LECTIONARY READING
First reading: Acts 1:1-11.
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 46(47):2-3, 6-9.
Second reading: Ephesians 4:1-13 / Ephesians 4:1-7,11-13 / Ephesians 1:17-23.
Gospel: Mark 16:15-20.
Link to readings
COMMENTARY
The Ascension of the Lord presents more than usual difficulty for preachers. Without being too technical about it, I think we have to make clear to people that the biblical account given in the First Reading (Acts 1:1-11; see also Luke 24:46-53) does not mean that Jesus, at the end of his earthly career, literally ascended in way described.
The very clear parallels with the description of the ascent into heaven of the prophet Elijah (2 Kings 2:1-18) suggest that St Luke is completing here his characteristic depiction of Jesus in terms of that persecuted prophet. Having escaped the clutches of his enemies by rising from the dead, Jesus now makes an Elijah-like ascent to heaven.
MESSIANIC GLORY
In biblical language and imagery this mode of departure from the earth signals the truth that the One who had been crucified on the trumped-up charge of being a political Messiah, a rebel against Rome, and who God raised from the dead in vindication of his true status, has now entered messianic glory at God’s right hand.
He has indeed been removed from human sight to commence a messianic reign in heaven but this does not mean an abandonment of either the disciples or his saving mission in the world. On the contrary, through the Spirit he will be present and active in a new mode of being. The disciples had felt the power of the Spirit that was on him during his earthly life. Now they are assured that, as a result of his messianic enthronement, an empowering “clothing” with the Spirit will come down upon them and accompany them as they take his Word and witness “to the ends of the earth”.
Just before Jesus departs, the disciples voice a strong sense of “unfinished business”: “Lord, has the time come? Are you going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus does not give a direct answer. The time of the Kingdom’s full arrival and the completion of the messianic program remains shrouded in the mystery of God. What the disciples must understand is that, empowered by the Spirit, they are to become instruments of its realisation in the new era – that of the Church – that lies ahead. Through their hands and feet and mouth Jesus will continue his messianic work until the end of time.
EXALTATION OF CHRIST
Today’s Second Reading, Ephes 4:1-13, contemplates the ascension – or, more strictly, the exaltation – of Christ in relation to the unity of the Church and the variety of gifts enjoyed by believers within that unity.
The unity of the Church reflects one faith, one baptism, one vocation, one hope, one Lord, one Spirit, one Father. This is not a static oneness but rather a dynamic unity, preserved and indeed enhanced by the variety of gifts given to individual members. In a very arresting image, bolstered by a quotation from Ps 69:19, Paul sees these gifts as the “spoils of battle” distributed by the victorious and exalted Lord. In his death, he has gone down into the underworld and despoiled Satan and his minions, filling the entire universe with his own power instead.
The gifts of the Spirit, exercised in the various offices of the community, are really ways in which individual members and the community as a whole have a share in Christ’s cosmic victory. They exist to build up the community to “full stature”, that is, to the fullness of humanity, modelled by the risen Lord, in accordance with the original design of the Creator.
The text speaks as though the struggle is all over, the victory won. We know all too well that this is far from the case. Putting it all in the past, as though already achieved, is simply Paul’s way of projecting hope. The hostile forces may still be around, but the Paschal victory of Jesus has dealt them a fatal blow.
FEAST OF HOPE
As preachers, we have to ask how we should identify and name today the malign, transpersonal forces over which Paul saw Christ triumphant. The Ascension is not simply something that happened to Jesus – his departure, physically, from this world. It is the feast that celebrates the hope that evil and all that makes for dehumanisation and death in our world will not have the last word.
The Gospel, Mark 15:15-20,is taken from the end of Mark’s Gospel. Though canonical, this text is a conclusion added in the second century to fill out Mark’s very sparse description of Jesus’ risen life. It presents a kind of summary “digest” of the resurrection accounts of the other Gospels, combining appropriately for this feast – the Great Commission that concludes Matthew’s Gospel (28:16-20) with the Lukan motif of the Ascension. The “signs” that are mentioned (including snake-handling and drinking deadly poison without harm) are best explained as expressions, again, of the triumph of the risen Lord.
Brendan Byrne, SJ, FAHA, taught New Testament at Jesuit Theological College, Parkville, Vic., for almost forty years. He is now Emeritus Professor at the University of Divinity (Melbourne). His commentaries on the Gospels can be found at Pauline Books and Media