Ascension of the Lord, Year B — May 13th/16th, 2021

The Church just celebrated the triumphal Ascension of Christ into Heaven, and the readings for this glorious solemnity offered us much food for thought and prayer. The first theme of our Scripture sharing this week was the beautiful reality that this is a feast, not only of Our Lord, but also of the Church. One Sister, drawing on the Office of Readings for the Ascension, spoke about how Jesus has truly brought us with Him to Heaven in this mystery. As members of the Church, we are all parts of the Mystical Body of Christ, and where the Head is, the members must also be. But how can such a statement be true, since we are still so obviously living in this “vale of tears?” To put it simply, we as members of the Church Militant are in a unique “in-between” stage. We no longer live a merely earthly existence, since Christ has claimed our souls for His Kingdom through the Sacrament of Baptism, but we still await the fulfillment of this reality in the world to come. So while we do not yet experience the Beatific Vision, we nonetheless are connected to Heaven in an amazingly intimate way. How different would our lives be if we made a point of spending our days with a greater consciousness of the presence and love of God, of Our Lady, of all the Saints and angels? It was living a life such as this that drew St. Elizabeth of the Trinity to exclaim, “I have found Heaven, because Heaven is God, and God is in my soul!”

Turning to the First Reading, we focused on Our Lord’s words to the Apostles: “for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” This hearkens back to the very beginning of the public ministry of Jesus, to the early days when the Twelve were just coming to know and follow Him through the witness of John the Baptist. What would it have meant to them as they heard these words after all that had happened in the past three years – and especially in the past forty days? What did they think when they heard the Baptist’s prophecy repeated to them by the Risen Lord? Perhaps they were wondering … if John’s “baptism with water” had set off such an earth-shaking chain of events, what would the promised “baptism with the Holy Spirit” bring? A Sister noted how this same dynamic is often present in our own spiritual lives. We receive some important grace, but it is only later that the Lord reveals to us just how far-reaching its impact has been, and how much more He has in store for us!

A line in the Gospel caught another Sister’s attention: “the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word.” It was not the Apostles’ own (frankly negligible) diplomatic skills that caused the Gospel to spread so effectively. Rather, it was Christ’s presence with them that made their work fruitful. We can see this principle at work in the lives of all the Saints; their words may not be particularly original or different, but the grace of God working through those simple channels can attract and move countless souls. Think of someone like St. Mother Teresa, who had no fancy rhetoric or polish, and yet whose simple and even blunt words are still touching people today! This is all rooted, of course, in the power of God’s Word, which does not simply describe, but effect what it says. After all, the Word is a Person – Jesus Christ Himself, the almighty Lord of the universe!

Finally, we spent some time discussing how the Apostles, as practicing Jews, would have understood all that Jesus was telling them about the Holy Spirit (a major liturgical theme in the days between Ascension and Pentecost). The full doctrine of the Trinity took the Church three hundred years to “hammer out,” but there were hints of the mysterious Third Person scattered throughout the Old Testament and Jewish tradition. The concept of a divine spirit (or spirits) is not unique, as it was shared by the pagan nations that surrounded Israel. However, Judaism stood in radical contrast to other ancient religions in one important aspect: its “incarnational” emphasis. For the Jews, there was no divide between secular and sacred history; their God did not stand aloof, but He entered into a covenant with them. The world of the spirit and the world of matter were meant to be united, as in the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve “walked with the LORD in the cool of the day.” Therefore, the Holy Spirit revealed Himself to the Chosen People in forms like a pillar of fire, a shining cloud, and tongues of fire. This “incarnate-ness” is one of the most precious gifts the Church has inherited from Israel, and even today the Spirit is called down into souls through the laying on of hands, anointing with oil, and spoken words of Christ’s ministers.