May 14, 2010
Sunday Scripture
Ascension of our Lord
BY FATHER DONALD DILGER
This gospel reading describes the only post-resurrection appearance in Luke of Jesus to his disciples as a group. They were frightened, thinking that they were seeing a ghost. Jesus shows them the wounds in his hands and feet. He invites them to touch him, “for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” As proof of his reality, Jesus ate a piece of broiled fish in their presence. Thus he restores table fellowship with them. He reminds them of what he had taught them before his death, that what happened to him was in agreement with the three divisions of the Scriptures (Old Testament), “Moses (the Torah), the Prophets, and the Psalms.” The “Psalms” designates all those writings not contained in Torah and Prophets. “He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” They were fortunate indeed to have the ultimate Teacher.
In contrast to novelty-seeking homilists who offend the people by telling them that Jesus did not have to die, and do not know how to explain that statement in a theologically correct way, Luke attributes to Jesus these words, “Thus it is written, that the Christ must suffer and on the third day rise from the dead . . .” In the absolute will of God, God could have chosen any way at all to redeem humankind, but God chose the way of the cross, and so it had to be, as we are repeatedly told in New Testament documents. Can we explain this mystery? Paul answers in Romans 11:33, “How incomprehensible his judgments, how unsearchable his ways!” Or Isaiah 55:8-9, “My thoughts are not your thoughts and my ways are not your ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways and my thoughts higher than yours.”
Luke weaves into Jesus’ final address two favorite themes of his gospel, “that repentance and forgiveness of sins must be proclaimed in Christ’s name to all nations . . .” Although these themes are not absent from the other gospels, they are emphasized far more by Luke, both in his gospel and in Acts of Apostles. The best demonstration Luke gives of these themes is the parable of the prodigal son and the forgiving Father. Another example is the implicit repentance of the “good thief,” and the implicit pardon Jesus grants in the words, “This day you shall be with me in Paradise.”
Jesus assures the disciples that he will send “the promise of my Father,” (the Holy Spirit), that they would be “clothed with power from on high.” This promise would be fulfilled in Luke’s Pentecost scene and the boldness with which the disciples of Jesus addressed the crowds. Jesus leads them out of Jerusalem onto the Mount of Olives to the little town of Bethany, where he had friends, and where he and his disciples sometimes spent the night secure from his enemies in Jerusalem. Luke writes at this point, “While blessing his disciples, he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven.” In Luke’s gospel all the events of chapter 24 happen in one day: the resurrection, finding the empty tomb, the encounter with the Emmaus disciples, the appearance of Jesus to his disciples as a group, his opening their minds to understand the Scriptures, and his ascension.
In Luke’s second volume, Acts of Apostles, Jesus was with the disciples for most of forty days, “speaking of the kingdom of God.” Then came the ascension but with more drama than Luke’s version in his gospel. One may say that Luke was “telescoping” events which he later described in detail in Acts. More accurately, the differences the same author has in his two versions of the ascension indicate that the ascension of Jesus should not be understood too literally, that is, Jesus floating off into the sky or heaven. Heaven, according to John Paul II, should not be thought of as a place, but as a state of existence. Benedict XVI added a clarification which is even more mysterious, “Heaven simply is God.” Whatever way an author may describe the ascension of Jesus, the meaning is that Jesus, even in his human nature intimately united to the Divine Person, enjoys the glory and honor due to God alone.
Enough has been said in the above commentary of the differences between Luke’s two versions of the ascension of Jesus, one in the gospel, the other in Acts. The version in Acts includes two of Luke’s favorite actors in the Jesus-drama, “the two men in white robes.” They were present at the transfiguration, at the empty tomb, and at the ascension. We may think of them as angels, but it is more probable that in Luke’s mind they are Moses and Elijah, so identified at Jesus’ transfiguration. They represent the Torah (Law of Moses) and the Prophets, always bearing witness that what happens to Jesus was in God’s plan from the beginning.
Paul elevates Jesus to the dignity of the divine throne, “seated at the right hand of God in the heavens,” that is, in divine power, “above all authority and power and above every name, now and forever.” All things are subjected to him who is also head of his body, the Church.