In the Diocese of
Steubenville, as well as in most of the USA, Ascension Day is observed this
Sunday. I wish the traditional
observance on Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter was retained, but reality is
what it is.
Therefore, this weekend we
will look at the powerful readings for Ascension Day.
This is an unusual Lord’s
Day, in which the “action” of the Feast Day actually takes place in the First
Reading. We typically think of all the
narratives of Jesus’ life as recorded in the Gospels, overlooking that Acts
records at least two important narratives about the activity of the Resurrected
Lord (Acts 1:1-11; also 9:1-8).
In the first book, Theophilus,
I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught
until the day he was taken up,
after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit
to the apostles whom he had chosen.
He presented himself alive to them
by many proofs after he had suffered,
appearing to them during forty days
and speaking about the kingdom of God.
While meeting with the them,
he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for “the promise of the Father
about which you have heard me speak;
for John baptized with water,
but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught
until the day he was taken up,
after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit
to the apostles whom he had chosen.
He presented himself alive to them
by many proofs after he had suffered,
appearing to them during forty days
and speaking about the kingdom of God.
While meeting with the them,
he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for “the promise of the Father
about which you have heard me speak;
for John baptized with water,
but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
When they had gathered together they
asked him,
“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons
that the Father has established by his own authority.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
throughout Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth.”
When he had said this, as they were looking on,
he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.
While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going,
suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.
They said, “Men of Galilee,
why are you standing there looking at the sky?
This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven
“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons
that the Father has established by his own authority.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
throughout Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth.”
When he had said this, as they were looking on,
he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.
While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going,
suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.
They said, “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.”
Like most English
translations, the one used in Mass does not adequately translate the Greek word
sunalizomenos in verse 4. Above it is rendered “while meeting with
them,” but literally it is “while taking salt with them,” which is a Greek
idiom meaning “sharing a meal.” This is
the usual meaning of sunalizomenos;
the only justification I have seen in the lexicons (e.g. BAGD) for rendering it
“spending time with” rather than “eating with” is that “eating with” supposedly
doesn’t make sense in the context of Acts 1:4. On the contrary, I suggest it
makes a lot of sense, and is in fact theologically significant in light of Luke
22:16,18, which seem to suggest that Jesus will not eat or drink again until
the Kingdom comes. The fact that he is
eating and drinking with them here, is an indication of the arrival of the
Kingdom (see also Acts 10:41).
The disciples ask, “Will you
at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?”
Jesus’ response is sometimes taken as a rebuff of the apostles, or a
ducking of their question, implying perhaps that what they ask for will only
take place in the eschaton. However, as
Scott Hahn has pointed out, it is possible to take the Lord’s response as
answering not when but how.
It is the witness (martyria)
of the Apostles from “Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, to the ends of the
earth” (i.e. the Gentiles)—concentric circles of the ancient Kingdom of David
(David’s city, tribe, nation, and vassals, respectively)—that will bring about
the new Israel, the Kingdom of God, which is manifest visibly in the world as
the Church.
In much of American
Christianity, there is the view that we are to expect Jesus to come back and
reign over a Jewish kingdom in Israel in the end times—even perhaps to rebuild
the stone Temple and restore animal sacrifice.
For this reason, some American Christians treat the modern State of
Israel as a quasi-sacred entity that deserves our carte blanche political support.
The Catholic tradition has
not and does not endorse this view, and it would seem to represent a retrograde
action in salvation history. Why would
we want to return to a Temple of stone when we have the Temple of Christ’s
body, which has now transformed our bodies into his Temple? Have we not learned the lesson that God does
not dwell in Temples made by human hands (Acts 7:48)? Mutatis
mutandis, the same points would apply to a political kingdom the size of
New Jersey in the Near East. How would a
little political kingdom in the Near East satisfy us, now that the Spirit has
been poured into our hearts and reigns in us throughout the world, now that we
who are made meek in the Spirit have inherited the earth? (Matt 5:5)
It is often said that Acts is
the story of the Church, which is not wrong.
But from beginning (Acts 1:4) to the end (Acts 28:31) Acts is about the kingdom, of which the visible Church
is the earthly manifestation.
The Responsorial Psalm is the
powerful Psalm 47, whose original historical context must have been a dramatic
liturgical procession, perhaps the bringing of the Ark into the sanctuary after
battle, or perhaps even an enthronement festival in which the ascension of the
Son of David to his throne was seen as mystical representation of the
enthronement of YHWH in heaven. (If so,
it would not be the only place in the psalms where the Son of David is
“confused” with God himself—see Psalm 45:6 [Hebrew])
God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy;
the LORD, amid trumpet blasts.
Sing praise to God, sing praise;
sing praise to our king, sing praise.
the LORD, amid trumpet blasts.
Sing praise to God, sing praise;
sing praise to our king, sing praise.
The Church sees this Psalm
fulfilled, of course, in the Ascension of the Christ and his session “at the
right hand of God” (Acts 2:33).
The Second Reading (Eph
1:17-23) continues to focus on the royal authority given to Jesus of Nazareth,
the Son of David and Son of God:
Brothers and sisters:
May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation
resulting in knowledge of him.
May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened,
that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call,
what are the riches of glory
in his inheritance among the holy ones,
and what is the surpassing greatness of his power
for us who believe,
in accord with the exercise of his great might,
which he worked in Christ,
raising him from the dead
and seating him at his right hand in the heavens,
far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion,
and every name that is named
not only in this age but also in the one to come.
And he put all things beneath his feet
and gave him as head over all things to the church,
which is his body,
the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.
May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation
resulting in knowledge of him.
May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened,
that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call,
what are the riches of glory
in his inheritance among the holy ones,
and what is the surpassing greatness of his power
for us who believe,
in accord with the exercise of his great might,
which he worked in Christ,
raising him from the dead
and seating him at his right hand in the heavens,
far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion,
and every name that is named
not only in this age but also in the one to come.
And he put all things beneath his feet
and gave him as head over all things to the church,
which is his body,
the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.
The “principalities,
authorities, powers, and dominions” and “names that are named” referred to
above indicate spiritual powers, i.e. angels and demons. Christ has been placed over the entire
spiritual hierarchy. St. Paul says, “he
put everything under his feet,” applying Psalm 8:6 to Jesus and providing one
of the earliest witnesses to the messianic reading of this important
Psalm. It is Christ’s session above the
spiritual hierarchy that gives the co-seated Church (Eph 2:6) power over the
demonic realm, exercised quite dramatically in the rite of exorcism, but no
less powerfully in the Sacraments, especially (in my view) the Sacrament of
Confession, which has great power for spiritual deliverance (discussed here). Christians are not meant to be
pawns of the devil; the devil cannot “make me do it.” We are to be victorious by wielding the sword
of the Spirit of the Risen One.
The Gospel is Mark’s version
of the famous “Great Commission” (Matt 28:16-20), often jokingly referred to as
the “Great Omission”, in reference to our frequent failures as believers in
spreading the Gospel. Actually, although
great human failures have marked the spread of the Church, it still is to be
found present and active on every continent, in every nation. One-third of human beings identify as
Christians, one-sixth as Catholics. Even
from a merely natural perspective of cultural history, the Church is a
remarkable and singular phenomena.
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.
“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.
Jesus authoritative command
to go into all the world to proclaim his reign reflects the theology of Psalm
2, the Royal Coronation Hymn of the Son of David (“Ask of me and I will make
the nations your heritage, the ends of the earth your possession ...”), which
is perhaps the most important psalm to the theology of the New Testament.
The command to “proclaim the
good news to every creature” is an interesting way to phrase the Great
Commission. Are we then to preach to the
whales and the pine trees? Probably not,
but by saying “every creature” rather than just “every human being,” Mark
indicates the cosmic effects of the Gospel: it is a message that has meaning
not just for humanity, but even nature itself.
Pope Francis tried to explore this concept in his encyclical Laudato
Si. It is interesting also to
observe that at it’s best, the Church’s mission has also benefited nature. Historians point out, for example, that in
antiquity much of Europe uninhabitable swamp land, unsuitable for farming, but
it was largely the spread of Christian monasticism—with monks draining the
swamps and preparing field for agriculture—that “tamed” the landscape and made
Europe into a “garden.” Likewise, atheistic
regimes, for all their anti-Christian rhetoric, have often done serious abuse
to the environment, as was sadly witnessed in the aftermath of the fall of the
iron curtain.
But the cosmic implications
of the Gospel should not overshadow the fact that the good news is first of all
addressed to all human beings, and that faith and the sacraments are necessary
for salvation. We read that “whoever believes
and is baptized will be saved,” which is a pleasing synopsis of the
relationship between faith and the sacraments.
Both are necessary; without the sacraments faith runs the danger of
being merely personal, subjective, and individualistic, and fails to
incorporate us into the body of Christ.
On the other hand, the sacraments without faith devolve into empty
externalism and ritualism, and fail to bear fruit of holiness in the life of
the individual.
Mark mentions the many signs
that will accompany the preaching of the Gospel: (a) exorcisms, still being
performed regularly to this day, (b) the acquisition of new languages, which
has been a hallmark of Christian missionary work through the ages—for so many
cultures, the first written text in their own language was the Bible,
translated by Christian missionaries; (c) “pick up serpents with their hands”, which
Paul did literally in Acts 28:3-6, but which we may also take as a reference to
authority over evil spirits, who are sometimes associated or symbolized by
serpents in the Bible; (d) “if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them,” just
as Paul withstood the poison of the viper in Acts 28:3-6, but which we may also
interpret as the ability to withstand false teaching, which is likened to
poison in the Scriptures (Ps 140:3; James 3:8); (e) healing the sick, which
Paul performs literally also in Acts 28:7-10, which still occurs in evangelism
today (see here! https://bit.ly/2KdaHur),
and which has expanded into the Catholic health care network, the world’s
largest.
But they went forth and preached everywhere,
while the Lord worked with them
and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.
while the Lord worked with them
and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.
This
could, and should, be a summary statement of the whole history of
Christianity. But is it true in our
day? I have been reading in Robert
Cardinal Sarah’s moving biography, God or Nothing, about the French missionary
priests of the Holy Ghost order who arrived in his extremely remote African
village just after the end of World War II, and preached and baptized hundreds
and thousands in that region of Ghana, sometimes at the cost of their lives, as
many succumbed to malaria and the other dangers of that remote
environment. But their faith was so
strong it made an indelible mark on the African children they catechized, and
firmly planted the Church in that region.
Does this faith still live among us?
Do we still have young men and women willing to risk even their lives to
preach Jesus Christ to every creature? At
this Ascension Mass, let’s pray that Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of
the Father would bless us with a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit, to enflame
our hearts with the faith of the first apostles!
-->
No comments:
Post a Comment