The Feast of the Ascension, also known as Ascension
Thursday, Holy Thursday (only by some denominations; not to be
confused with Thursday of Holy Week), or Ascension Day, commemorates
the bodily Ascension of Jesus into heaven. It is one
of the ecumenical feasts
(i.e., universally celebrated) of Christian churches, ranking with the feasts
of the Passion, of Easter, and Pentecost.
In the Catholic Church it is also known as the The Ascension of the Lord.
Ascension Day is traditionally celebrated on a Thursday, the fortieth day of Easter (following
the count given in Acts 1:3),
although some Catholic provinces have moved the observance to the following
Sunday.
BIBLICAL STORY
The story of the Ascension of our
Lord, celebrated as one of the Twelve Great Feasts of the Church, is found in
the book of the Acts of the Apostles 1:3-11. It is also mentioned in the
Gospels of Mark (16:19) and Luke (24:50-53). The moment of the Ascension is
told in one sentence: "He was lifted up before their eyes in a cloud which
took Him from their sight" (Acts 1:9).
Christ made His last appearance
on earth, forty days after His Resurrection from the dead. The Acts of the
Apostles states that the disciples were in Jerusalem. Jesus appeared before
them and commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the
"Promise of the Father". He stated, "You shall be baptized with
the Holy Spirit not many days from now" (Acts 1:5).
After Jesus gave these
instructions, He led the disciples to the Mount of Olives. Here, He
commissioned them to be His witnesses "in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and
Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8). It is also at this time
that the disciples were directed by Christ to "go and make disciples of
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit" (Matthew 28:19). Jesus also told them that He would be with them
always, "even to the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20).
As the disciples watched, Jesus
lifted up His hands, blessed them, and then was taken up out of their sight
(Luke 24:51; Acts 1:9). Two angels appeared to them and asked them why they
were gazing into heaven. Then one of the angels said, "This same Jesus,
which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you
have seen Him going into heaven" (Acts 1:11).
History of the Ascension of Our
Lord
The reality of Christ's Ascension
is so important that the creeds (the basic statements of belief) of
Christianity all affirm, in the words of the Apostles'
Creed, that "He ascended into heaven, sits at the
right hand of God the
Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living
and the dead." The denial of the Ascension is as grave a departure from
Christian teaching as is denial of Christ's Resurrection.
Christ's bodily Ascension
foreshadows our own entrance into Heaven not simply as souls, after our death,
but as glorified bodies, after the resurrection of the dead at the Final
Judgment. In redeeming mankind, Christ not only offered salvation to our souls
but began the restoration of the material world itself to the glory that God
intended before Adam's fall.
The Feast of the Ascension marks
the beginning of the first novena,
or nine days of prayer. Before His Ascension, Christ promised to send the Holy
Spirit to His apostles. Their prayer for the coming of the Holy Spirit, which
began on Ascension Thursday, ended with the descent of
the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday, ten days later.
Today, Catholics recall that
first novena by praying the Novena to the Holy Ghost between Ascension and
Pentecost, asking for the gifts of the
Holy Spirit and the fruits of the
Holy Spirit.
