A Fifth Sunday after Easter Thought to Start the Week Off Right
The forty days of the Easter Season draw to a close this week. On this Fifth Sunday after Easter, we also look forward to Ascension Thursday, arriving in a few days.
(Yes, Thursday. That's the day the Ascension has been celebrated throughout Christendom for centuries. Many dioceses in the United States, however, have "moved" the feast to the following Sunday.)
The Feast of the Ascension has always been a festive, joyful day, despite the fact that it commemorates Our Lord leaving his Mother and disciples here on earth to join again with His Father in Heaven. Growing up, all holy days were celebrations. Our Catholic school was closed for the feast. We attended Mass. As a child, I believed the Ascension took place exactly as recounted in the Gospel. Jesus rose from this earth and ascended upward, eventually "disappearing" into the clouds.
I've had many years as an adult to think about the Ascension. During one stretch a skeptical tinge colored my more "mature" intellect, I wondered how probable it was that the event recalled in the Gospel literally took place. Doubt replaced belief.
Currently, I've considered the view of artist Daniel Mitsui, a fine artist and thoughtful Catholic. If I understand him correctly, his default position on events portrayed in the Bible that challenge the laws of nature is that they occurred, exactly as portrayed. So that means Jonah did, in fact, spend three days in the belly of the whale. It also means my childish acceptance of the details of the Ascension was correct. So much for that "mature" intellect.
Whatever the correct details of the actual event, we know Our Lord left His Mother and His disciples after spending time with them during the forty days after His Resurrection. But despite the "disappearance" of His glorified Body, we know that He remains physically Present to us here on earth in the Holy Eucharist - the Real Presence of His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. We can literally consume Him and make His Real Presence a part of our own body and soul when we receive Holy Communion. We can also place ourselves ourselves in His Real Presence when we visit Him in the Blessed Sacrament.
He never really left us.
So we know that the Ascension was not a final farewell. What then can we learn from our contemplation of this awesome event? The Inner Life of the Soul can enlighten us here. In the chapter on the Fifth Sunday after Easter we read:
"...we are told that many bodies of the saints arose and walked in the city, and went up with Him on Ascension Day. But how calmly we are told!...so far as the Apostles' language is concerned, how gravely, how calmly all is said!
'While they looked on, He was raised up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.'
Have we not reached here the central characteristic of the mind of God? Do not those who are most like Him, resemble Him most accurately?"
Mary and the Apostles were most like Him. When they witnessed His Ascension, their reaction reflected the characteristics of those who had witnessed and were now witnessing the Infinite in the midst of this ever-changing world of ours.
We become saints by being most like Him. The essence of our spiritual life consists of our efforts to be most like Him. Make the effort and don't dwell on or worry about the results of those efforts. By His grace, we make some progress. As we make progress, we may notice a natural increase in self-control and self-mastery. But despite our satisfaction with such progress, we know our real goal to be union with God.
This week we will witness Our Lord's Ascension into Heaven. As His glorified Body fades from our sight, let us pray that our attachments to this world and its false lures and promises fade as well, to be replaced by the desire to be like Him, united forever with Him in Heaven.
"We have touched upon a great law of the spiritual life, namely, that when men come closest to the Infinite, excitement dies, and there is a divine calm, a marvelous something, far beyond mere self-control and self-mastery, - the entire union of the entire man with God. It follows upon the Ascension, when men have lost their relish for things earthly, and their hearts are always fixed on heavenly things, and the Holy Ghost in tongues of flame has come. In this peace, saints and saintly souls have borne the worst of calumnies in perfect and unanswering patience...In this calm, the excitement which thrills and aborbs the...world today...dies down completely, fading into nothingness."
(Yes, Thursday. That's the day the Ascension has been celebrated throughout Christendom for centuries. Many dioceses in the United States, however, have "moved" the feast to the following Sunday.)
The Feast of the Ascension has always been a festive, joyful day, despite the fact that it commemorates Our Lord leaving his Mother and disciples here on earth to join again with His Father in Heaven. Growing up, all holy days were celebrations. Our Catholic school was closed for the feast. We attended Mass. As a child, I believed the Ascension took place exactly as recounted in the Gospel. Jesus rose from this earth and ascended upward, eventually "disappearing" into the clouds.
I've had many years as an adult to think about the Ascension. During one stretch a skeptical tinge colored my more "mature" intellect, I wondered how probable it was that the event recalled in the Gospel literally took place. Doubt replaced belief.
Currently, I've considered the view of artist Daniel Mitsui, a fine artist and thoughtful Catholic. If I understand him correctly, his default position on events portrayed in the Bible that challenge the laws of nature is that they occurred, exactly as portrayed. So that means Jonah did, in fact, spend three days in the belly of the whale. It also means my childish acceptance of the details of the Ascension was correct. So much for that "mature" intellect.
Whatever the correct details of the actual event, we know Our Lord left His Mother and His disciples after spending time with them during the forty days after His Resurrection. But despite the "disappearance" of His glorified Body, we know that He remains physically Present to us here on earth in the Holy Eucharist - the Real Presence of His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. We can literally consume Him and make His Real Presence a part of our own body and soul when we receive Holy Communion. We can also place ourselves ourselves in His Real Presence when we visit Him in the Blessed Sacrament.
He never really left us.
So we know that the Ascension was not a final farewell. What then can we learn from our contemplation of this awesome event? The Inner Life of the Soul can enlighten us here. In the chapter on the Fifth Sunday after Easter we read:
"...we are told that many bodies of the saints arose and walked in the city, and went up with Him on Ascension Day. But how calmly we are told!...so far as the Apostles' language is concerned, how gravely, how calmly all is said!
'While they looked on, He was raised up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.'
Have we not reached here the central characteristic of the mind of God? Do not those who are most like Him, resemble Him most accurately?"
Mary and the Apostles were most like Him. When they witnessed His Ascension, their reaction reflected the characteristics of those who had witnessed and were now witnessing the Infinite in the midst of this ever-changing world of ours.
We become saints by being most like Him. The essence of our spiritual life consists of our efforts to be most like Him. Make the effort and don't dwell on or worry about the results of those efforts. By His grace, we make some progress. As we make progress, we may notice a natural increase in self-control and self-mastery. But despite our satisfaction with such progress, we know our real goal to be union with God.
This week we will witness Our Lord's Ascension into Heaven. As His glorified Body fades from our sight, let us pray that our attachments to this world and its false lures and promises fade as well, to be replaced by the desire to be like Him, united forever with Him in Heaven.
"We have touched upon a great law of the spiritual life, namely, that when men come closest to the Infinite, excitement dies, and there is a divine calm, a marvelous something, far beyond mere self-control and self-mastery, - the entire union of the entire man with God. It follows upon the Ascension, when men have lost their relish for things earthly, and their hearts are always fixed on heavenly things, and the Holy Ghost in tongues of flame has come. In this peace, saints and saintly souls have borne the worst of calumnies in perfect and unanswering patience...In this calm, the excitement which thrills and aborbs the...world today...dies down completely, fading into nothingness."
Happy Easter!
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