Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter – Ascension
May 9, 2024
Today’s Readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/050924.cfm
When they had gathered together they asked him,
“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons
that the Father has established by his own authority.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
throughout Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth.”
When he had said this, as they were looking on,
he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.
While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going,
suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.
They said, “Men of Galilee,
why are you standing there looking at the sky?
This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven
will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”
Acts 1: 6-12
Our Gospel today recounts how Jesus ultimately left his disciples to reassume his fullest self in heaven. There are many lessons in this reading but one strikes me particularly on this Ascension Thursday.
Just as Jesus returned to heaven so will each of us – to assume the fullness of ourselves as we were created to be; to be folded completely into the Eternal Love of the Trinity.
In the meantime, like the disciples, we have received the fullness of the Holy Spirit to become Christ’s witnesses in our time.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We stand beside those who love Jesus as he ascends from their midst. We feel their sadness, joy, amazement, anxiety, and hope. We feel their confidence that, in the power of the Holy Spirit, all good things are possible in their yet uncharted future.
Let’s talk to Jesus about this special moment, and what graces it might waken in our own hearts.
Poetry: At Burgos – Arthur Symons
On Ascension Day, Symons reflects at the beautiful St. Mary’s Cathedral in Burgos, Spain
Miraculous silver-work in stone
Against the blue miraculous skies,
The belfry towers and turrets rise
Out of the arches that enthrone
That airy wonder of the skies.
Softly against the burning sun
The great cathedral spreads its wings;
High up, the lyric belfry sings.
Behold Ascension Day begun
Under the shadow of those wings!
Music: The Ascension by Robert W. Smith
Lavish Mercy 
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you”.
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