now, and sings,
Sings in the strength that rises out of weakness,
Sings through the clouds that veil him from our sight,
Whilst we our selves become his clouds of witness
And sing the waning darkness into light,
His light in us, and ours in him concealed,
Which all creation waits to see revealed.
Listen to an alternative Homily by Tom Casey, SMA: