Daily Gospel Reflection
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May 16, 2021
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Go into the whole world
and proclaim the gospel to every creature.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved;
whoever does not believe will be condemned.
These signs will accompany those who believe:
in my name they will drive out demons,
they will speak new languages.
They will pick up serpents with their hands,
and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them.
They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them,
was taken up into heaven
and took his seat at the right hand of God.
But they went forth and preached everywhere,
while the Lord worked with them
and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.
Today’s celebration of the Ascension has a reading that really puts the focus on Jesus’ final message to his disciples: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.”
When I think about the Ascension, I focus on the image of Jesus rising up into the clouds, taken away from his disciples to reign in heaven with God the Father. That image is certainly present in this reading, but it doesn’t give us much to act on. It is an image of power and glory but it also leaves me wondering what the disciples thought about the whole situation. Were they left standing there, looking at each other, trying to figure out what to do next? I’m sure they were. But the gospel passage gives us the answer to that question. Jesus commands them to go into the world. Jesus commands them to proclaim the gospel.
This forces me to consider if I am proclaiming the gospel, which is a significant challenge in our generally secular culture that considers faith a private, personal matter. More importantly, it forces me to consider if I am “going into the world” to proclaim the gospel. Am I going out of my immediate family and my parish when I talk about Jesus? Am going out of my comfort zone to witness to Christ?
The idea of Jesus ascending into heaven can give me a sense of false comfort, as if Jesus is in heaven watching over all of us and in control of everything that will happen from that point on. He will ensure that the Church grows and flourishes. I can let him handle things. But that is not what Jesus teaches us today. He places responsibility on us. So let us go into the world. Let us proclaim the gospel.
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Prayer
O God, Jesus is gone; we are now his voice, his arms and legs, and we work miracles not with snakes but with overcoming the power of sin by your grace and by reaching out with the works of mercy and goodness. We are the members of the Church of Jesus Christ spread throughout the world. You, O Lord, are no longer as of old among us, but you are now always with us. We pray to be your voice on earth — your arms and legs ours to bend in your ways of love and service, through you, O Lord.
Saint of the Day
Today is the feast of Jesus’ ascension into heaven. For most Catholics in the United States, this feast is transferred to Sunday. The dioceses of Boston, Hartford, New York, Newark, Omaha, and Philadelphia have retained the feast on its traditional day, Thursday, and celebrated it then.
The feast of the ascension takes place ten days before Pentecost; this duration of time takes on a special anticipation of the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The story of Jesus’ ascension is told in the Acts of the Apostles (1:9-11). After the resurrection, Jesus appeared to his followers during the ensuing 40 days and prepared them to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. He commissions his followers to spread the good news to the ends of the earth, and promises his Spirit as a helper and advocate.
After this promise, “he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight” (Acts 1:9). His followers are left behind, looking up at where he went, and then two figures appear and say, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”
Jesus’ ascension reminds us of our own destiny. Jesus came and joined our human condition, and was resurrected and ascended into heaven, so this pathway is now open to us. The feast today reveals to us our destiny as followers of Jesus: eternal life in union with God. We remember what happened to Jesus 2,000 years ago so that today we might have hope that sustains us in our Christian journey of discipleship.
The ascension scene above is depicted in this stained glass window from the Basilica. It appears below another window that contains a personification of hope because Jesus’ ascension is the best illustration of our own eternal destiny. Notice the distress on the faces of the disciples left behind, including the mother laying down her child. We wait, in hope, for the exaltation into heaven of our own bodies and of those we love, and we ask for the Spirit to assist us in our faithfulness as we await that day.
On this feast of the Ascension of our Lord, let us have hope in our own exaltation and persevere in discipleship!
Our virtual pilgrimage to the Holy Land presents images and a report from the Chapel of the Ascension in Jerusalem, built over the place where Jesus is believed to have left the earth and ascended to heaven—more on this page.