Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- The Ascension Of The Lord

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 05.18.23 | Bishop Robert Barron

[MurphsLaw]

The Ascension Of The Lord
Matt 28:16-20

Friends, today is the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord.
After his Resurrection, Jesus continued to appear to his disciples for a time—
the standard biblical frame of forty days—and then stopped.
The Ascension of Jesus signals the definitive end of these post-
Resurrection appearances and the commencement of Jesus’ operation from the properly heavenly sphere.

It is crucial to remember, however,
that this distantiation by no means amounts to an abandonment,
but rather to an even more intense form of intimacy.
To move into heaven,
or the divine manner of existence,
is not to move to another place but to that arena of existence that stands outside of space.
Paul Tillich refers to God’s Überräumlichkeit (over-spacedness),
and he insists that this transcendence to any particular space implies
the capacity to be present to every space.
This is what we mean when we say that
God is “everywhere.”

Therefore, to say that Jesus has “ascended” to that sphere of existence
is not to say that he has “gone away.”
It is to assert, if I can adopt a military metaphor,
that he has journeyed to a higher point of vantage,
where he can see the entire field of battle
and direct operations more efficaciously.

[MurphsLaw]

+++The eleven disciples went to Galilee,
to the mountain to which Jesus
had ordered them.
When they saw him, they
worshiped, but they doubted.
Then Jesus approached and said to them,
“All power in heaven and on
earth has been given to me.
Go, therefore, and make
disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name
of the Father, and of the Son,
and teaching them to observe all
that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always,
until the end of the age.”+++