Ascension of the Lord

Readings of the Day
RB: Ch 7:35-43
Mass: Acts 1:1-11; Resp Ps 47; Eph 1:17-23 or Heb 9:24-28; 10:19-23; Lk 24:46-53

All you peoples, clap your hands, shout to God with cries of gladness.

GO AND TEACH ALL NATIONS, SAYS THE LORD; I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS, UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD.

(Gospel Acclamation, Mass)

Our reading from Vigils, taken from A Day of Darkness by Rowan Williams, provided the inspiration for today's reflection.

Perhaps this is a bit of what the Ascension Day hymns and prayers mean when they speak of the whole human nature being raised to heaven in the Ascension. If Jesus is the presence of God's promise in the world, and if the Ascension means that, through the power of the resurrection, we now share the same calling as Jesus, seeing in his light and with his eyes, then two things follow. First, we as Christian believers are "in heaven", but not so as to remove us from the earth. Quite the contrary: in the middle of the world's life, we are given some share in God's perspective of things, so that God through us may make his loving faithfulness real and effective here and now. And second, the things and the persons of this world are seen in a new way, seen as charged with hope, with a future of glory and of healing. They are seen as if already part of the new heaven and new earth in which God's purposes have been brought to completion.

The Ascension celebrates the new creation, the bringing together of heaven and earth that has begun in the life of Jesus. When Jesus is seen no more in the old way, that does not mean that he abandoned the world, so that we must go and look for him outside it-"looking up into the sky" like the disciples. His life is being lived in us, gradually and sometimes painfully. We are caught up in the eternal movement of God's commitment to his creation. In and through Jesus we, too, have become a sign of promise. The light is on; the morning has come. The daystar from on high has dawned upon us.

What does it mean to see with the eyes of Jesus? An answer is given by Pope Benedict XVI in the Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est, a passage I've quoted more than once: "Seeing with the eyes of Christ, I can give to others much more than their outward necessities; I can give them the look of love which they crave" (18). From this perspective we understand better how to make God's "loving faithfulness real and effective here and now." In order to see with the eyes of Christ though, each one of us must have contact with God, or "renew our personal encounter with Jesus Christ ... unfailingly each day" (Pope Francis, The Joy of the Gospel, 3). Pope Benedict XVI writes this: "If I have no contact whatsoever with God in my life, then I cannot see in the other anything more than the other, and I am incapable of seeing in him the image of God." In other words, without personal contact with God, I cannot see with his eyes. I cannot see in his light. But it's not just about me and my God. We have brothers and sisters to think about, love, and embrace. In the words of Benedict XVI, "Only my readiness to encounter my neighbour and to show him or her love makes me sensitive to God as well. Only if I serve my neighbour can my eyes be opened to what God does for me and how much he loves me." It is through service of our brothers and sisters, without exception, that we encounter or make contact with God. It is through our brothers and sisters that we make God's loving faithfulness real and effective here and now. This is how God's life is lived in us: by loving and serving our neighbour. In what practical way will you give someone the look of love which he or she craves? We go forth and spread the Good News.

MAY THE EYES OF YOUR HEARTS BE ENLIGHTENED THAT YOU MAY KNOW OF THE HOPE THAT BELONGS TO HIS CALL.

(Eph 1:18)

NB. Today's photo of our yellow rose.