Today is the Sunday after the Ascension of the Lord. We missed last Thursday’s designated Feast of the Lord’s Ascension according to the Ordo of the Extraordinary Form. However, today the Feast of the Ascension is being celebrated in our diocese according to the directive of the local Ecclesiastical Authority, Archbishop George Leo Thomas, DD of the Archdiocese of Las Vegas, by which Reno is part of the suffragan diocese.
What are lessons that have been revealed to us on this feast of the Ascension? Apparently, it reveals crucial aspects of our faith and the Christian mission.
First, the lesson on the ascension of Jesus is to fully understand that the Lord returns to the Father claiming His authority and kingship over the whole universe. He is the Lord of all. The ascension of Jesus inspires and motivates us to live as His disciples, recognizing His lordship in our lives and being driven by the purpose of sharing His message of repentance, forgiveness, and salvation to the ends of the earth.
Second, we believe that He will return in glory, thus we cannot just afford to be “standing there looking at the sky” and standing flat footed. There is an urgency to act for we have a mission to do. We are called to take His place in this world, to share the Goodnews to all nations and to make a real difference in bringing others to the Lord. We are His disciples called to work, to love and to serve others. This lesson challenges us to actively participate in the mission of spreading the Gospel.
Third, the ascension also emphasizes the disciples’ role in continuing Jesus’ work on earth, empowered by the Holy Spirit. We learn to rely on the guidance of the Holy Spirit to grow in faith and dependence on God.
The Ascension of Jesus is not about the departure of Jesus from the world, but He led us into a new beginning of the true Church where Jesus, our God and Savior, is present in a new period, and God whispers most profoundly in the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in the minds and hearts of us who believe.
From today’s epistle taken from the first letter of Peter, this is a short section which St. Peter wrote a practical instruction, “…. that in all things God may be honored/glorified through Jesus Christ.” This means that God is attentively shepherding all His creation in every instance of time, both in heaven and on earth, magnifying the greatness of His love for all. In giving this instruction, I believe that St. Peter emphasizes that in our life, we must work together to achieve the highest end of all things. Thus, we offer everything for the glory of God through Jesus Christ, so we ought to be self-controlled and sober minded, love one another earnestly, show hospitality without grumbling and use what God has given us to humbly serve one another. God is not after us to be big, popular, and famous; rather He wants us to be humble with joyful acts of obedience to our duties and responsibilities.
In the gospel today from St. John, Jesus tells the disciples He is going to the Father and promises to send the Holy Spirit to be with them forever. In John 16:26-27, Jesus says, “When the advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who comes from the Father, He will testify on my behalf.” The term “paracletos” means an advocate in a legal context and in Latin, it means advocatus. The advocate or paraclete has the role of speaking in favor of Jesus and His cause. The Paraclete helps the disciples remember all the things Jesus taught them so that their witnessing would be strengthened and also for them to be comforted.
Despite promises of the sending of the Holy Spirit, Jesus found them in fear and not confidently waiting for Him to come and breathe on them and give them the gift of the Holy Spirit. They aren’t behaving and acting like a chosen group of men who have been promised the Holy Spirit. Every time the disciples heard Jesus mention His leaving to go to the Father, they closed their ears, or had experienced selective hearing, because they did not hear the details of who was coming to be present in His physical absence.
At present, we continue to keep the disciple’s habit alive whenever we are focused so intently on the painful aspects of our current life conditions that we forget we’ve been promised the Spirit, and we don’t factor in its power and presence in our lives. Jesus challenges the disciples and us not to allow sorrow to fill our hearts with our wistful thinking and despair. Jesus offers an alternative to rely on the Holy Spirit’s presence in the adversities of life. We have been promised that the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the presence of the Risen Jesus in his physical absence, is with us, and that the Spirit has freed us from the law of sin and of death, that it searches the depths of our hearts, prays in us when we cannot find the words, pours the love of God into our hearts and gives us hope, according to St. Paul on his writings to the Romans 8. That means that, when confronted with negatives, sacrifices, bad news, and troubling situations, we don’t have to assume that the Spirit is not with us because we have the promise that the Spirit now lives in us, and we now live in the Spirit.
In our life, we must keep listening to Jesus because JESUS says, “But these things I have told you, that, when the hour shall come, you may remember that I have told you.” This verse simply says that in Christ Jesus, through His life, death, suffering and resurrection, we are witnesses in faith that everything that happened should lead us to an understanding that the scripture has been fulfilled through Him. Let us await the great feast of the Pentecost.
God bless you.
Fr. Arlon, osa
