Ascension of the Lord

Acts 1:1-11, Eph. 1:17-23, Mk 16:15-20. Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, fortieth day after the resurrection of Christ. This important Solemnity marks the moment when the Lord Jesus Christ, returned triumphantly and gloriously to the Throne of God to prepare a place for us. Today’s first reading remarks that after Jesus had spent forty days presenting Himself to the disciples, He promised them that they would be “baptised with the Holy Spirit” and be His witnesses starting in Jerusalem and spreading throughout the world. Today’s second reading proclaims that God is giving a Spirit of wisdom and revelation to believers so that they can have fuller knowledge of Jesus and they can realise the hope to which they are called – a hope in the inheritance with Jesus, a share in His glory in Heaven and a part in His Body, which is the Church.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus empowers His disciples with signs that they would use in the exercise of their ministry. Through the guidance, wisdom and strength provided to them through the Holy Spirit, they were strengthened to go and continue their missions of the proclamation of the truth and good news of God to the nations. As Jesus ascended into Heaven, the disciples stared into the skies, perplexed until two white-clothed individuals asked them the questions: “Why are you standing there looking into the sky?” We need to be challenged to quit standing around, doing nothing, but get to work spreading the good news. What we need to do is to continue to pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit into our lives. The coming of the Holy Spirit, by the way, is not just a one-time thing. It is a on-going process. The more we are open to the Spirit’s presence in our lives, the more we will be empowered to be Spirit-filled individuals and we will become the missionaries whom we are called to be.

May the Lord renew our hope and strengthen us to persevere the challenges we endure in our paths of life! Amen!! Have a glorious day!!!