THERE IS AN APPARENT CONTRADICTION if one looks carefully at the Gospel and the First Reading of today's Mass. The contradiction is all the more surprising in that both readings are traditionally believed to have come from the same hand - the evangelist Luke.
Conflicting stories?
The Gospel passage describes the appearance of the Risen Jesus to his disciples in the upper room. As described by Luke, this took place just after two other disciples had returned from their encounter with Jesus on the road to Emmaus. It is the Sunday after Jesus' death, Easter Sunday. Apparently on the same day, Jesus brought his disciples out to Bethany (just outside Jerusalem). There "he withdrew from them and was carried up to heaven." Ascension on Easter Sunday?
On the other hand, in the Acts of the Apostles, also a work of Luke's, we are told that Jesus "had shown himself alive to them after his Passion ... [F]or 40 days he had continued to appear to them and tell them about the kingdom of God." It was at the end of this period - almost six weeks after Easter! - that "he was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud took him from their sight." Which of the two accounts are we to believe is correct?
One reality
It is even possible to push the mystery of the Ascension back to Good Friday. Jesus says in John's gospel, "When I am lifted up, I will draw all things to myself." The word "lifted up" can apply to Jesus being lifted up on the cross but also to being raised to new life and being lifted up to the glory of the Father. There is also the striking remark made by Jesus to the "good thief" on the cross: "This day you will be with me in Paradise."
No need for dismay
There is, of course, no need for us to get upset at these discrepancies. What they do tell us is that we have to be very careful in reading and interpreting the post-Resurrection stories of the New Testament. Any literal or fundamentalist reading (which our older catechisms tended to give us) needs to be avoided. What is important is not what is being said but the deeper meaning of what is being said.
And that applies to the concept of the Ascension itself. The Ascension of Jesus does not mean that he literally began to float up into space. To understand it in such a way leads to unanswerable and ridiculous questions: How far did he go? How long did it take him to get to heaven? Where is heaven? Is it above Jerusalem? How do Australians or South Americans or Norwegians get there? And so on...
One mystery
The Paschal Mystery of Jesus' passion, death, resurrection, ascension and the sending of the Holy Spirit forms one unbroken reality which is to be understood by faith. If Good Friday says Jesus truly died, Easter Sunday says that he is alive. And the Ascension adds that the Risen Living Jesus is together with his Father in glory.
Our one and eternal priest
The optional Second Reading from the Letter to the Hebrews describes the experience of the Ascension in very biblical language, highly redolent of the Hebrew (Old) Testament. Christ is our one and only High Priest. He did not, like the Temple's High Priest, enter a humanly-built sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, but entered directly into the sanctuary of God's presence on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself again and again, as the former high priest entered the Holy of Holies every year with "blood not his own", the blood of animals. Otherwise, Jesus would have to suffer on our behalf again and again.
But Jesus appears before God once for all to remove our sin by the sacrifice of himself and his own life blood. Jesus has not only entered the sanctuary; he has opened up the sanctuary of God's presence to us also by the outpouring of his blood. Cleansed by that blood and with the "pure water" of baptism, and full of faith, a total commitment of self to Jesus, we can approach God with confidence that he will take us to himself.
Work to be done
In the meantime, though, there is work to be done. Jesus, in leaving us with his physical presence, now expects us to carry on his work, to do what he did, and to do "even greater things".
But first, he tells his disciples to go back to Jerusalem and stay there and to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit. This will be Pentecost; it will be their Baptism when they will be filled with the Spirit of Jesus himself and given their mission to continue Jesus' work.
Still learning
However, as Jesus speaks, they still at this late date show how little they understand the mission of Jesus. (Their ignorance is only a symbol of our own.) They ask him, "Is this the time when you will restore the Kingdom of Israel?" After all they have seen and heard, they still have narrow-minded nationalistic dreams. Ironically, of course, the answer to their question is a very definite Yes-but not at all in the way they are thinking.
Because, after they receive the Spirit of Jesus in themselves, they are the very ones who will begin to inaugurate the Reign of God not only in Israel, in Jerusalem and Judea, but in time to come to the very ends of the earth. If only they could see now the results of what they started!
This is their mission - and ours: to carry the message of Jesus to the whole world.
Where is he now?
As Jesus spoke, he was covered by a cloud (the sign of God's presence) and taken from their sight. He's gone - or is he? They all just stood there, says Acts, gaping upwards to the empty sky. Then two "messengers" (angeloi) appear: "Men of Galilee, what are you doing looking skywards? This Jesus, who has been taken from you to God, will return in the same way you saw him go."
They will not now find Jesus in the sky, in "heaven". They are, as the hymn advises, to "lower their eyes". They have to go back to Jerusalem. Jesus is to be found and made present by them and in them.
A great task
They - and we - in word and deed are to tell and re-tell the story of Jesus' life, suffering, death and resurrection. They - and we - are to call people to a radical conversion, to forgiveness of their sin through an intimate reconciliation with God, with their brothers and sisters and with the world in which they live and are a part.
Today, on this feast of the Ascension, that mandate is given to each one of us again. And it is in carrying it out that we truly honour the meaning of this feast.
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