One of the first things we learn in our education in the Christian faith—whether as children or as adult converts—is the list of the “four evangelists.” All of us here this morning know who the four great Gospel authors are: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. This morning, for the Solemnity of the Ascension, we hear from two of them.
St. Mark concludes his Gospel account this morning with the event of the Ascension of our Lord into heaven. Jesus is taken up before them, just as He sends them out to proclaim the Gospel message to the ends of the earth.
For St. Luke this morning, it is different. He does not end with the Ascension, but begins the Acts of the Apostles with that same remarkable event. He writes about how the Ascension concluded his first volume:
“In the first book, Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught until the day he was taken up”
—Acts 1:1.2
Who is Theophilus? We do not know exactly who this person is, but the word literally means “lover of God.” St. Luke, therefore, can be writing to you or to me, and certainly he is. We are Theophilus. That “first book” he is referring to is the Gospel of St. Luke. With his account now of the Ascension, where Jesus was “taken up,” there is not so much a conclusion as a transition. St. Luke has every intention of continuing his story, but the Ascension marks a break in the account, and a new beginning.
What we celebrate this morning is the culmination of the great Pascal Mystery of Jesus Christ. The Son of God, who reigns eternally with the Father and the Holy Spirit descended into the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. He descended into our human nature to save us from sin and eternal separation from God. Jesus Christ was born into poverty in Bethlehem and he walked the streets of Nazareth, Galilee and Jerusalem proclaiming the Good News of the Gospel to the poor and the broken. He healed the sick and raised the dead. In His human nature He could suffer, and He did suffer for you and for me. He was crucified and died and he descended into the grave. Three days later He was raised from the dead, and today we celebrate His ascension into heaven where He is seated at the right hand of the Father in glory.
That was volume one of St. Luke’s great story, his Gospel.
Now we begin with volume two. Are we ready?
The great French spiritual author Jean-Pierre deCaussade, in his 18th century classic, Abandonment to Divine Providence, reflects about how God reveals Himself in two complimentary ways. Firstly and obviously, He reveals Himself in Sacred Scripture, in the Word of God and especially in the Gospels. We find there, in these sacred pages, the great teachings of our faith and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit leading us to eternal life. Nonetheless, writes deCaussade, those are simply a few drops in the ocean of time.
St. John the Evangelist, at the culmination of his Gospel, says something similar. He writes:
There are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
—John 21:25
What God has made known to us in Sacred Scripture is preeminent, sufficient, inspired and amazing. Nonetheless, it is a drop in the ocean of time when we consider all the people God has touched and all of those to whom God has revealed Himself. DeCaussade writes, “The written word of God is full of mysteries, and equally so is His word expressed in world events.” The first book has already been written; we are still experiencing the second.
In our second reading for the Solemnity, St. Paul writes about the Ascension of our Lord and the effect that has on the history of the Church. He says:
But grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore, it says: He ascended on high and took prisoners captive; he gave gifts to men.
—Ephesians 4:8
This is our story, most excellent Theophilus! Jesus Christ has ascended and sits at the right hand of the Father in glory and majesty; He has captured the hearts of all and wants deeply to pour out His gifts on the Church that He died for. All of us have received the gift of the Holy Spirit at our baptism. God wants to give us a new outpouring of the gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord. We have all been given some specific mission in our own vocation, something that God has entrusted us with and that has not been given to anyone else. On this Solemnity of the Ascension, do we truly believe that God is writing the Gospel in our own hearts, in our own time and place today? Jean-Pierre deCassaude writes:
“We, if we are holy, are the paper; our sufferings and our actions are the ink. The workings of the Holy Spirit are his pen, and with it he writes a living gospel; but it will never be read until the last day of glory when it leaves the printing press of this life.”
We need faith to live that Gospel, no different from the faith necessary to comprehend and surrender our lives to God in the teachings of Holy Scripture. Today we ask for faith to know that God is continuing to tell the greatest story in and through us, and for the grace to cooperate fully in that living gospel.
