The Ascension feels like one in a series of Post-Easter events but if one reads it from the perspective of an ending or a finale, then it can be a frightening or even a traumatic experience. Perhaps the many Covid measures could give us an insight into how people feel about closures because death is a closure of sorts. But by no means is death the only ending. Moving away to a new place, retirement from a life-long employment and divorce are endings that can be frightening.
Firstly, it is not fear alone that makes us avoid conclusion because when the going is good, nobody in a bull run likes a slide into a bearish recession. Ask the restaurants around here if they would mind another lockdown to stem out Covid infection? Secondly, even in a divorce where a spouse is getting out of an abusive relationship, there is fear because the devil one knows is “securely” better the devil one is uncertain of. Even if a divorcee gains freedom, it still can be intimidating to chart a new path in life.
In the case of the Apostles, imagine the dry and dusty roads, the bad food or even the lack of it and the uncomfortable sleeping arrangements—foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests. The Apostles did not just leave their homes, spouses, children, but they followed this itinerant preacher unreservedly for three years as He made His ways through the cities and villages of Palestine. The foregoing of familial ties and the lack of creaturely comforts aside, they were now at the end of an intense and intimate journey with Jesus who is preparing to leave them. They were naturally sad and possibly frightened by the prospect of having to stand on their own. Visualise the occasion that they were not able to drive out spirits which in the end, embarrassingly they had to refer to Jesus to supply for their inability. Now they had to face a life without the security blanket of having a Jesus on call.
It can be daunting. However, what is not always noticeable is that a tearful finale can be the start of a new journey. The Ascension is not a stand-alone event. It is the beginning of a new chapter which is connected closely to Pentecost and after. Physically, Jesus may have departed from the Apostles but His going away was not an abandonment. He left so that the Holy Spirit could come to be with them.
The Ascension is therefore a preparation for the next phase in the development of discipleship. They are to return to Jerusalem to wait for the promised descent of the Holy Spirit so that clothed with the Spirit’s strength, they will be able to preach the Gospel, no matter what. If fact, Jesus had to leave because when you think about it, not many Masses could be celebrated if Jesus were still here in person. Why? Because in order to celebrate the Eucharist, He would have to be physically present at each one. It is because He is no longer here that the bread and wine through the Holy Spirit can be transubstantiated into His Body and Blood.
Precisely that the Eucharist is a continued presence of Jesus that the Liturgy also reminds us that this preparation is not restricted merely to the mission of evangelisation in this world. It is also a preparation for the next world. Both the Collect for the Mass of the Day and the Preface I of the Ascension point out the purpose of our preparation. From the Collect, we have this: “(f)or the Ascension of Christ your Son is our exaltation, and where the Head has gone before in glory, the Body is called to follow in hope”. From the Preface of the Ascension, we hear that Jesus, the “Mediator between God and man, judge of the world and Lord of hosts, He ascended, not to distance Himself from our lowly state, but that we, His members, might be confident of following where He, our Head and Founder, has gone before”.
The more profound preparation is captured in this sense: “Where He has gone, we hope to follow”. This description is not topographical but aspirational. It is not a reference to heaven as a physical place. Instead, where He is that we aim to arrive at, must come through a life that proclaims Jesus as Lord both in our word and through our action. It is not as if we were trusting in something vague in the future. The history of salvation is succinctly expressed by the desire to be there where He is and not here where He is not. This longing gives meaning to life here on earth.
As everyone can testify, life can take so many turns for the worse that it seems that we are always one stumble away from hopelessness. Just think of the multiple untimely deaths from the pandemic. That we die is a given but dying before one’s time feels like a tragedy. Thus, the Ascension of Christ presents us with this vision that goes beyond the failures and the disappointment of our temporal existence. What is more, we have Satan and his powers who are arrayed against us in every sense of the word. If we were disappointed, Satan would do his best to make us despair and lose hope. To arrive where Christ is, is indeed a more arduous preparation because it requires taking personal responsibility to live in a manner which is both gracious and good.
St Paul in the Letter to the Ephesians reminds us that this is the hope that God has called us to, which ends in a glorious inheritance amongst the saints. However, we are called to be saints not only when we reach heaven but to be one here on earth. If Pentecost inaugurates the mission to evangelise and sanctify the world, then the Ascension tells us that the mission must begin with us, with the sanctification of our lives. As the Preface for Christ the King sums it up, our sanctity or holiness is in line with the mysteries of human redemption that in the end, He the Lord, can present to the immensity of the Father’s majesty, a Kingdom of truth and life, a Kingdom of holiness and grace, a Kingdom of justice, love and peace.
