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May 10, 2024The Ascension of Jesus
One of my Catholic school children once asked me: “Father, why did Jesus ascend and Mary assume?” It was an observant question. I said, “Jesus ascended into Heaven of His own power, because He is God. Mary has no power to do that. She was assumed body and soul into Heaven by the power of God. Jesus brought her to Heaven.
We are coming to the end of the 50 days of Easter. Today (or this past Thursday, more exactly) is the Solemnity of the Ascension of Jesus. We know that 40 days after the Resurrection, and after appearing and disappearing many times to His apostles and many others, He took his apostles to a high mountain, gave them His final instructions, and ascended before their eyes through the clouds into Heaven.
The Acts of the Apostles describes this, saying that the apostles just stood there, amazed, looking up. God sent an angel to get them moving. ““Men of Galilee, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
Jesus had given his final instructions to them, and therefore to us: “Go and make disciples of all the nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to observe everything I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” These are our marching orders.
Let’s all pray today for the grace “to do our part” in these final orders from The Master. We all have a part to play. We are not all called to be pope, or St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta. But we are all called to do our part.
As Archbishop Fulton Sheen once wrote: “When the drama of life is ended and the curtain of death has fallen; no one will ask who played the part of the prince and who played the part of the pauper. They will only ask, how well did they play their part?”
Fr. Brett Brannen
Pastor
