The Ascension of the Lord (Seventh Sunday of Easter)
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Today's Readings
Acts 1:1-11; Ps 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9; Eph 1:17-23; Mk 16:15-20
Read today's readings at USCCBReflection
He was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight. They stood there, looking intently at the sky. And two men in white appeared and asked the question that reoriented everything: why are you standing here looking at the sky? He will return in the same way. But the standing and staring is not the posture for what comes next.
Paul prays for the Ephesians that the eyes of their hearts would be enlightened - not the eyes of understanding alone, but the eyes of the heart. The heart that has been opened by faith can see things the intellect cannot reach: the hope of his call, the riches of his inheritance among the holy ones, the surpassing greatness of his power at work in those who believe. That power raised Jesus from the dead. It seated him far above every principality and authority. And it is at work in you - in the evening of life, in the body that is slowing, in the faith that has been carried across decades.
The Ascension does not end the presence of Jesus in the world. It changes its form. He is enthroned as head; the Church is his body, still here, still bearing him into the places the cloud could not go. In the evening of life, the body-of-Christ work you have been doing - the faithful presence, the prayer, the witness - has been the ascended Lord's continued presence in your community. He has been working with you all along.
The Rosary Today
The Glorious Mysteries move through the Resurrection, the Ascension, Pentecost, the Assumption, and the Coronation of Mary. The Ascension is the third Glorious Mystery - the moment of enthronement, the cloud, the redirection. Pray the Glorious Mysteries tonight as a meditation on the whole arc: not the loss of the going but the glory of what the going makes possible.
Prayer of the Faithful
- For those in the evening of life who feel the Ascension as a metaphor for their own experience of loss and departure - the people who have gone, the strength that has diminished - that the enthronement of the ascended Christ would be the ground under their grief, we pray to the Lord.
- For the eyes of our hearts to be enlightened, as Paul prays, that we would know the hope that belongs to his call and the surpassing greatness of his power at work in those who believe, we pray to the Lord.
- For those who have been standing and staring at the sky - who have been looking in the wrong direction for what they need - that the two in white would redirect them: he will return; in the meantime, go, we pray to the Lord.
Something to Do
He is far above every principality and authority and power and dominion - and he is the head of the body you belong to. Tonight, name one power or authority that has felt larger than Christ this week - one anxiety, one fear, one principality - and place it explicitly beneath the feet of the enthroned Lord. All things under his feet. That includes this one.
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