Solemnity of the Ascension – May 12, 2024
We come to another symbolic number in Luke’s account. Just as Jesus was “led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days” (Lk 4:1–2) before his public ministry, so too did Christ spend forty days with the apostles before ascending (Acts 1:3). We recall the symbolic forty days and nights of rain in the flood, the forty days Moses was instructed by God on Mt. Sinai, the forty years Israel wandered the desert, and our own Lenten journey. Forty prepares us for something.
When marked on a Thursday, Ascension is forty days after Easter, though most celebrate it on a Sunday. Nonetheless, we must ask ourselves: What has God been preparing us for these past forty days?
In baptism we have already been given the mind and Spirit of Christ. So the question of Ascension for us is this: What are we waiting for?
During their forty days, Christ taught the apostles about the coming reign of God, one that was not a political revolution, as they originally expected with Jesus, but more a life-changing, spiritual one. Once they received the Spirit, they would be ready to be witnesses from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.
Before they could do his mission, the apostles had to be instructed by Christ. Then they had to wait for his Spirit. We, however, do not, for in baptism we have already been given the mind and Spirit of Christ. So the question of Ascension for us is this: What are we waiting for?
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