JESUS’ ASCENSION – Feast of the Ascension, Year C

After His resurrection, the Risen Jesus appeared to the disciples for a period of forty days to give them assurances that He had truly risen from the dead, as He said He would, and to complete their formation. When the Risen Lord had completed His appearances, He ascended into the Father’s glory.

Only because Jesus Christ descended to earth and ascended to heaven is it possible for us to be saved and ascend to heaven. Jesus, the head of the Church Body of Christ, has ascended to heaven giving us, His members, hope that we too can ascend to heaven by the power of the Holy Spirit. By the presence of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, we have already begun to live the life of heaven.

The Body of Christ has confidence and hopes to be where our Head, Jesus our ascended Lord who preceded us is. Jesus in glory intercedes for us before the Father and with the Father continuously pours out the Holy Spirit on us to enable us to live and spread His life.

The Ascension of the Risen Lord into the glory of the Father begins the time and age of the Spirit, the age of the Church, and the witnessing and completing of Jesus’ kingdom on earth. This period involves the Church on earth in the struggles opposed to God that Jesus had on earth with the forces of sin, evil and Satan. How long this period will last is not revealed as Jesus told us. The period of the Spirit and the Church has been going on for 1970 years.

We can be glad it didn’t take place in the nineteenth century. It will take place when the full number of the elect is fulfilled, which will number in the billions or possibly trillions. God is powerful! Those of us who don’t want to miss the glory of heaven, don’t want to miss the glory of living with Christ and His Holy Spirit in us in this life either. We have to stay close to the Lord in prayer, the teachings of faith in the Church’s Scriptures, the celebrations of faith, the keeping of the Commandments and the works of Christ’s kingdom. We should constantly pray for the Holy Spirit to come to us and keep us united to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

The devil and the world of sin are constantly working to draw people away from the Lord and the glory of God, and the hope of eternal life. The devil wants people to live in eternal misery and death. The Lord wants us to live in eternal glory and life.

Luke tells us in his first Gospel account of all that Jesus did until the day He was taken up to heaven. He had completed the forty-day period of appearing and convincing the Apostles and disciples that He was alive, and further revealed the kingdom/reign of God. He told them to wait for the Father’s promise of the Holy Spirit to come to them. The Holy Spirit make Jesus present to the Church, greatly extending Jesus’ saving work throughout the world through the Church given power and life by the Holy Spirit.

Before the Church could fully carry out the mission of Christ, it had to receive the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said “wait, for the promise of the Father, about which you have heard me speak… you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit”. Luke’s second account, the Acts of the Apostles, shows how the Holy Spirit, who worked in Jesus in His public ministry, begins to work in and through the Church until the end of time.

After Jesus blessed them, left them, and was taken up to heaven, the disciples spent the next ten days praying and waiting for the Holy Spirit to come to them on Pentecost. The same Holy Spirit comes to the Church, the Body of Christ, and each member in every age of the Church to give us the life of Christ and the power to participate in the works of His kingdom. The Spirit comes to us continuously. We are always praying for the Holy Spirit to come to us. We need the Holy Spirit to come to us all the time so that we can live the life of Christ, and do His works.

This is a time for the Church and each member to wait and pray for a deeper coming of the Holy Spirit to us on Pentecost. By knowing and living our baptismal life in the Holy Spirit, we strengthen our faith and hope that the Holy Spirit will give us an ascension into glory with Christ our joy and hope!

Divine Mercy reflection #76

“O my Jesus, direct my mind, take possession of my whole being, enclose me in the depths of Your Heart, and protect me against the assaults of the enemy. My only hope is in You.”