As It Is in Heaven

A Reflection on the First Reading for May 29th, 2022:
The Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

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Acts
1.1-11​

In the first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning until the day when he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the Apostles whom he had chosen. After his suffering he presented himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

While staying with them, he ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for the promise of the Father. “This,” he said, “is what you have heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” He replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
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The first reading for Sunday is from the Acts of the Apostles, also known as volume two of the Gospel of Luke. In this second volume, Luke writes about Jesus’s mystical body, the Church. He ends the Gospel with Jesus’ death and resurrection and picks up the thread in Acts with His ascension.


I think it’s easy to interpret the message of this reading as one of departure, Jesus going away from us – but that couldn’t be more wrong! The ascension is not about Jesus abandoning us, becoming inaccessible, or leaving earth to rule in heaven. Rather, it gives us insight into the linkage between heaven and earth. In the ascension, we see the fulfilment of God’s reign on earth as it is in heaven. This linkage and the closeness in Jesus’ relationship with His apostles becomes more firmly established through the gift of the Holy Spirit. 


At my Parish, we see the Sacrament of Confirmation happening all the time. Young people come forward to adopt the names of great saints and, with hearts on fire, to fulfil the same purpose as the apostles: to spread the name of God in the world. When I think about it, I am flooded with emotion. In the same way that the apostles, martyrs and saints received the gift of the Holy Spirit, so do we receive the gift of the Spirit though this great sacrament.   


We are His disciples, and He lives out His work in us. 


May we allow ourselves, when praying with this scripture on Sunday, to open our hearts to the message that Jesus is so very close to us in the promptings of the Holy Spirit. And may God be with you all.


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Theresa James

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