Scripture readings for the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord:
Acts 1:1-11
Psalm 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9
Ephesians 1:17-23 or Hebrews 9:24-28; 10:19-23
Luke 24:46-53
It took a while for me to learn why the ascension of Jesus mattered.
I mean, on the surface it seems a funny thing, mythological. Maybe, I thought, the Ascension was one of those ancient, unsophisticated bits of the religion it would be better quietly to dismiss in favor of some more enlightened, demystified account of the faith.
Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father? Really? Why must modern Christians believe that? That’s how, once upon a time – I’ll be honest – I thought about the ascension of Jesus Christ.
But then I began to pay attention to the Bible and to the liturgy. That’s when it hit me, almost like a mystical experience, when in my life the Scripture and worship finally intersected. That is, when I paid attention to what I was doing, praying and studying within the rhythm of the Church’s worship, that’s when it hit me, when I discovered how necessary it was for me to believe in the ascension of Jesus, how it’s related to everything.
Here’s what I mean. I was in seminary, praying every day and reading John’s Gospel. It was in the Easter season, between the feast of the Resurrection and the feast of the Ascension, already looking forward to the feast of Pentecost; plotting myself liturgically is important to this story. You see, reading the Bible, I fell in love with Jesus, and I wanted to be with Jesus; I wanted to be close to him, unite myself to him.
But clearly, I couldn’t be with him in any sort of ordinary way; he is risen, no longer present in the flesh. Yes, I know he’s present sacramentally, but how does that work? My point is that reading the Scripture first made me want Jesus. Which was my first step toward understanding the Ascension.
But it was important that I began to desire Jesus within the Church at prayer, that is, within the liturgical Church. The ascension is not something you can grasp merely academically. You see, as I said, I was reading John’s Gospel, and so I really wanted to “abide” with Christ (John 15:1-11).
I was reading those passages wherein Jesus talked about the “Paraclete,” the “Advocate,” the “Counselor,” and the “Spirit of Truth,” that Spirit whom Jesus said would guide us into “all the truth” and “glorify” him. About this Spirit Jesus talked about in John, he said, “it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” (John 16:4-15).
Jesus spoke in these spiritually spatial and temporal terms of going and waiting, and that named exactly how I felt, wanting to be with Jesus. It felt as if Jesus had gone away; it felt as if I was waiting to be with him again. You see what reading the Bible does to you? It helps you name your deepest spiritual longings. It helps you feel spiritual truth.
But then it dawned on me. I was thinking all this, feeling all this, right in the middle of the Easter season. And I thought: what is the feast of the Ascension, but the feast of Jesus’s going? What is the feast of Pentecost, but the feast of the Spirit’s coming? And what was I doing, but waiting around after Easter for the feasts and Ascension and Pentecost?
You see, the Church’s Scripture helped me find my desire for Christ, and the Church’s liturgy helped me fulfill that desire. Which is, quite simply, how I came to believe in the ascension of Jesus; I had come to feel it.
Now, I know it’s tricky talking about feelings, but I do so because I’m talking about the Holy Spirit. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples to wait in the city until he sends the “promise of my Father” upon them, until they are “clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). He’s talking, I believe, about something you can feel as much as anything else. He’s talking about the gift of the Holy Spirit that, after the Ascension, is given at Pentecost.
This is the same Holy Spirit that Paul says is poured into the hearts of believers, the Spirit who sighs within us, within our own weak prayers, enabling us to call God our Father (Romans 5:5; 8:15, 26). It is the same Spirit we encounter in Baptism and whom we call upon at the Eucharist. It is the same Spirit that enables us in Christ to pray to the Father. It’s the Spirit that makes all Christian life possible.
Which is I think why the ascension of Jesus matters, why the feast of the Ascension matters. Because it’s one of those feasts that helps us map Christian reality, to see the spiritual reality in which we all exist as sons and daughters in Christ.
The feast of the Ascension is a teacher of prayer. Which is why I think the best thing you could do, if you want to learn about the Ascension, is to find some Catholic worshipping community and place yourself in it, and then simply pay attention, read the Bible and pray. Because doing so will eventually change you, clothe you with power from on high.
Father Joshua J. Whitfield is pastor of St. Rita Catholic Community in Dallas and author of “The Crisis of Bad Preaching” (Ave Maria Press, $17.95) and other books.
