Ascension of the Lord
(Sunday 8th May 2016)
Do not be afraid, allow the Holy Spirit to transform your life to one of rejoicing and praise of God – (Luke 24:46-53)
A good friend once commented on the Ascension after praying the Rosary together. She said that she always felt kind of sad when meditating on the Ascension. The reason was that after the emotional rollercoaster of the Passion, Jesus only spends four days with them before He leaves them again.
However, reflecting on this, even without having received the Holy Spirit yet, there is a noticeable difference in the disciples this time. The disciples go into the temple and praise God instead of locking themselves away in the upper room in fear as they did after the Passion. When Jesus ascends into Heaven, it seems that they understand that this is part of the journey they are on. Even though Jesus is not going to be present to them in the same way any longer, He is still going to be with them but now in a different way. Not everything seems lost as before, but there seems a sense of hope that prevails, a of sense of a future, of a destiny. There is a sense of something to come; the promise Jesus had made of the Helper who is to come is now imminent.
In both situations Jesus goes away but the effect is completely different. While scattered and afraid after the Passion, the disciples are now praising God. Sometimes if we are in the middle of our daily lives it is hard to see how it all makes sense. But this season shows us that there is always hope. Just before the Passion we hear that Jesus tries to explain what is to happen so that when it happens they might believe. God always tries to help us to believe, and tries to give us the right tools, but sometimes we need to have faith to make that step into the deep to journey from the darkness into the light.
Jesus is always there for us even in times that He seems to have gone. That realisation is something that can act like a key that opens our broken hearts to His healing grace. We might have to recognise that things are different at times, but by embracing the help Jesus is offering us, we can be like the disciples at the Ascension, being sad I am surely of being separate from Jesus here on earth, but rejoicing in God’s plan and care for us which will come through the Holy Spirit.
Life is not always easy but God is in the midst of it and always points to the joys to come, even if we don’t perceive them immediately. With the Ascension comes the promise of God that the Holy Spirit is to come soon. Ever since that historical moment, we have God closer then ever before in our lives through the gift received in baptism and through confirmation, which is the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we just need to realise this to be transformed from being afraid to be able to rejoice and praise God.
Fr. Luuk Jansen O.P.