Ascension of the Lord

Travel by the great motorways is reckoned to be the safest form of travel for the average motorist.

Accidents seldom happen.

However, when they do, not only are the consequences likely to be serious.

But often there is a further hazard, posed by what are popularly known as “rubberneckers”.

Rubberneckers are the motorists who take their eye off the road, or even slow down, in order to gaze across the carriageway and get a better view of what’s happening at the site of the accident.

A police officer on the scene will always signal such dangerous drivers to keep moving.

While this is a well-known phenomenon, a young teacher was more than a little surprised when she asked the children to describe what happened on the day of the ascension, and heard one reply:

“Well, Miss, Jesus shot up into heaven and the apostles just stood there rubbernecking.”

It was a reply obviously sparked off by today’s first reading, which tells how, as Jesus ascended into the heavens, his friends stood “staring into the sky”.

That is, until two angelic figures appeared, rather like a couple of heavenly police officers gently moving them on.

They have a job to do.

It must have taken time for the apostles to come to terms with the marvel of the ascension.

Little wonder they stood for a while gazing into the clouds.

For forty days since his resurrection Jesus had constantly been with them.

Now they surely experienced mixed feelings.

Their Master was leaving them; no longer would they enjoy his visible presence.

This spelt sadness.

Yet they knew that he was returning in his humanity to his Father, completing the triumph begun by his resurrection.

And they were sure, as the Gospel puts it, that the Lord would be “working with them” as they went out to preach and baptise.

More than that, they had the assurance that this was no final goodbye.

One day he would return.

And so if they had sadness on the day of the ascension, above all they had great joy.

The next we hear of them they are waiting expectantly for that coming of the Holy Spirit that would launch them, in Jesus’ words, as

“my witnesses… to the ends of the earth”.

It is the joy of the occasion that is captured in today’s liturgy, especially in the responsorial psalm. “God goes up with shouts of joy” was the response that we repeated over and over again.

And the psalm urged: “All peoples, clap your hands.”

It seems that this psalm was originally part of an annual celebration at which the ark of the covenant, symbol of God’s presence, was carried in procession up to the Temple amid crowds of rejoicing worshippers.

There would be rhythmical hand-clapping, the blaring of the trumpet (fashioned from a ram’s horn), and repeated cries of “Sing praise for God”, “sing praise to our king” and “God is king of all the earth.”

On this day we are invited to raise our voices in praise of the Lord who has ascended to his heavenly throne as King of kings.

Our presence at this Mass is itself a sign that we want to respond to the invitation.

We want to praise Jesus Christ for his personal triumph.

We want to thank him too because of the hope that he has brought to us, the “rich glories” he promises us and the power, which Paul calls “infinitely great”, that he exercises on our behalf.

And yet we dare not stop there.

To do so might be described as a type of spiritual rubbernecking, being so fascinated with one aspect of today’s great feast that we forget the other.

We forget that the last words of the Lord at his ascension were that we should spread the Good News, that we should be his witnesses.

That is a task that we fulfil principally by the way we live our daily lives.

The Gospel may speak of some of the marvels “associated with believers” in the early days of the Church, such as healings, and casting out of devils and speaking with tongues, but we too, in our own small, less dramatic way – by our patience, our little acts of kindness, our concern for others, our readiness to forgive, our joy, our humble living out of the Gospel – we too are bearing witness to our Lord’s message.

We too are living signs confirming that Jesus has risen, Jesus has ascended, Jesus is Lord.