When they entered the city they went to the upper room where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, son of Alpheus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.
Acts 1: 15
The they so far in Acts had been the 11 apostles. They go to the upper room, the site of their assembly and prayer in the coming days, and the site of Pentecost.
The Twelve were the highest ranking group in the earliest years of the Church. Recall that Jacob had 12 sons, and they were the origin of the 12 tribes of Israel. The community of early Christians saw themselves as the new Israel: with a new covenant and the Twelve symbolized this.
But external rank and internal holiness are two different things as is evident from the Twelve chosen by Jesus, and Church leaders ever since. The list through the centuries is a checkered one, with some extraordinarily holy, and some otherwise.
Of course, all of us who follow the Way have checkered lives. We dont claim to be the elite of the elite. Thats why we start Mass by saying aloud, Lord have mercy. Were at our best when we acknowledge that we are sinners.
Lord have mercy on all of us. On me.
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The Ascension
Ascension is used in two different senses:
1. At the resurrection, Jesus went not back to earth, but to the Father. He ascended to the Father, and that is where he is forever and ever. (This resurrection/ascension is not described in any of the Gospels.)
2. No longer limited by time and space, Jesus is present, closer than ever before. After his resurrection/ascension Jesus manifested himself to the disciples at various times and places in an extraordinary, visible way. At some point these special appearances came to an end. The visible ascension that Luke described at the end of his Gospel, and that he describes in Acts, was a way of dramatizing the end of these extraordinary, visible appearances.
Today is Mothers Day.