Happy Solemnity of the Ascension of our Lord into Heaven! On our special day I preached about our Parish Mission Statement: Love God. Love others. Make Disciples.
Readings: ACTS 1:1-11; PS 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9; EPH 1:17-23; MK 16:15-20
An Image of our Lord at the Ascension
Below is my Bulletin Article (This is not the homily, and is only related in as much as it is about the Ascension of our Lord)
Where was the Ascension?
According to St. Mark, the
angel at the empty tomb of Jesus told Mary Magdalene to tell the other
disciples to go to Galilee and there they will find Jesus (Mk 16:7). Six verses later we have our Gospel passage
for today, where Jesus ascends into heaven after commissioning the disciples to
preach the Gospel.
According
to St. Luke, the disciples were in Judea near Jerusalem (Lk 24:33-53 & Acts
1:6-12) when Jesus ascended into heaven.
So, there appears to be a contradiction.
However,
there is no reason to believe that there is an actual contradiction. Jesus was appearing to His disciples for 40
days before He ascended (Acts 1:3), and as such could meet the disciples in
both Galilee and Jerusalem. He met them
in Jerusalem on the day of His resurrection (Lk 24:33-43 & Jn
20:19-25). Then, He met them in Galilee
(Jn 21:1-14 & Mt 28:16). Finally,
they were all near Jerusalem again for the Ascension on the Mount of Olives,
near Bethany (Lk 50-53 & Acts 1:9-12).
The
Church teaches that the sacred authors of the Gospels selected some of the many
things that Jesus said and did, synthesizing some things and explaining others
in a way suitable for their intended readers but always revealing the honest
truth about Jesus (Dei Verbum
19). As such St. Mark left out the
detail that the disciples went back to Judea for the Ascension and St. Luke
left out that they had gone to Galilee after the resurrection before returning
to Judea near Jerusalem for the Ascension.
The
early Christians carved foot prints into the rock on the Mount of Olives to
mark the spot where Jesus ascended. That
location is known to us even to this day.
Chapel of the Ascension, Jerusalem,
Israel
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