Feast of the Ascension of the Lord
Scripture:
Acts 1:1-11
Ephesians 4:1-13
Matthew 28:16-20
Reflection:
"When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight."
These words from the Acts of the Apostles describing the Ascension of the Lord, evoked many questions in my mind when I was a small child. How high did Jesus rise before the cloud came? Was it an immediate "whoosh" into the sky or a slower "up, up and away" type of ascension? My approach to this Feast as a Catholic child was in language and pictures a child could understand and imagine.
When I reflect on the Ascension as an adult, I ponder the wonder of a faith and a love without any boundaries. There are no earthly boundaries when it comes to the presence of Christ in me, in others, in our world and beyond. Christ is inside and outside, deep within me and all around me, beyond life and beyond death, no place and every place. As Paul said in his letters, I no longer live but Christ lives in me!
The Ascension reminds us of a beautiful reality without boundaries! On the Ascension of the Lord, I remember. Nothing can separate us from Christ. God’s love is always available to me and a deep river of compassion and love with God runs swiftly through my soul. If I take time to prayerfully remember who I am in the present moment, I can drink deeply from this river of God’s love. This beautiful reality evolves within me, and in everything and every person around me. God’s love ascends within us all as we grow in Christ.
This Feast of the Ascension underlines the unity we all share in Jesus the Christ; who suffered and died, who rose from the dead, and who ascended into heaven.
Terry McDevitt, Ph.D. is a member of our Passionist Family who volunteers at the Passionist Assisted Living Community in Louisville, Kentucky.