Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord
Texts:
Acts 1:1-11
Eph. 1:17-23
Mt. 28:16-20
Welcome brothers and sisters to the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ into heaven.

The Readings:

In the first reading, the author presented the story of the ascension of Jesus. Finally, Jesus ascended into heaven after forty days of staying with His disciples since He rose from the dead. The words “forty days” present the authenticity of the ascension of Jesus. The reading stresses the commissioning of the disciples to preach the good news of salvation. It challenges us to do our prophetic mission to proclaim the good news of salvation, and the good examples of our lives must be concrete testimonies of the gospel.
In the second reading, Paul stressed the grace of the believers to experience the love of God. Paul pointed out that love is the only way to experience the glory of God. Love will take away the barrier to faith and the difficulty to worship God. The reading challenges us to make the love of God to become the disposition of our hearts in our worship, in our relationships and in our services with other people.
In the gospel, Matthew presented his account of the ascension of Jesus into heaven. Matthew pointed out that the ascension of Jesus is the exaltation of Jesus as the savior of the world. He stressed that Jesus has the authority of all people and creation in the world. He emphasized that when Jesus sent the disciples to preach the coming of the kingdom, He also bestowed on them the glory of the Father, the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit and the power to forgive and to baptize. The disciples became the heralds of the gift of salvation for all people in the world. They also have the mission to share the grace of intimacy and the power of the love of Jesus to all people. Matthew admonished the community to do their Christian missions even in sufferings because Jesus would always be with them until the end of time.
The Reflection:
The celebration of the ascension of Jesus is an occasion to worship the Lord Jesus as the savior of the world. It is a moment to commission us again to preach the good news of salvation and to witness prophetically our faith in all the areas of our human lives today. God has given us the authority to give testimony to His offer of redemption for all people. Moreover, the power of forgiving and baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit was given to the church. However, in the Christian communities, the authority of binding and forgiving is basically given to the ordained priests. The church is a missionary. We are missionaries of God in the world today. By virtue of our Christian baptism, we received the three-fold missions. These are the priestly, kingly and prophetic missions. We are all called to live as “priests” in the way we worship God, to live as “kings” in the way we serve each other, and to live as “prophets” in the way we give witness to our faith. In the midst of sufferings, God still assures us of His gentle presence and loving help. What is the specific mission that God has entrusted you to do in this world? How do you integrate your hope in the promises of God in your works and in your relationships? How can the church become a sign of hope and a conduit of blessings in the world today?

The Testimony:

When I was assigned in our formation house in Uganda, I used to celebrate the Holy Eucharist and to give spiritual talks to other formation houses. One time, I shared to the seminarians in other religious congregations about my story of faith and personal experience in the mission. I shared with them that the only precious thing that I kept on bringing with me in my missionary work is the conviction that God loves me and blessed me with the gift of intimacy in Jesus Christ. I believed that the gift of intimacy in God is a personal gift of God to me. This divine gift is being nourished in the celebration of the Eucharist and being prolonged in my adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. I felt so privileged to receive this gift that it became my daily disposition. It enabled me to fulfill my commitment in the mission. It inspired me to pray, to work and to reach out in order to share my faith on the abiding presence of God in the Eucharist. That is why, whenever I was needed to celebrate the Holy Eucharist in other religious communities, I tried as possible to share my personal experience of intimacy with the Lord to other religious and seminarians. And so, one time, after celebrating the Eucharist, a seminarian told me that he was touched when I celebrated the Holy Eucharist and preached the word of God that he wanted to see me for a spiritual direction. I welcomed him and made myself available to him. I firmly believed that the grace of intimacy is a divine gift of God in my priestly vocation. This divine gift just naturally flows in my child-like trust in God and in my unassuming ministry. Despite of my human limitations and experiences of rejection in my pastoral works, this divine gift made me more confident and determined to live my priestly vocation. This is how I understood the meaning of the ascension of the Lord. The intimate love of Jesus for His disciples is a wonderful gift that Jesus gave to His disciples as He ascended into heaven. Because of this divine gift, the disciples became confident of themselves and were determined to proclaim the good news of salvation to the whole world. I believed that God has also commissioned me to testify the truth of His love that becomes salvation for us in Jesus Christ. And so, I am resolved to be possessed by the Word of God and by the Eucharist so that I may become a genuine witness of the gift of salvation that God has offered to all people in Jesus Christ.

The Eucharist:

The Eucharist is a celebration of the ascension of Jesus into heaven. It is a proclamation of the abiding presence of God in the church and in the world. The Eucharist is a starting point to do our missions in this world. Thus, to celebrate the Eucharist is to proclaim prophetically the truth of the greatest love of God for humanity that becomes salvation in Jesus Christ. To receive Jesus in the Eucharist is to accept the lordship and the kingship of Jesus Christ in our personal lives, in the church, in the world and in all of His creation. To eat the body of Christ in the Eucharist is to become instruments of the abiding presence and the intimate assistance of God in all the circumstances of our human lives. Therefore, in this Eucharist, we pray that the Father in heaven may empower us with His life-giving love so that we may become signs of hope and liberation in the midst of troubles and sufferings in the world. Yes, we pray that our Eucharistic celebration may become a prophetic declaration of our determination to do our missions in this world.
May God bless us.