Daily Gospel Reflection
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May 29, 2022
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things.
And behold I am sending the promise of my Father upon you;
but stay in the city
until you are clothed with power from on high.”
Then he led them out as far as Bethany,
raised his hands, and blessed them.
As he blessed them he parted from them
and was taken up to heaven.
They did him homage
and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy,
and they were continually in the temple praising God.
Reflection
In my life thus far, my most significant moments of discernment have required big, life-style changes. I heeded God’s call to go to a new city for college, married my high school sweetheart after four years of long-distance, left a stable job for a new possibility, and then moved back to our hometown. So often, the command of Jesus is, “Go!” and I have grown over the years by answering, “Yes!”
In both the great commandment and after every Mass, we hear the call to go out and make disciples of all nations. This call to action resonates with me as I have found myself craving actionable responses and enjoying the satisfaction of motion as evidence that I am doing what God desires.
How jarring then to hear Jesus command the disciples in today’s gospel to stay put. What is the importance of waiting, of remaining still before leaping to the next change? It challenges me to rethink my tendency to measure my life of faith by my actions and that sometimes my yes to God might leave me exactly where I am.
After the energy and excitement of the resurrection, Jesus asks that his disciples stop and wait until the Holy Spirit comes to them at Pentecost. Jesus marks the importance of resting and being spiritually nourished, allowing him to prepare them before going out to all the world to baptize all nations.
I find it easy to go out to the world, to engage with my family, and love my neighbors, but today’s gospel reminds me I need to rethink how I approach my relationship with God. May we all slow down and wait so that we can be refreshed, renewed, and filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This, too, is answering God’s call.
Prayer
Father, creator of all, you are the center of all life. Everything in this world points to you and leads us to you. Today we ask of you the grace to keep you at the center of our lives, to use you as the reference point of all our thoughts, words, and actions. In serving you, we hope to give our best to all whom we encounter this day. Amen.
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.