On this Ascension Sunday, the Liturgy of the Word brings us the accounts of Jesus’ being lifted up, body and soul, into heaven.
In our first reading, from the Acts of the Apostles, we hear about the Apostles watching Christ being raised to heaven. Suddenly, a couple of angels appear, and say, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go to heaven”. Commenting on this statement, St. Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church, wrote, “By these words all the children of the Church were taught that they are to believe that Jesus will be seen coming again in that same body in which He ascended, and that likewise we cannot doubt that He to Whom from His Birth Angels had ministered, to Him all things are subject” (The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers, M.F. Toal, ed., vol. 2, pg. 454, 1958). So, Christ will be coming back to us, to assume glory and honour and power over everything.
Our second reading, from the Letter to the Ephesians, speaks of the Church as Christ’s body. Perhaps at times it is difficult to think of the Church as the actual body of Our Lord, and yet so it is, with all its different and diverse members. Now, we all realize that when the body is in good health, things are working well in the body, there is a certain harmony, the physical and the spiritual are in tune. The hand works together with the foot, and the nose in sync with the eye. A harmonious body will have its immune system working to protect the living organism, and not turn against it. One of the ways in which we can demonstrate our love for the Church is to try to “put on” the mind of the Church, also in the way we approach the sacraments. As St. Leo the Great said, “And so our Redeemer’s visible presence has passed into the sacraments” (Second Reading, Office of Readings, Thursday after the 6th Week of Easter).
Speaking of sacraments: the wedding season at St. Hedwig’s has begun. We have had two beautiful weddings so far, as couples enter into the Sacrament of Marriage. These couples want to make use of the beautiful complementarity of man and woman, to form a communion of life and love. They seek to be faithful for life, and open to the gift of life, the gift of children. Unfortunately, we see in our society the ideology of gender that seeks to distort, to disfigure, the beautiful complementarity of man and woman. Gender ideology leaves people confused and more susceptible to loneliness, because it seeks to erase the sexual difference between men and women. We might have people affected or influenced by this ideology in our families, circles of friends, workplaces, and schools. It goes without saying that each person is created in the image and likeness of God and deserves respect. However, it is this ideology that needs to be challenged and opposed. In the face of this ideology, every couple which enters into the Sacrament of Marriage is a reminder that God created them male and female, as the Book of Genesis states, and our Lord Jesus repeats in the Gospel.
In the context of the Ascension, we prepare for Pentecost. In the Encyclical Letter on the Holy Spirit of St. John Paul II, the Pope writes, “Christ, who has gone away in his visible humanity, comes, is present and acts in the Church in such an intimate way as to make it his own Body. As such, the Church lives, works and grows ‘to the close of the age’. All this happens through the power of the Holy Spirit” (Dominum et Vivificantem, 62). What is interesting to note is that there is always growth in the Church, probably not only in the number of new Christians being added to the flock, but also in the virtue and holiness of those who are baptized. St. John Paul II does not gloss over the crises of the present age, also in ecclesial life, noting “the problems, disappointments and hopes, desertions and returns of these times of ours” (Dominum et Vivificantem, 62).
Finally, the Gospel recounts to us the moments of Christ’s departure, of His Ascension. Once again, Our Lord says that all authority in heaven and on earth is His. He reminds the disciples that He will be with them, until “the end of the age.” He does not leave us orphans or abandoned. As St. Augustine puts it, “Christ is now exalted above the heavens, but he still suffers on earth all the pain that we, the members of his body, have to bear” (Breviary, Office of Readings for the Ascension). Christ has compassion for us, his children. The Blessed Virgin Mary (shown in the icon), is the one who intercedes for the Church, while Christ rises to heaven. Mother Mary is shown as the one who also close to the faithful, taking on their burdens and their joys.
Today, on the 21st of May, we, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, celebrate the feast day of our founder, St. Eugene de Mazenod. Saint Eugene de Mazenod showed heroic faith hope and charity. St. John Paul II had this to say about St. Eugene: “By patiently working on himself, he learned to discipline a difficult character and to govern with enlightened wisdom and steadfast goodness” (Oblate Prayer Book, pg. 116). Saint Eugene sent missionaries to Canada, and they arrived here in 1841.
As we celebrate the Ascension of Our Lord, we are reminded of Christ’s return in glory, of His body, the Church, being asked to work harmoniously for the salvation of souls, and of the Holy Spirit’s coming at Pentecost.
(Fr. Paweł Ratajczak, OMI, May 21, 2023)